Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Sixth Fascicle

knowing about the extortion will be an ’udhr. Our Prophet ‘sall-
Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: ‘(Accept and) take something you
are given without your having asked for it! It is rizq that Allâhu
ta’âlâ has sent to you.’ It is permissible to accept presents from
government officials. Another example of such owner
transference is that of stolen or extorted food which, harâm as it is
on account of the manner of its aquisition, will become the
property of the person who has stolen it or extorted it by using
force, when a change is made in its characteristics. When food that
is aquired in such a harâm manner is cooked, on the condition that
it should be compensated for, it will be permissible (for the person
who stole or extorted it) to eat it, as well as for its succeeding
owners supposing it is sold or given as a present. Harâm as it is to
sell it, or to give it as a present or as alms, without compensating
for it by paying its value, the sale made (without compensation)
will be nâfiz, [i.e. sahîh.] It is like using something that one has
bought by way of a sale termed fâsid. When such property is sold,
its price will be halâl.” On the other hand, things that have been
declared to be harâm by way of open proof-texts, such as unclean
flesh, i.e. (flesh of an animal that has been killed in a way counter
to Islamic principles and which is called) lesh, pork, and wine, will
never become halâl. It will not be halâl to eat such things even if
their owner sells them, gives them as a present, and says that he
has made them halâl, (i.e. that he has given them willingly free of
charge.) A person who says that such things are halâl or who utters
the Basmala knowingly as he eats them will become an unbeliever.
So is the case with all sorts of things that are definitely harâm. For
instance, there are women with whom nikâh is harâm. A person
who says that it is halâl to marry them will become an unbeliever.
Ibni ’Âbidîn states as follows in the fifth volume: “According to
the majority of Islamic scholars, if a Muslim dies and leaves behind
him money earned from wine, (i.e. by selling wine,) it will not be
halâl for the inheritors to accept that money. The same rule applies
to property extorted as well as to money exacted by oppressive
means, accepted as a bribe, earned by playing musical instruments
or by singing, or won by gambling. It is necessary for the inheritors
to give money of this sort back to their original owners or, if the
owners are not known, to dispense it to poor people. It is harâm to
use it. In case the inheritors know that the earnings of the deceased
were (mostly) harâm and yet cannot tell what part of the property
left behind was earned by way of harâm, the entire legacy will be
halâl; even in that case, however, it is recommended that they
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