Ihyaaud Deen An Effort to Revive Deen in Totality
1. It is not permissible (makrooh-e-tahreemi) to take back a gift, except in two situations
a) The person whom the item was gifted to is happy to return it.
b) In an Islamic country, the Islamic court rules that the gifted item be returned to the one who gifted the item (i.e. upon his request that the court cancel the gifting and return the item to him).
Besides these two situations, if one takes back the gifted item, he will be sinful and the item will not be halaal (lawful) for him.
The item will have to be returned to the one whom it was gifted to. If one does not return the item to the person and the item gets destroyed in one’s possession, then one will have to compensate the person from whom he had taken the gift from. As long as one keeps the item in his possession, one will be sinful and the item will be regarded as stolen property.
Note: This ruling applies to the case where the one gifting gifts an item to besides his close blood relatives (who is his mahram).
As for the ruling pertaining to the case where one gifts an item to his close blood relative (who is his mahram), then the ruling is as follows:
If an item is gifted to a zu rahim mahram relative (a close blood relative who is a mahram e.g. parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews etc) or a husband and wife give gifts to each other, then in these cases, it will not be permissible to take back the gifted item and nor will it be permissible for an Islamic court to rule that the item be returned to the person who had gifted the item.
The reason is that Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) had mentioned in his Mubaarak Hadith that any gift given to a zu rahim mahram relative (a close blood relative who is a mahram) cannot be taken back in any situation.
In this case, taking back the gifted item will only be permissible if the one whom it was gifted to is pleased to return it.
