Is it permissible to do charity with the money obtained through illegitimate ways? Does a person receive thawabs from this charity?

For instance, I have a car. Some of the money I paid when I bought the car had been earned illegitimately. I did some charity with the car. Will I receive thawabs from that charity work or will I not receive any thawabs since some of the money I paid when I bought the car had been earned illegitimately?

Dear Brother / Sister,

A person receives thawabs from the charity that is done with money or goods some of which earned legitimately and some illegitimately only from the legitimate part; he cannot receive any thawabs from the illegitimate part. 

If a person does something illegitimate and uses the money he earns for a legitimate thing, he cannot expect thawab from it and he cannot render what he does legitimate. Therefore, such people cannot say, "I earn money illegitimately but I will do charity."

What to do with the money or goods to be obtained illegitimately:

Money or goods obtained through illegitimate (haram) ways are haram. It is not permissible for a person to spend the money obtained illegitimately for himself; it is haram. If this money or goods have been obtained through illegitimate ways like theft and robbery, it is necessary for a person to separate it from his earnings. If the owner of it is certain, he has to return it to its owner. If the owner is dead, it has to be given to his inheritors. If the owner is lost, it is necessary to keep it until its owner comes. When the owner comes, it is returned to him with the increase, if any.   

There are a few possibilities about the money or goods whose owner is not known. Its owner might have died or might have been lost; it might have been obtained from public money illegitimately. In addition, it might have been obtained through interest as it is common today.

What is essential is not to deposit any money to the institutions of interest like banks if it is possible. However, if some interest is added to the money kept in the bank due to various reasons, its spending can be regarded like the money or goods obtained illegitimately as it is mentioned above.  

There are different views of Islamic fiqh scholars about what to do with the money or goods whose owner is not known or that is obtained through interest.  Explaining the issue in the chapter called what to do with haram goods/money, Imam Ghazali attracts attention to two viewss. One of them is to give that money as sadaqah (charity) and the other is not to give it to poor people as sadaqah since it is not clean. Fudayl bin Iyad, who is one of the scholars who adopt the second view, once put two dirhams of money among stones when he noticed that it was not earned legitimately and said,    

“I will give only halal and clean money as sadaqah. I do not find appropriate for others what I do not find appropriate for myself.”

After narrating this incident about Fudayl, Imam Ghazali accepts this view to some extent and lists the evidences supporting those views: 

When the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) returned from burying a janazah, he was invited to a feast given by a Qurayshi woman. When it was said that the grilled sheep put before him was haram, he said, “Take it and give it to the slaves.” 1

Another evidence is as follows:

When the first verses of the chapter of ar-Rum, which stated that the Byzantine would defeat the Persians, were sent down, the polytheists mocked the Prophet (pbuh). Thereupon, Hz. Abu Bakr made a bet with the polytheists with the permission of the Prophet (pbuh). Consequently, what the Quran stated turned out to be true. Hz. Abu Bakr obtained the camels that were bet from the polytheists. However, meanwhile gambling was rendered haram; therefore, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said,

“These camels, which you have brought, are haram. Give them to Muslims as sadaqah.”

As it is known, betting mutually is regarded as gambling. After explaining both views in detail, Imam Ghazali states the following to sum up: 

It is necessarily known that to use this money/goods for a good purpose are better than throwing it/them into the sea. It will be of no use to the person who throws it/them or who has it/them. However, if it is given to a poor person, he will benefit from it and pray for its owner.

Imam Ghazali gives the following answer to those who say, “We will not make the poor eat haram since we do not eat haram”:

“This statement is true. However, this money is haram for us when we do not need it but it is halal for the poor.”2

Thus, it is possible to give the money received as interest or through other illegitimate ways to the poor as sadaqah or to a charitable institution. No thawab or reward is expected from this money given as sadaqah. One gets rid of this money in an appropriate way when he gives it as sadaqah.  

Footnotes:

1. Tirmidhi, Sawm: 3.
2. Ihya, II/127-132.

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