Setting Money Aside from the Joint Income and Buying a House with It (Maintenance of Elderly Parents)

Question

Question: I submit that we — your humble servant and his brothers — were five brothers, and our mother and father are also living. I am the eldest brother; all the others were younger than me, and we all used to live together. Of all the brothers only I was able to earn, because the other brothers were young; all of them were taught a trade. Now one brother has died; at present there are four brothers and three sisters living. One brother, who is younger than me and older than two others, was taught tailoring.

Answer

If he did not steal this money from anyone but earned it himself, then it is not stolen property; hence it is permissible for the person with whom this money is kept to keep it. If he accumulated the money by stealing the property of his mother, father and brothers, then it is stolen property, and in that case it is not permissible for that person to keep the money.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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