Shaykh al-Islām—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

Concerning sheep that are sold and on which a levy is collected from the butchers: the butchers are restricted to slaughtering in a single location and charged a slaughtering fee. Their offal is then taken as a second levy under a guarantee arrangement, after which it is cooked and sold. Is it forbidden for someone to buy this offal to eat, or not? Is earning money by trading in it forbidden, or not?

He replied:

Praise be to Allah.

There is disagreement concerning this issue.

Some say: This property was taken from its owner without right and sold without either legal authority or authorization to act on his behalf. Its sale is therefore invalid; rather, it remains its owner’s property. It has been cooked and sold without his permission, so purchasing it is not permissible.

Others say: This is property held by the rulers, whether they acted on a legal interpretation or deliberately committed injustice. If they do not return it to its owners, the beneficial course is to sell it, because keeping it until it spoils causes harm that the Lawgiver does not command. Even if property is sold without its owner’s permission, according to most scholars the sale remains subject to the owner’s approval. As for what is sold by