narrow. The witness has no knowledge beyond what everyone else knows—unless, of course, he testifies that this land belongs to the public treasury because, for example, it once belonged to a man, then passed into the ownership of the public treasury and was unlawfully incorporated into the road. As for his testimony that it belongs to the public treasury merely because it is a road: if he means that the public road is a right belonging to the Muslims, that does not justify selling it. If he means that it is property belonging to the public treasury and may be sold like other treasury property, then this is false testimony, for which he deserves a punishment that will deter him and others like him. The judge may not rule that this sale is valid.

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

There are two houses, one east of the other. One is entered by a stairway beneath the other’s gutter, and this arrangement has existed for a long time. May the owner of the house whose stairway and access passage lie beneath the other house’s gutter prevent water from that gutter from flowing onto this stairway because of the harm it causes him, or not?

He answered:

He has no right to prevent the holder of a long-established right from exercising it. And Allah knows best.