Shaykh al-Islām, the mufti of mankind, unrivalled in his age and unique in his time, Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-Abbās Ahmad ibn Abd al-Halīm ibn Abd al-Salām Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him and be pleased with him—was asked:

“If a man commits highway robbery and theft, or consumes what is unlawful, or does something similar, is this the provision that Allah Most High has guaranteed him, or not? Please give us a ruling; may you be rewarded.”

He answered:

Praise be to Allah. This is not the provision that Allah has made lawful for him. Allah neither loves nor approves of it, nor has He commanded him to spend from it. Such statements as His words, Most High:

“and spend out of what We have provided for them”

and His words, Most High:

“And spend from what We have provided for you”

do not include what is unlawful. Rather, Allah Most High condemns anyone who spends from unlawful wealth, and that person thereby deserves punishment in this world and the Hereafter, according to his religion.

Allah has said:

“And do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly.”

This is consuming wealth unjustly.

Nevertheless, this is provision that Allah knew beforehand and decreed, as stated in the authentic hadith narrated by Ibn Masʿūd from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who said:

“The creation of each of you is gathered in his mother’s womb for forty days as a drop of fluid; then he becomes a clinging clot for a similar period; then he becomes a lump of flesh for a period like