Ruling on Cutting Down Trees for the Public Benefit
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Question:
We now move on to the questioner (M. M.) from the Sultanate of Oman. In her first question, she says: We have a large, fruit-bearing tree in our house, and this tree is an obstacle to our building commercial shops. My family wants to uproot it. What is the ruling of the Shari'ah in this matter, O Shaykh?
Answer:
There is no harm in that. One should proceed with what is best if uprooting it is the best course of action. Praise be to Allah; it is not a waste of wealth. This is in the interest of the tree's owners. If they see that uprooting it is better, there is nothing wrong with it. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was building his mosque, there were trees in the location of the mosque; he ordered them to be uprooted. He ordered the date palms to be uprooted for the benefit of expanding the mosque.
The point is: if uprooting or cutting down a tree, whether it is a date palm, a pomegranate, a fig, or any other beneficial tree, is necessitated by the public interest—whether to build a house in that spot, to build a mosque, to expand a house, or to expand a mosque—there is no harm in any of that, and praise be to Allah.
The presenter : May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh.
We now move on to the questioner (M. M.) from the Sultanate of Oman. In her first question, she says: We have a large, fruit-bearing tree in our house, and this tree is an obstacle to our building commercial shops. My family wants to uproot it. What is the ruling of the Shari'ah in this matter, O Shaykh?
Answer:
There is no harm in that. One should proceed with what is best if uprooting it is the best course of action. Praise be to Allah; it is not a waste of wealth. This is in the interest of the tree's owners. If they see that uprooting it is better, there is nothing wrong with it. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was building his mosque, there were trees in the location of the mosque; he ordered them to be uprooted. He ordered the date palms to be uprooted for the benefit of expanding the mosque.
The point is: if uprooting or cutting down a tree, whether it is a date palm, a pomegranate, a fig, or any other beneficial tree, is necessitated by the public interest—whether to build a house in that spot, to build a mosque, to expand a house, or to expand a mosque—there is no harm in any of that, and praise be to Allah.
The presenter : May Allah reward you with good, O Shaykh.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.