buy it to the same extent as the co-owner. If, however, people are compelled by necessity to take shelter in someone’s house, finding no other place where they can shelter, he must accommodate them. Likewise, if they need him to lend them clothes to keep warm against the cold, or implements for cooking, building, or drawing water, he is to make these available free of charge.

If they need him to lend them a bucket to draw water, a pot to cook in, or an axe to dig with, is he obliged to make it available at the customary hire charge, without demanding more? Scholars of Ahmad’s school and others hold two views on this. The correct view is that these things must be made available free of charge if their owner has no need of either their use or payment for it, as indicated by the Quran and Sunnah. Allah Most High says:

“So woe to those who pray,
yet are heedless of their prayer;
those who show off
and withhold small acts of kindness.”

In the Sunan collections, Ibn Masʿūd said: “We used to understand ‘small acts of kindness’ as lending a bucket, a pot, or an axe.”

In the two Sahih collections, it is reported that when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, spoke of horses, he said:

“For one man they are a source of reward, for another a protection, and for another a burden of sin. As for the man for whom they are a source of reward, he keeps them to be self-sufficient and refrain from begging, and does not forget Allah’s due concerning them and their use as mounts.”

In the two Sahih collections, the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“The rights due concerning camels include lending their bucket and allowing their male to mate.”

It is also authentically established that he, peace and blessings be upon him, forbade charging for a male animal’s mating services. And in the two Sahih collections, it is reported that he