By contrast, the one who lays claim to a ḥimā for his own benefit commits a forbidden act. No individual is entitled to reserve any part of Allah’s land for himself to the exclusion of His servants, for that is unlawful. The Prophet ﷺ said, “The Muslims are partners in three things: water, pasture, and fire.”

Therefore no one may fence off the pastureland, stretch nets around it, or station guards there to keep people from grazing. Such conduct is an act of usurpation—even if it is not the seizure of private property—because the land belongs to no one in particular. What it does do is block access to something that all people share, and that is impermissible. For this reason the scholars have stated that the ruler may establish a ḥimā as grazing land for the Muslims’ animals, on the condition that it brings them no harm.

Accordingly, the Prophet’s ﷺ words, “Truly, every king has a sanctuary,” could be taken as tacit approval; if so, what is meant is a sanctuary set aside by the ruler for the Muslims’ livestock—such as the horses prepared for jihad, the camels collected through zakah, and the like.

It could also be understood simply as a statement of fact, without implying approval, for the Messenger ﷺ sometimes described situations that existed—or that would come to pass—without endorsing them. He ﷺ, for instance, told us that we would imitate the ways of the Jews and Christians: “You will surely follow the paths of those before you, inch by inch and step by step, to the point that if they entered a lizard’s hole you would follow them into it.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, do you mean the Jews and the Christians?” He replied, “Who else?”