jarin (drying floor), for it is the cutting punishment if it reaches the value of a shield." Narrated by Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, and others. This report qualifies the verse, just as we qualified it regarding the consideration of the nisaab. Once the consideration of the hirz (secure place) is established, the hirz is whatever is considered secure according to custom ('urf). For when its consideration was established in the Sharia without a specific textual explanation, it is known that it referred that to the people of custom, because there is no way to know it except from that direction. Thus, it is referred back to them, just as we referred to it for knowledge of receipt (qabd) and separation (furqa) in sales, and similar matters.

When this is established, the hirz for gold, silver, and jewels consists of chests kept under locks and secure fasteners in inhabited areas. The hirz for clothes and light property, such as brass, copper, and lead, is in shops and locked houses in inhabited areas, or there is a guard in them, in which case it is a hirz even if they are unlocked. If they are not locked and there is no guard in them, they are not a hirz. If there are locked safes inside them, the safes are a hirz for what is inside them, and what is outside of them is not secured. It has been narrated from Ahmad, regarding a house that has no lock from which something is stolen, that he considers him a thief. This is interpreted as meaning that its occupants are in it. As for houses in orchards, roads, or the wilderness, if no one is in them, they are not a hirz, whether they are locked or unlocked; because one who leaves his property in a place devoid of people and inhabited areas and departs from it is not considered as guarding it, even if he locked it. If its occupants or a guard are in it, it is a hirz, whether it is locked or unlocked. If one is wearing a garment, or using it as a pillow—whether sleeping or awake—or using it as a mat, or reclining upon it, in whatever place it may be—in the city or the wilderness—it is considered secured (muhraz). This is evidenced by the fact that the rida' (cloak) of Safwan was stolen while he was using it as a pillow, and the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) ordered the hand of the thief to be cut. If it rolls off the garment, the security (hirz) ceases if he was sleeping, whereas if he was...