The Ruling on Encroaching on Vacant and Government Lands
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
There are many questions, my brothers, but we will start with the questions that are central to the topic of the lecture. If there is time, we will proceed with the rest of the questions. There is, Shaykh, a group of questions that mentioned one cause, or one of the greatest causes, of the disputes existing among people in the region. They focused on an issue: there are many areas and lands in these villages in the region that the locals call "vacant lands" or "communal lands." These belong to all the residents of the village, and every individual among them has a right to them. Some individuals encroach upon them on the pretext that they belong to no one and because of their need for them. Is it permissible for such people to take from them? And if a dispute arises among people over these lands, is it considered a discord and conflict that has no basis in the Shari'ah?
The Shaykh:
Government lands that are not owned by anyone and to which no one has a specific claim—there has been a decision regarding these for a long time that no one is to encroach upon them except by order of the one in authority, except by order of the one in authority, because this is among the authorities of the one in authority. Since it is government land, the one in authority is the one who disposes of it. He either keeps it for the public benefit or distributes it to the needy people of the town. This is among the authorities of the one in authority, and it is not permissible to encroach upon it.
It follows the one in authority, since it has no established ownership or specific claim attached to it. Therefore, it follows the one in authority, and no one is permitted to reach out to it. You have issued this decision by the one in authority a long time ago.
The questioner:
He means, Shaykh, that people intend that it was our custom here that whoever has ownership... Yes, that is fine. They mean, Shaykh, that there is a custom practiced by people in the region: whoever has agricultural land has a corresponding amount of mountain land. This is what sometimes leads to the dispute. Is this what the brother intends?
The Shaykh:
And this is brought to the court, which looks into his claim. If he has a right to it—I said, for example, if he has a specific claim to it, such as a road or a watercourse or a course of something—this is for the court to look into. If it verifies this, the court rules in his favor according to what it sees as being in accordance with the Shari'ah. Yes.
There are many questions, my brothers, but we will start with the questions that are central to the topic of the lecture. If there is time, we will proceed with the rest of the questions. There is, Shaykh, a group of questions that mentioned one cause, or one of the greatest causes, of the disputes existing among people in the region. They focused on an issue: there are many areas and lands in these villages in the region that the locals call "vacant lands" or "communal lands." These belong to all the residents of the village, and every individual among them has a right to them. Some individuals encroach upon them on the pretext that they belong to no one and because of their need for them. Is it permissible for such people to take from them? And if a dispute arises among people over these lands, is it considered a discord and conflict that has no basis in the Shari'ah?
The Shaykh:
Government lands that are not owned by anyone and to which no one has a specific claim—there has been a decision regarding these for a long time that no one is to encroach upon them except by order of the one in authority, except by order of the one in authority, because this is among the authorities of the one in authority. Since it is government land, the one in authority is the one who disposes of it. He either keeps it for the public benefit or distributes it to the needy people of the town. This is among the authorities of the one in authority, and it is not permissible to encroach upon it.
It follows the one in authority, since it has no established ownership or specific claim attached to it. Therefore, it follows the one in authority, and no one is permitted to reach out to it. You have issued this decision by the one in authority a long time ago.
The questioner:
He means, Shaykh, that people intend that it was our custom here that whoever has ownership... Yes, that is fine. They mean, Shaykh, that there is a custom practiced by people in the region: whoever has agricultural land has a corresponding amount of mountain land. This is what sometimes leads to the dispute. Is this what the brother intends?
The Shaykh:
And this is brought to the court, which looks into his claim. If he has a right to it—I said, for example, if he has a specific claim to it, such as a road or a watercourse or a course of something—this is for the court to look into. If it verifies this, the court rules in his favor according to what it sees as being in accordance with the Shari'ah. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، محاضرات في العقيدة والدعوة-072-فضل إصلاح ذات البين|صالح الفوزان|كبار العلماء — youtube.com (43:29)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.