Shaykh al-Islām said: “People have differed over the neighbor’s right of pre-emption, holding three opinions. The fairest of them is that if the neighbor shares in the property’s easement rights, pre-emption is confirmed for him; otherwise, it is not.” End quote.
I say: This is a middle course that gathers the proofs together and removes many large and long-standing harms.
As for establishing pre-emption in moveable goods, or for a neighbor who shares no easement, no evidence supports it; the presence of minor harm that can be easily removed is not enough. Allah knows best.
Chapter: Rulings on Neighborhood (1)
After the ḥadith on pre-emption, the author ﵀ cited four ḥadiths on endowment (waqf) and gift (hibah), then three on share-cropping, followed by another on gift, then ḥadiths on usurpation and neighborhood rulings, and finally ḥadiths on bequests. I do not know the principle behind that arrangement.
Because the ḥadiths on endowment, gift, and bequest all belong to one genre—gratuitous contracts whose rulings are close and whose issues correspond—I have set them consecutively and postponed them so that they come after the “Chapter of Inheritance,” since there is a connection there as well.
I have brought forward the ḥadiths on share-cropping, usurpation, and neighborhood rulings so the arrangement would be neater and related matters could be clustered together.
Hadith 1 (2)
Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Let not a neighbor prevent his neighbor from driving a beam of wood into his wall.”
Abū Hurayrah then said, “Why do I see you turning away from this? By Allah, I will hurl it between your shoulders!”
Lexical notes
• “lā yamnaʿanna”: lā is the prohibitive particle; the verb after it is jussive and carries a fatḥah because it is joined to the heavy emphatic nūn.
• “khashabah”: singular; it is also transmitted in the plural, but the meaning is the same, for the singular here denotes the entire class.
• “ʿanhā” and “bihā”: in both words the pronoun refers to the Sunnah mentioned in his statement.