3- A comparable case arose in the time of ʿUmar. Mālik relates with an authentic chain that al-Dahḥāk b. Khalīfah asked Muhammad b. Maslamah to let an irrigation channel of his run through Muhammad’s land, but the latter refused. ʿUmar spoke to him about it and he still declined, whereupon ʿUmar said, “By Allah, the channel will pass even if it has to run across your belly!” No Companion is known to have opposed ʿUmar in this matter, so their silence amounts to consensus.

4- The Lawgiver has exalted the neighbor’s rights and emphasized his inviolability. A neighbor therefore enjoys certain claims upon his neighbor; if the owner withholds something that causes him no harm to grant, where is the observance of those rights and that sanctity?

As for the general texts the other jurists cite to deny the obligation, they are plausibly qualified by this hadith in view of the overriding public interest.

Chapter on Usurpation (ghasb)

a. Linguistically, the root verb ghasaba, yaghsibu means “to seize something unjustly.”

b. Legally, ghasb is the wrongful appropriation of another’s property without right.

It is a form of injustice unanimously declared unlawful by the Quran, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus.

The usurper must return what he has taken, for this is the restoration of wrongs to their owners.

Hadith 1

ʿĀʾishah (may Allah be pleased with her) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever wrongfully takes even a hand-span of land will have it hung around his neck on the Day of Resurrection, extending to seven earths.”

Unfamiliar terms
– qīd shibr: the measure of a span; mentioning “span” shows that little and much are treated alike.
– ṭawwuqahu: passive form meaning “it will be placed as a collar around his neck.”
– ardhīn: plural of “earth,” the rāʾ may be pronounced with fatḥah or kept silent.
– ẓulm: linguistically, “to place something where it does not belong”; legally, “to dispose of another’s right without his permission.”

Overall meaning
Another person’s property is forbidden to you; no one may take anything of another’s right except with the latter’s willing consent. The gravest instance of this is the usurpation of land, because such wrongful occupation tends to endure for a long time.