‘Alī, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Allah has cursed anyone who commits an offence or shelters an offender.”

Abū Dāwūd narrated in his Sunan from Ibn ‘Umar that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever knowingly argues in support of falsehood remains under Allah’s displeasure until he desists. Whoever intercedes to prevent a prescribed penalty ordained by Allah from being carried out has opposed Allah’s command. Whoever attributes to a Muslim something of which he is innocent will be confined in Radghat al-Khabāl until he extricates himself from what he has said.”

Thus, whenever there is an obligation to produce a person or property, anyone who refuses to fulfil that duty deserves punishment until he does so. But bringing a person before someone who will wrong him, or delivering property to someone who will take it without right, is neither obligatory nor permissible. Assisting wrongdoing is itself wrongdoing. Allah Most High says:

“Cooperate in righteousness and piety, but do not cooperate in sin and aggression.”

He also says:

“O you who believe, when you converse privately, do not converse in sin, aggression and disobedience to the Messenger, but converse in righteousness and piety.”

As for “cases of uncertainty” involving wrongdoing on both sides—for example, when officials entrusted with government funds take what they are not entitled to, while the person seeking to recover those funds would also spend them wrongfully—no one is obliged to help the wrongdoer who has the power to retain them, nor should anyone help the wrongdoer seeking to take possession of them. Rather, if some rightful claim tips the balance in favor of one side, one should support that right. If both are wrongdoers and the funds cannot be delivered to anyone entitled to them,