and by the fairest method.
3. This ḥadith is the principal proof for the establishment and lawfulness of shufʿah; the consensus of the scholars is built upon it.
4. The opening clause of the ḥadith conveys that shufʿah is affirmed for everything, even movables, whereas its closing clause restricts the scope to real estate and whatever is attached to it—trees and buildings—provided they stand on the land for which shufʿah is exercised.
5. Shufʿah applies to undivided real property whose boundaries have not been marked out and whose access-ways are still undefined, so as to lift the harm that co-ownership causes the partner entitled to shufʿah.
6. Once the boundaries are fixed and the roads allotted, shufʿah no longer applies, because the harm is removed by partition and disagreement ceases; the ruling therefore turns with its effective cause—present when it is present, absent when it is absent.
7. From this it is understood that a mere neighbor does not enjoy the right of shufʿah unless there are shared utilities; when such amenities exist, the right is established. The divergent views on this issue will be set out, God willing.
8. The ḥadith has been cited to show that shufʿah exists only in divisible real estate, not in property that cannot be divided. This is drawn from the phrase “in everything that has not been divided,” for what admits no division needs no avoidance thereof. The disagreement over this point will be presented, God willing.
9. As for al-Ṭaḥāwī’s narration, “Shufʿah is in everything,” it is qualified by other reports that confine shufʿah to real estate whose partnership endures, whose harms grow prolonged and numerous.
10. Shufʿah was instituted to remove the harm of co-ownership, and for that reason it is limited to immovable property: the duration of partnership in land is long. In movables, however, the harm is slight and can be remedied with many easy options—a simple, inexpensive partition, a sale, and the like.