Buying Stolen Goods

Q: Nowadays Muslim businessmen are buying stolen goods, either knowingly or unknowingly? What is the Islamic status of such businesses, and the consequences thereof?

A: I do not believe that a businessman in today’s times will purchase stolen items while being blissfully unaware that they are stolen. A person in business circles will know only too well that items sold for below their market value must be stolen. Traders who buy back-door goods either conveniently ignore this fact or do so deliberately. The consequences of both are the same and are quite serious. Firstly, the hadith shareef warns that a person who wears, eats, or drinks, stolen item will not have his ibaadat accepted for forty days. Secondly, the flesh that is nourished with haraam will burn in Jahannum. Thirdly, there will be no barakat in such a business when the owner dabbles in backdoor deals and stolen goods. Fourthly, such items must be given back to the rightful owner, and if this is not possible then the items must be given in charity without an intention of reward. If for some reason or other, the item itself could not be given to the poor, then it should be sold and all the proceeds from the haraam sale must be given to the poor. Fifthly, the businessman who did this should make taubah for this major sin. There was once a glorious era in our history when the Muslim businessman was a paragon of honesty and virtue. Alas, the sun has set on that once illustrious past, to be replaced by the darkness of sin and vice. Today, Muslim traders have developed habits of deceit, fraud, unfaithfulness, distrust, and dishonesty. Even our kuffar counterparts fear to do business with some Muslim traders. May Allah guide them to the straight path and restore the beautiful heritage of our admirable predecessors, aameen.