He stole some money from his family when he was younger; can he return it to them by spending on them?

Question: 264066

My husband (whom I recently married) and I live along with his parents. When he was younger he used to take money from his parents' cupboard without their permission. He is attempting to save as much of his salary as he can every month to repay it. However, he is not giving them any money to contribute in household expenses because he is saving this debt repayment money. 1. When replacing the money, does he have to tell them he took it? 2. Instead of saving it and putting it back in their cupboard, can he just give them money to contribute for household expenses until he repays this debt/as debt repayment? Some of the money he took may have been from a sadaqah envelope – should he return that and repay the rest as household expenses? Jazakallah khairan for your time and effort.

Answer

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

We put this question to our Shaykh, ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan al-Barrak (may Allah preserve him) and he replied:

It is sufficient for him to spend on them with the intention of paying off what he owes them, and in fact he will have been spending on them from their money, and he does not have to tell them the real situation. End quote.

For more information, please see the answer to question no. 129779.

And Allah knows best.

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Source:

Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid