Question
Question: Does a man own the place from which he extracted stones by blasting?
Answer
Answer—and success is from Allah: The jurists of the madhhab have mentioned that digging is among the causes of ownership. Accordingly, a man owns the stones extracted from the site of blasting and owns its place. They said: he owns the pit whether he intended ownership or did not intend it.
They also said: that and the like exit his ownership by abandoning it.
—What appears to me—and Allah knows best—is that what is to be followed in the matter mentioned in the question is custom. If the people of those lands have mutually recognized that each of them may cut stones for building or for sale from any place in their mountains, whether from where some have already cut or from elsewhere, then such cutting does not entail ownership of the place.
—Likewise, if the villagers have a common land around their village from which they dig earth to whitewash their houses or to build them, and they are mutually agreed among themselves that each may take from that—whether from where some have taken or from where none has taken—then that does not entail ownership nor is judgment given for it; for custom is a path recognized by the Sharīʿah so long as it does not contradict a text—thus has the madhhab stated.
—Therefore, if custom has come to be that digging entails ownership, or if there is no custom—neither for ownership nor against it—then digging entails ownership.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2
- Website categories