Taking light fittings from streets and public places

A question about taking light fittings from streets and public places, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that light fittings are secured (in hirz) by being installed in the places designated for lighting, so taking them from there is theft, since they are taken from the kind of safekeeping appropriate to them. ¹

The questioner asked whether taking light fittings and bulbs from streets and public places counts as theft, and whether streets and public places count as safekeeping (hirz). ¹

The Department answered that theft is a major sin, citing Surat al-Ma'ida 5:38 and Surat al-Nisa' 4:29–30; it said theft incurs the prescribed penalty when its conditions are met and always incurs sin, the sin does not lapse even if the penalty does, and repentance is valid only by returning the stolen item or paying its value. ¹ It quoted Zakariyya al-Ansari's definition in Asna al-Matalib (4/137) of theft as secretly taking property from its appropriate place of safekeeping under conditions, said that taking from safekeeping is a condition for the penalty, and that safekeeping varies with custom, the kind of property, people's circumstances and the times, quoting al-Khatib al-Shirbini in al-Iqna' fi Hall Alfaz Abi Shuja' (2/535) that custom decides what counts as safekeeping, and mentioning al-Ghazali's criterion: a place where the owner would not be regarded as neglecting it. ¹ It concluded that light fittings are kept in safekeeping by being installed in their designated places, and taking them from there is theft because they are taken from the safekeeping appropriate to them. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 4510, dated 27 August 2026. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.