Volume Thirty
From the Book of Amicable Settlement to the Book of Endowments

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Shaykh al-Islām Ahmad ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—was asked:

A man purchased a house with two doorways, each situated in a dead-end alley. One doorway is blocked up, and the documents attest to both doorways. The blocked doorway is the original entrance, at the head of the alley. He wishes to reopen it. Is he entitled to do so?

He answered:

If he purchased the house together with its associated rights, and the blocked doorway was among those rights, he may reopen it as it originally was, unless this right was excluded from the sale, either expressly or by custom.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was also asked:

Two houses are separated by a street. The owner of one wishes to build an upper room on his house that would obstruct the open space available to the other house. Is this permissible or not?