A Case of Selling Irrigation Water

Question

The water supply department collects a price for water, but the quantity of water is not determined at all — there is no meter or the like; rather an annual water charge per plot is fixed. The department’s condition is that the water of one plot must not be given to another plot, whether for a consideration or without. In this case, is it obligatory in the Shari‘a to observe this condition of the department, or is there scope for giving water to others?

Answer

The impermissibility of selling before taking possession (qabd) is explicitly stated in the books of fiqh. However, if this is regarded as a hire (ijara) and the price is called a wage (ujra), then the meaning will be: the wage for delivering water by machine to such-and-such plot is this much; and the hirer (musta’jir)

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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