Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) forbade that a woman should ask for the divorce of her sister. And he forbade that water be withheld for fear that the fodder would be grazed. This means: if there is fodder in a location, and it is not possible to stay there to graze it except by watering from this water, then he withholds the water from them so that the fodder may be preserved for himself. Abu 'Ubaydah (69) narrated with his isnad from 'Umar that he said: "The wayfarer (ibn al-sabil) has a superior right to the water than the one who is waiting (al-tani) for it (70)." And from Abu Hurayrah, he said: "The wayfarer is the first to drink." And from Buhaysah, she said: My father said: O Messenger of Allah, what is the thing that is not permissible to withhold? He said: "Water." He said: O Messenger of Allah, what is the thing that is not permissible to withhold? He said: "Salt" (71). He is not obligated to provide the equipment of the well, such as the rope, the bucket, and the pulley, because it wears out (72) and is not replaced by anything else, unlike the water. This is the entire established position of the Shafi'i school. There is no difference, in what we have mentioned, between inhabited areas and the wilderness. From Ahmad, it is reported that he said: "This only applies to the wilderness and the open country, not to inhabited areas." He means that if there is water within an inhabited area, no one has the right to enter it except with the permission of its owner.

Section: Is one obligated to dispense the surplus of his water for the crops of another? There are two narrations regarding this. The first: He is not obligated (73) to dispense it. This is the school of al-Shafi'i, because crops do not possess sanctity in themselves, and for this reason, the owner is not obligated to water them, unlike livestock. The second: He is obligated to dispense it for that purpose, based on what was narrated