Jiwar (neighbourhood and the rights of the neighbour)

Jiwar covers the rights a neighbour has over a neighbour. The Shafi'is and Hanbalis set its limit at forty houses on each side. ¹

A shared wall may be used only to the extent of the partner's benefit. Roofs need a screen against sight into a neighbour's house, and the schools differ on compelling the owner to build one. ^{3 4 5}

A neighbour must let people pass along a public watercourse. Pre-emption belongs to the adjoining neighbour in the Hanafi view; others disagree. ^{6 7}

The neighbour's rights limit how an owner may use his property where it harms the neighbour. ⁸

The Sheikh says that good neighbourliness covers the wife, the husband, the children, siblings, neighbours, colleagues and travel companions, and he counts it among the blessings ¹⁰. He describes forms of bad neighbourliness inside the family: a wife complaining to her mother and sister, a son complaining of his father, and a father complaining of his children's disobedience. He says that giving a gift to a non-Muslim neighbour is part of good neighbourliness ⁹.

He describes the harmful neighbour, who hides his neighbour's good deeds and spreads his faults, and the good neighbour, who lowers his gaze and guards his neighbour's honour and household; he holds that good neighbourliness and gratitude increase blessings ¹¹. Asked how a neighbour's complaint about us can end, he answered that knowing the neighbour's right comes before knowing one's personal rights, and that complaint ends only when religion is understood correctly ¹².

He relates that Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf (may God be pleased with him) saw a man in private conference with the Prophet ﷺ and asked to stand aside; when the man left, the Prophet told him that Gabriel kept recommending the neighbour until he thought the neighbour would inherit (needs_source: garbled narration) ¹³. He asks where mercy, bearing with a neighbour and kindness to one who wronged us are, and holds that these values are missing from neighbour relations (needs_source: garbled passage) ¹⁴.

He describes manners in houses: a person should not enter a neighbour's house secretly, should give gifts to him, and should not harm him with the smell of his cooking. He bases this on a hadith without naming its narrator ¹⁵. He criticises a company, not named, that builds a tall tower beside a small house without asking, blocking air from its neighbour, and asks whether its builders feel the neighbour's right ¹⁶. He answers those who call his speech impractical with what he saw in rural villages in Germany, where neighbours are considered on Sundays and during quiet hours, and he acknowledges deviations in the West ¹⁷.

He holds that harming a neighbour is harming oneself, and recalls that the Arabs in pre-Islamic times supported their neighbours; he cites a line of verse whose author is not clear in the recording (needs_source: garbled attribution) ¹⁸.

The Sheikh asks whether the neighbour is the single adjoining person, the community or the state, and says that in earlier times the neighbour was the one adjoining the house ²². He describes three kinds of neighbour: a near Muslim neighbour has three rights, namely the right of neighbourhood, the right of kinship and the right of Islam; another has two rights, and another has one ^{23 24}.

He says that a neighbour remains a neighbour even if he wrongs you ²⁵. He recounts Abu Hanifa and a neighbour who drank and sang at night: when Abu Hanifa noticed his absence, he went to the police station to intercede for him, the neighbour was released, repented and prayed behind Abu Hanifa, in the Sheikh's telling ^{26 27}.

He holds that a neighbour's right is not to harm or wrong him, to share his sorrow and his joy, and to ask after him before his trouble reaches you, because his right is great before God ¹⁹. He says that Sa'd prayed against a neighbour woman who spread accusations against him, that she be struck with blindness (needs_source: the details of the report) ²⁸.

The Sheikh holds, as his own opinion, that neighbourliness today includes both rich and poor, and that a neighbour should not hide from his neighbours what he has ²¹. He says that if a neighbour does not refrain or accept counsel, one should bear with him, visit him and advise him gently ²⁰.