the owner of the ground floor is obliged to rebuild it and restore the roof, and he may be compelled to do so if he refuses. Should his refusal stem from some defect or a valid excuse, the owner of the upper floor may rebuild the lower level at his own expense, then bar the ground-floor owner from making any use of it until he repays the cost.

Whoever kindles a fire on his own land and it spreads to burn his neighbour’s property is examined: if he knew that, under normal circumstances, the fire would not reach the neighbour and its spread occurred only because the flames leapt or the wind carried them, he incurs no liability. But if it is known that in most cases the neighbour could not be spared, he must compensate—out of his own wealth—for every item of property destroyed; and if a life is lost, full blood-money is due from his ʿāqilah (the male kin collectively responsible for homicide compensation). In this regard, says Ibn al-Qāsim, water is treated like fire.

It is impermissible to separate a mother from her child—whether they are Muslim or non-Muslim—so long as the child is young and unable to care for himself, a period of roughly seven years. The same rule applies even if she brought him from enemy territory, although no inheritance passes between them on the basis of that kinship. Buying a child from a mustaʾman enemy alien or from a dhimmī is disapproved if it entails separating him from his mother. Because a man is forbidden to sell his bondwoman apart from her child, however he came to own her, the same principle holds when mother and child belong to two different owners: they are compelled to unite them. Since the sale of one without the other is invalid, so too any gift of one alone is invalid unless both are conveyed together. Heirs may not divide them; instead, both are sold to someone who will hold them jointly. If a sale is concluded for one of them, it stands provided the buyer then purchases the other and reunites them; otherwise, the sale is rescinded and null. Once the child is weaned and can manage without his mother, their separation becomes permissible. There is no objection to separating a father from his son or any other close relative, for the hadith concerns the mother alone.

When two disputants appoint an arbitrator acceptable to them both, and after the arbitrator issues his decision one party is pleased while the other objects, that decision remains binding on the latter if