A Hundred-Rupee Note Found in Old Clothes

Question

Zayd found three old pieces of clothing lying in a public thoroughfare; in these clothes he also found a hundred-rupee note. Zayd asked all the people passing along the road, but its owner could not be traced. More than a week or ten days have now passed. Please say what should be done with this money and the clothes: should they be put into a mosque, given to some madrasa, or distributed among the poor and needy?

Answer

When the heart bears witness that the owner will no longer search for his lost clothes and the note, give it to some poor person — whether a student or someone else. Spending it on a mosque, or on the construction of a madrasa or on a teacher’s salary, is not permissible.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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