796 – A Companion (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: “I campaigned with the Prophet ﷺ and heard him say, ‘People share equally in three things: pasture, water, and fire.’” Related by Ahmad and Abu Dawud, whose transmitters are reliable. (1)

Hadith grading
The report is ṣaḥīḥ (authentic). Abu Dawud recorded it with a sound chain.

The version that begins with the word “people” (al-nās) is considered shādh (anomalous); it is transmitted only by Yazīd ibn Hārūn in the recension preserved by Abū ʿUbayd. ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd and ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus (in Abu Dawud), as well as Thawr al-Shāmī (in Ahmad and al-Bayhaqī), all narrating from Ḥarīz ibn ʿUthmān through Abū Khaddāsh from an unnamed Companion, have the wording “the Muslims” in place of “the people.”

The hadith has supporting reports, among them the narration of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him): “Three things are not to be withheld: water, pasture, and fire.” Ibn Mājah recorded it with a sound chain, as affirmed by al-Ḥāfiẓ and the author of al-Zawāʾid.

Vocabulary notes
• “In three”: because the three nouns function collectively as plurals, Arabic treats them grammatically as feminine.
• al-kalāʾ: pasture—grass whether fresh or dry; plural aklāʾ. Al-Ṣāghānī notes that ḥashīsh is used specifically for dry herbage.
• al-māʾ (water): its root form is māh with a hāʾ; the hamzah replaced it because it more readily carries the vowel, and this points to