Land, water and pasture: using and sharing

This lesson asks you to describe the ways people use the natural environment, including land, water and plants, to meet their needs, and to describe some responses to challenges that arise from using natural resources. The museum offers three records from the Islamic world, on farming, public drinking water and protected pasture; your class adds fuels, minerals, forests and other resources. ¹

Look at what each record names as the resource, who needs it, and what rule or building arranges the sharing. Ask whether the arrangement answers a challenge, and which one.

The record follows the Kuwaiti encyclopaedia of jurisprudence. Hima, it says, is technically a stretch of waste land that the ruler protects for particular herds ^{2 3}. The rule is prohibition, since it narrows the common ground ³. The majority allow the ruler to protect pasture for the horses of fighters, the camels of zakat and weak herds under conditions; the Prophet ﷺ is reported to have protected al-Naqi' for Muslim horses and al-Rabadha for zakat camels, and Umar and Uthman did the same ⁴. Conditions include that it be set by the ruler or his deputy, serve the Muslims, not be private property, and be small; the ruler may not reserve it for himself ^{5 6}. The ruler should appoint an agent to admit the herds of the weak and bar those of the strong ⁶.

The jurists do not give one answer on what follows. For protections set by later rulers, the Shafiis have two views on whether reviving the land confers ownership, and the Hanbalis have two views, the preferred one holding that revival confers ownership ⁷. A protection set by a ruler other than the Prophet may be annulled when the public interest requires it; the Prophet's protection is not annulled ^{6 7}.

The encyclopaedia says the rule on hima is prohibition because it narrows the common ground, yet most jurists allow it under conditions. Which one of those conditions do you think does most to keep the common ground open to everyone, and why?

• Hima (protected pasture): the rule, its conditions and the jurists' differences.
• Agriculture in Islam: al-Maraghi on farming, dead land and surplus water.
• The sabil: how a public fountain was endowed to give water to people every day.

Read Agriculture in Islam, the sabil and Hima (protected pasture). For each, write the need it meets and the rule or structure that organises it, then say which, if any, of the three the record presents as a response to a challenge, and which it does not.