772 – Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh (may Allah be pleased with them both) reported: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) ruled that shufʿah applies to every property that has not yet been apportioned; but once the boundaries have been fixed and the access-ways laid out, there is no shufʿah.” Agreed upon, and the wording is al-Bukhārī’s.
In another narration recorded by Muslim: “Shufʿah pertains to every joint ownership of land, residence, or orchard. It is not permissible—in another wording, not lawful—for a partner to sell until he first offers it to his fellow partner.”
Al-Ṭaḥāwī transmits: “The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) ruled that shufʿah applies to everything,” and its transmitters are trustworthy (1).
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Degree of the hadith
Al-Ṭaḥāwī’s version: al-Ḥāfiẓ and Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī said, “Its chain’s narrators are reliable.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ also remarked, “There is no problem with it,” and it is supported by the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās in al-Tirmidhī, though that chain has been critiqued for being mursal.
Vocabulary of the hadith
• qaḍā (he ruled): The word qiḍāʾ carries two senses:
- Linguistic: compulsion, enforcement, completion, and determination.
- Technical legal: resolving disputes and settling litigation in a specific manner issued by someone vested with public authority.
• biʾsh-shufʿah (regarding shufʿah): the shīn is pronounced with ḍammah and the fāʾ is quiescent. Some linguists maintain that to articulate it with a vowel on the fāʾ is a mistake,