Question
Question: A man owns a share in a plot (jirbah). He sold his share to another man for a particular rope [a specific non-fungible item] located elsewhere. The seller’s partners in the plot then sought shufʿah. Do they have shufʿah or not?
Answer
Answer—and Allah grants success: shufʿah is established here. The only conceivable impediment is that the price is qīmī (non-fungible), and some have stated that a condition for validity is that the price be mithlī (fungible).
We reply: assessed value stands in the place of a like-for-like; the price is appraised by two upright valuers, and that value is paid to the buyer. This is the position of the school, as in al-Azhār and its commentary.
The proof for what we have stated is that the rationale warranting the obligation of shufʿah is present in this and similar cases—namely, repelling harm from the neighbor. The evidences obligating shufʿah are unrestricted; they are not conditioned on the price being fungible. Nothing indicates that a value-based (qīmī) price blocks shufʿah, and the default is the continued establishment of shufʿah.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.2
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