into the house.”

So I summoned him, and he redirected it. Ahmad said:

“Yahyā al-Qattān’s water used to drain into the road, but he resolved to change this and diverted it into the house.”

He also reported that Ahmad mentioned the scrupulousness of Shu‘ayb ibn Harb, who said:

“You may not coat the wall with clay, lest it encroach upon the road.”

Al-Mardhawī asked Ahmad about a man digging a well or a muharram for the upper storey in the open space in front of his house. He replied:

“No; this is the Muslims’ road.”

Al-Mardhawī said: “I said, ‘It is only a well that will be dug and its opening covered.’ He replied, ‘Is it not in the Muslims’ road?’”

Ibn al-Hakam asked him about a man who extends a privy or a column into the Muslims’ road: “Would he still be considered upright?”

He replied:

“He would not be considered upright, and his testimony would not be admissible.”

Ahmad also narrated, with his chain of transmission, that ‘Alī used to order that drain outlets and privies projecting into the Muslims’ road be cut away.

It is also reported that ‘Ā’idh ibn ‘Amr al-Muzanī said:

“I would rather have my mud poured into my own chamber than into the Muslims’ road.”

He said: “We were told that he would not even let rainwater drain from his house into the road.” He continued: “Someone saw in a dream that he was among the people of Paradise. He was asked, ‘What earned you this?’ He replied, ‘Keeping my harm away from the Muslims.’”

Those who permitted this cited the hadith concerning the waterspout of al-‘Abbās as evidence.

The second type:

Building something in a wide road for the benefit of the Muslims without harming passersby—for example, building a mosque that people need, enlarging a cramped mosque by incorporating part of a wide road into it, or taking part of the road for something that serves the mosque, such as a shop from which the mosque benefits. This type is permissible in the school of