Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Is it permissible to use equipment that has been purchased with unlawfully earned money (i.e. someone lends another his car to use for the day but it has been purchased through haraam money…Can one use the car?)
Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,
1. If the very money it was acquired with was purely unlawful, then it is unlawful to use. [For example, you saw someone rob another, and then purchase a car with this very robbed money…]
2. If someone has mixed wealth, lawful and unlawful, then what is considered is that which predominates, with the default assumption being that most of it is lawful (unless one is certain otherwise). One is not expected to pry into the status of another’s wealth or earnings. Rather, one should go by that which is apparent.
However, when a considerable amount of another’s wealth is from unlawful sources, it is superior (but not obligatory) to avoid when reasonably possible.
[Sources: Ibn Nujaym, al-Bahr al-Ra’q, al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, Ibn Abidin’s Radd al-Muhtar]
And Allah alone gives success.
Wassalam,
Faraz Rabbani
faraz@sunnipath.com
hanafi@sunnipath.com