Is it permissible to cut down the trees of the Haram for expansion?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Some of the projects in the Haram. The projects, I mean, the trees of the Haram.
The Shaykh : No, what a human plants belongs to the human. Hmm.
The questioner : Like the trees of Mina and the Haram.
The Shaykh : What a human plants belongs to the human.
The questioner : Other than, like whom?
The Shaykh : Yes, these are not permissible except in dire necessity; if we are forced to remove them, it becomes permissible.
The questioner : Without compensation.
The Shaykh : The correct view is that there is no guarantee for the trees of the Haram. The school of Malik is the correct one, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade cutting down the trees and did not specify any guarantee for them.
The Shaykh : No, what a human plants belongs to the human. Hmm.
The questioner : Like the trees of Mina and the Haram.
The Shaykh : What a human plants belongs to the human.
The questioner : Other than, like whom?
The Shaykh : Yes, these are not permissible except in dire necessity; if we are forced to remove them, it becomes permissible.
The questioner : Without compensation.
The Shaykh : The correct view is that there is no guarantee for the trees of the Haram. The school of Malik is the correct one, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade cutting down the trees and did not specify any guarantee for them.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 279 - هل يجوز قطع أشجار الحرم للتوسعة؟ قواعد ابن رجب - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.