In Islam, stealing is a major sin for which Allah has enjoined a prescribed punishment.Muslims should be a good example of trustworthiness, honoring agreements, and good character.Muslims should never buy a stolen property when knowing that it is stolen. It is not the right of the seller or the buyer to dispose of or make a deal regarding a stolen item knowingly.

Dr. Monzer Kahf, a prominent economist and counselor, states the following: A stolen item remains under the ownership of its true owner. This means that the seller has no right to sell and the buyer can’t, knowingly, buy a stolen item, because he or she is buying a thing not from its true owner. It is prohibited to do either of these actions. Besides, the true owner has full and undisputed right to take his or her property from any hand possessing it, without any compensation (in fact, even with a potentiality of charging the stealer of a criminal act), regardless of whether the person from whom the item is taken had paid for it or not and regardless of whether the latter knew it was stolen or not. If the holder of a stolen item innocently paid for it, he or she may resort to a legal action against the recipient of his or her money, but certainly not against the true owner. By the way, the same is also in common laws in virtually all countries to the best of my knowledge.

Also, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, adds, If one has a reasonable ground to suspect that what they are buying is stolen, then they must never buy it. If, having known this, they were still to buy the same, then they are definitely condoning stealing and robbery. May Allah help us to be instruments of virtue and piety and locks to evil and corruption. Amen.