His statement: "This well is forbidden to me, even if I do not find water"
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Fatwa number ( 19064 )
Q: My brother and I partnered in digging a well for our farms and our homes. We are partners in the cost of digging and the pump, and in everything required to work on this well. However, it is located on one of my brother's farms. We had agreed from the beginning to dig it in a part of his farm, sharing the cost equally. But recently, after Allah granted us sufficient water in it, he began to complain about this partnership and to delay doing anything to maintain the work on this well, whether regarding the pump or any other repair work. It became clear to me that he wants me to withdraw my share in this well. After he provoked me with words from which I understood that he did not want me to remain his partner in this well, and he is older than me, I said to him: "Then this well is forbidden to me, even if I do not find water to drink from other than it, except—may Allah reward you—except my own well," this
is exactly what came from me. Now he has asked me to make expiation for my words and to return to the well with him. So I ask Allah, then your excellence, to guide me to what must be done regarding this prohibition?
A: You must make expiation for what you said as an oath expiation: feeding ten poor people, giving each poor person half a sa' (a dry measure of about 3 kg) of the food eaten in the country. The amount of half a sa' in kilograms is approximately one and a half kilograms. Or you may clothe ten poor people, giving each poor person a garment. Or you may free a believing slave. You have the choice among these three. If you do not find any of them, then you must fast for three days. The evidence for the obligation of expiation due to forbidding what is lawful is His saying, the Exalted:[At-Tahrim 66:1] , then He said, the Exalted: [At-Tahrim 66:2] , meaning the aforementioned expiation. And success is from Allah, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family, and his Companions.
Q: My brother and I partnered in digging a well for our farms and our homes. We are partners in the cost of digging and the pump, and in everything required to work on this well. However, it is located on one of my brother's farms. We had agreed from the beginning to dig it in a part of his farm, sharing the cost equally. But recently, after Allah granted us sufficient water in it, he began to complain about this partnership and to delay doing anything to maintain the work on this well, whether regarding the pump or any other repair work. It became clear to me that he wants me to withdraw my share in this well. After he provoked me with words from which I understood that he did not want me to remain his partner in this well, and he is older than me, I said to him: "Then this well is forbidden to me, even if I do not find water to drink from other than it, except—may Allah reward you—except my own well," this
is exactly what came from me. Now he has asked me to make expiation for my words and to return to the well with him. So I ask Allah, then your excellence, to guide me to what must be done regarding this prohibition?
A: You must make expiation for what you said as an oath expiation: feeding ten poor people, giving each poor person half a sa' (a dry measure of about 3 kg) of the food eaten in the country. The amount of half a sa' in kilograms is approximately one and a half kilograms. Or you may clothe ten poor people, giving each poor person a garment. Or you may free a believing slave. You have the choice among these three. If you do not find any of them, then you must fast for three days. The evidence for the obligation of expiation due to forbidding what is lawful is His saying, the Exalted:
O Prophet, why do you prohibit [yourself from] what Allah has made lawful for you
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ لِمَ تُحَرِّمُ مَا أَحَلَّ اللَّهُ لَكَAllah has already ordained for you [Muslims] the dissolution of your oaths
قَدْ فَرَضَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ تَحِلَّةَ أَيْمَانِكُمْ
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.