Assalaamu alaykum. I am 19 years old and am a student. Sorry for my bad English, but I have a question about haram/halal. Once upon a time, maybe 1 year ago, we were given some course books for studies in high school. And the books were only something which you cold borrow for a period of time, and they were not our property. The deal was to hand over the books to the teachers at the end of the year, but sometimes the teachers forgot to do that. So now I have a problem. I have 4 of these books, and I have not given them back. My intention was not to steal them, but I was more due to laziness and not thinking about how serious it is. The school does not know about it and does not care, but I am afraid that my worship/supplications are not accepted because I was treacherous. These 4 books have a combined value of something like 250-350 dollars in total, and I cannot send the books to the schooI as I could face problems. And they are non-Muslims. What should I do? I am a student and am poor. I do not have money to donate something as charity in their name. Should I burn the books? I do not want to have something that is haram so that Allah does not accept my worship. May Allah bless you.

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ʻalayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

It is an obligation on you to return the books to the school, even if in an indirect manner. You are not obliged to inform the school of the fact that you kept the books; it is only important to return them to the school. You do not have the right to burn them or give their value in charity as long as you are able to return them to the school. It is not allowed to offer someone's right in charity on his behalf if you can return it.

Therefore, you should hasten to return these books in a way that does not cause harm to you. This would clear you of your liability and is a repentance of the laziness in returning them. Do not take such matters lightly in the future, and we ask Allah to guide you to what is good and to confer His mercy upon you.

Allah knows best.