Keeping Previous Haram Earnings

16-12-2025 | IslamWeb

Question:

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاتهIf one finds out that selling/buying vouchers for below their value might be Impermissible, do they have to give the monetary value of the vouchers which they bought/sold in charity without expecting reward (as they've already spent the money which they earned from the sale or used the vouchers which they bought) or is it sufficient that they've stopped doing it once they became aware of it?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Whoever sold or bought vouchers and then later realized that they are prohibited is not required to dispose of them or give any of what he earned to charity.

This is the view chosen by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah regarding one who earned unlawful money with the consent of the payer and then repented, such as the price of wine, the fee of a prostitute, or the payment taken by a fortune teller, that he may keep what has already passed, based on the saying of Allah the Almighty (what means): {…Whoever desists because of receiving admonition from his Lord may keep his past gains, and his case is left to Allah...} [Quran 2:275] Allah the Almighty did not say: “Whoever becomes Muslim” nor “Whoever comes to know that it is prohibited.” [End quote] Summarized from Al-Furu by Ibn Muflih Al-Hanbali .

The aforementioned applies to one who came to know of the prohibition, so what about those who does not know of the prohibition.

Allah Knows best.