for many things indispensable to Muslims fall into this category: the authorities monopolize them and sell them to the public, and people can obtain them only from those authorities.

This includes resources open to all, such as salt, atrūn, and the like. It also includes privately owned goods, such as wool, hides, and animal hair—the kinds of goods the authorities sell from the property of those whose assets they confiscate, and which people need. Some of this property is taken rightfully, some on the basis of an interpretation, and some through sheer injustice. Yet all of it is to be returned to its owners; returning it to them may even prove impossible, either because their identities are unknown or because the holder is unable to return it to them—for no obligation applies to what is unknown or beyond one’s ability—or because Muslims are compelled to commit injustice. In either case, selling it is better for its owner and for the Muslims than leaving it to spoil without benefiting anyone. Thus, if selling it is the most beneficial course under these circumstances, a purchaser may buy it, and it is lawful for him. The purchaser has wronged no one, for he has paid the price.

The person who has actually been wronged is entitled to the proceeds when selling the property serves his interests, just as the property of an absent person may be sold. Indeed, if a man dies somewhere where there is no governing authority, the majority of scholars hold that his travelling companions have the authority to take possession of his property and sell it.

Likewise, if someone holds wrongfully seized property, borrowed items, or deposits whose owners he does not know, the position of the majority—Mālik, Abū Hanīfah, and Ahmad—is that these may be sold when doing so serves the relevant interests, and that purchasing them is permissible.