Do I Have To Return Money I Stole Years Ago?

Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad

Question

I reverted to Islam from Christianity a few years ago and I have recently been reading about restoring the rights of people I’ve wronged. As a young boy, BEFORE I reverted to Islam, I was a busybody, stealing tens of thousands of dollars of items from people & large businesses local to me.

I know the details of the business and roughly how much I stole from them. Am I under an obligation to pay them back the value of what I stole, bearing in mind these thefts occurred long before I was a Muslim?

Answer

Thank you for your question. All praise be to Allah that you became Muslim and that you are seeking to right your wrongs from the past. May Allah reward you tremendously

It is obligatory to repent and to return any stolen money or property that was stolen during your life, even if you were a child, even if you were non-Muslim. See these links on that:

How Can I Repent From Crimes Committed During My Youth?

How Do I Repent From the Theft I Committed as a Teenager?

How Do I Repent after Stealing Things from Work?

It may be difficult to come up with this amount of money now, but if you are as smart as you seem, you can come up with some kind of payment plan and start to pay these companies back. You can either return the items or return the monetary equivalent of the value of the goods stolen. May Allah make it easy for you and guide you to do this is in the best way.

[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad 
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria, for two years, where she studied Aqidah, Fiqh, Tajweed, Tafseer, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her Master’s in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan, where she studied Fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She recently moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.