Public properties are the assets which the Legislator (Ash-Shari’) has given their ownership to all the Muslims in association between them. He (swt) has permitted individuals to benefit from them but prevented them from possessing them. These assets are represented in three main types: - 1. Public utilities which the public cannot do without in their daily life.

2. Assets whose natural formation prevents designation to specific individuals from their ownership.

3. Replenishable minerals which do not deplete.

These three main types of properties, and those which branch out from them, and revenues they produce, are possessed by all the Muslims and jointly owned between them. They represent one of the revenues of Bait ul- Mal of the Muslims, distributed by the Khalifah among them according to his own Ijtihad, within the rules of the Shari’ah and according to the interest of Islam and Muslims.

This is the public utilities of all people that they cannot do without in their daily life and they disperse in case of their absence, such as water. The Messenger of Allah (saw) has explained the description of these utilities and clarified them in the most perfect manner by the relevant Ahadith reported from him. From Abi Khurash from some of the companions of the Prophet (saw) , he said: “The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘Muslims are partners in three (things): Water, pasture and fire.’” And in another transmission: “People are partners in three: water, pasture and fire.” From Abu Hurayra that the Prophet (saw) said: “Three should not be withheld: Water, fire and pasture.” It was also reported from him his saying: “The Muslim is a brother to the Muslim, they accommodate each other over water and trees.” Water, fire and pasture were among the first things that the Messenger (saw) permitted to all the people, and he made them partners in them and forbade them from protecting any part of them against the use by all Muslims as it is a right for all Muslims. Thus people can camp in their travels and bedouins live in a land which has vegetation (plants) that Allah (swt) has brought forth for grazing livestock without the effort of anybody in ploughing, planting or irrigation; such land is for the one who reaches it first. No one can be singled out in using it to the exclusion of other people. Rather, they can graze their cattle and livestock and beasts jointly, and they use the water which is there in the same way as well. People are partners in such properties.

This matter is not restricted to these three assets mentioned in the previous Ahadith. It rather includes everything that can be described as being from the public utilities. The evidence to this is, that at the time the Messenger of Allah (saw) said: “People are partners in three: water, pasture and fire”, he consented that individuals in Khayber and Taif own their wells as individual property such that they drink from them, water their cattle, livestock and gardens and he did not prevent them from owning them. These wells were small such that the need of the public did not relate to them. To reconcile these two Hadith, it becomes clear that when water is related to the need of the community it would be a public property and is prevented from being a private property.Whereas, when the need of the public is not related to it, it can be a private property and thus individuals are allowed to own it. The general rule regarding whether there is a need for the public in it is that the public cannot do without it in their daily life such that, if it were not found, the community would disperse in search for it. This is like the tribes who used to disperse when water was not found or when pasture for their cattle and grazing livestock was lost. Therefore, everything to which there is a need of the public, (such that) they cannot do without it in their daily life and they scatter once they did not find it, is of the public properties.

Connected with this type of public properties are all tools used in them, for they take their rule and similarly become public property. Thus the machines used in drawing out public waters from springs, wells, rivers and lakes and those used to pump these waters and the conduit pipes that deliver them to the houses of people, are also public property. This is because the water which they draw out, pump and supply is public property. However, if these machines are set up at lakes and major rivers like the Nile and the Euphrates, then it is permitted for these machines to be owned individually and be used individually. Similarly, the machines used to generate electricity from public waterfalls like canals and rivers, and their poles, cables and power stations are public property. This is because these machines produce electricity from assets of public property and therefore take its rule. Similarly the machines used to generate electricity and its power stations, poles and cables are public property even if electricity is produced by the method of machines or without using waterfalls, if electricity is generally used for fuel, and its use for lighting is secondary. This is like when it is used for cooking, heating, driving factory machines or melting minerals. This is because electricity would then be fire, and fire is of the public properties. Thus its generators, stations, machines, poles and cables are public property, following it.

Similarly the generators of electricity, its power stations, poles and cables are of public properties if these tools are erected in public roads, whether the electricity is used as fuel or for lighting.

The reason for this is that the public road is not allowed to be owned by any individual or company so as to have any part of it solely for oneself, where it is protected for oneself and people are prevented from using it. This is because protection (Hima) of public properties is not allowed except for the State. But if electricity was generated from machines and its generators, stations, poles and cables were placed in other than the public road, such as being placed in the properties of its owner, then it would be private property, and it is permitted for individuals to possess it privately.

It is permitted that factories of gas and soft (bituminous) coal be public property, following that gas and soft coal are public property, for they are of the replenishable minerals, and of fire, since replenishable minerals and fire are of public property.

These are the assets whose natural formation prevents individuals specifically from their possession. This type of public property, being of the public utilities like the first type and it is included by the evidence of the public utilities, yet the nature of its formation also prevents designating it to individuals. This is contrary to the first type as the nature of its formation does not prevent designating individuals with it. Thus, small wells in which there is no established need for the community, are owned individually.

The evidence that this type is of the public properties besides the evidences for the first type, is the saying of the Messenger (saw) : “Mina is the resting place of the one who reaches first.” This is in addition to what came from the Messenger (saw) that he consented to people being partners in owning the public road and not allowing an individual specifically owning it. Mina is a famous place outside of Makka Al-Mukarramah, and it is a place in which the pilgrims camp after completing the standing at ‘Arafat, so as to carry out specific rites of the Hajj, like the stoning of the Jimar, slaughtering the sacrificial animal, Eid sacrifice and staying overnight. The meaning of its being a resting place for the one who reaches first is that it is owned by all the Muslims so that the one who reaches first to any part of it and stops by in it then it is for him, as it is a partnership between them and is not owned by anyone such that he prevents others from it. Similar to that is the public road as the Messenger (saw) had consented to joint partnership of the people in it, and the right of everyone to passage, and he made the removal of harm from it a form of charity, as came in the Hadith: “The removal of harm from the road is charity.” He (saw) prohibited the sitting down on the roads and said: “Beware of sitting on the road” as sitting might prevent the passage of people or restrict it for them.

Examining the reality of Mina and the reality of public roads shows that the nature of their formation prevents designating an individual for their possession. In Mina pilgrims halt to carry out some of the rites of Hajj and the nature of its formation as being a place to carry out the rites of Hajj for all Muslims prevents specifying a particular individual or individuals with it the same way as ‘Arafat and Muzdalifa. The public road is similarly for all the people intended for the passage of everyone, and it is not befitting to specify a particular individual or individuals with it. Thus, the evidence which came in their regard applies to everything whose nature of formation prevents specifying an individual or individuals with it, and it is thus a public property. Therefore seas, rivers, lakes, oceans, gulfs, straits, general canals like the Suez Canal, the public parks and mosques are all public property for all the citizens.

Connected to this type of public properties are railways, tramways, electricity poles, water mains ducts and sewage system which pass by the public road: these are all public property, following the road which is public property. They are not allowed to be private property as it is not allowed for anyone to be specified with public property in a permanent manner nor to protect (for oneself) what is for the public, due to the statement of the Messenger (saw) : “No protection (of property) (Hima) except for Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw)” i.e. except for the State. The meaning of the Hadith is that it is not allowed for anyone to protect for himself that which is for all the people. What designates tramways, electricity poles, water ducts and sewage systems, which are on public roads as public property is that they occupy a section of the public road permanently and it is permanently allocated to them, thereby becoming of the protected property, which is not allowed for other than the State. Therefore, they become public property.

This is the replenishable minerals which do not deplete completely, and are the vast amount of minerals which are not limited in measure. As for insignificant amounts of minerals which are limited in measure, these are private property that individuals are permitted to own as the Messenger of Allah (saw) gave Bilal ibn Al-Harith al-Muzni the minerals of the Qabaliya in the area of Al-Far’a in Hijaz. Bilal had asked the Messenger of Allah (saw) to allocate them to him, so he granted them to him and made him the owner. Therefore the deposits of gold and silver, and other types of minerals, present in small non-commercial amounts are private property. Individuals are permitted to own them as is permitted for the State to allot them to the people. In this case people have to pay one-fifth of what they extract of them to the Bait ul-Mal, whether they extract a little or a lot.

As for the vast minerals, not limited in measure, these are public property owned by all Muslims and are not allowed to be assigned, given in ownership or allotted to any person or persons. Similarly, it is not allowed to give concession for their mining to individuals or companies. Rather they must remain a property jointly owned by all Muslims and the State should carry out their extraction, purification, smelting and selling on their behalf and place their price in the Bait ul-Mal of the Muslims. There is no difference in the rules of these minerals whether they are apparent on surface and are reached to without trouble like salt and antimony (Kohl), or are underground and deep in earth and cannot be extracted except by hardship, labour and great trouble like gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, tin, uranium, phosphate and other minerals; nor whether they are solid, like gold and iron, or liquid, like petroleum, or gaseous like natural gas.

The evidence that these vast minerals of unlimited measure are public property, is what is narrated from Abyadh b. Hammal al-Mazini “that he called on the Messenger of Allah (saw) and asked him to allocate to him the salt and he allocated it to him. When he turned away a man in the gathering said: ‘Do you know what you have allotted to him? Verily you have allotted to him replenishable water’, so the Prophet (saw) withdrew it from him.” The fact that the Messenger of Allah (saw) took back from Abyadh b. Hammal the salt he had allotted to him, after he knew that it was abundant, is an evidence that any vast quantity mineral, which does not deplete, is not allowed to be owned by individuals as it is an ownership of all the Muslims. This matter is not specific to salt, rather it is general for all minerals whatever their type, on condition that they are of the same status as the vast quantity of water (salt mineral) i.e. which is replenishable.

As minerals which are replenishable are public property for all citizens, it is not therefore permitted for the State to allocate them to individuals or companies nor to allow individuals or companies to mine them for their own benefit. Rather it is obligatory upon it to mine them by itself on behalf of the Muslims as a form of looking after their affairs. All that it extracts will be a public property for all the citizens.

Protecting some of the public property assets of petroleum, gas and minerals, such as when the Khalifah designates specific petroleum and gas wells or specific mineral mines like, for example, phosphate, gold and copper mines, where he protects them and designates their revenues for the expenditure on the mentioned areas, is allowed by Shar’a. It is a useful method to raise the necessary revenues to spend in these areas. It is permitted for the Khalifah to do this based on the following:

1. The Messenger of Allah (saw) and the Khulafa’a after him shielded specific places which were part of the public property. From Ibn ‘Abbas from Sa’ab b. Juthama, he said: “The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: ‘No protection (Hima) except for Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw)’”. That is, no protecting except for the State similar to what Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw) shielded for Jihad, the poor, the needy and the interests of Muslims generally. This is not similar to what they protected in the days of Ignorance (Jahiliyyah) where the noble alone among them protected for himself. From Nafi’ from Ibn ‘Umar: “The Prophet (saw) protected An-Naqi’i (this was a famous place in Madinah) for the horses of the Muslims.” Similarly Abu Bakr protected Al-Rabatha for the camels of Sadaqat and appointed his servant Abu Salama, over it. ‘Umar also protected Al-Sharaf in Al-Rabatha and appointed his servant, who was called Hani.

This protection was of places of pasture and grazing and they were of the public properties. Al-Naqi’i which was protected by the Messenger of Allah (saw) was outside Madinah, and water used to stagnate in it and pasture would grow when it dried up i.e. it was owned as public property by all Muslims. Abu ‘Ubaid, in explaining this, after mentioning the Hadith “No protecting except for Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw)” said: “The interpretation of the protection which is prohibited in our view (and Allah (swt) knows best) is that you shield the things which the Messenger of Allah (saw) made all the people partners in, which is water, pasture and fire.”.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) , Abu Bakr and ‘Umar designated places and protected them for the horses which were,used in the way of Allah (swt), the camels and livestock of Sadaqat, and they used to prevent others from grazing in them. From ‘Amir b. ‘Abdullah b. Az-Zubair (RA), he said: “A bedouin came to ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab (RA) and said: ‘O Amir al-Mu’mineen, our land that we fought upon in (the days of) Jahiliyyahh and upon which we became Muslims in (the days of) Islam, why did you protect it?’ ‘Umar bowed (his head), twisted and breathed into his moustache (whenever a matter troubled him, ‘Umar would twist his moustache and breathe into it) and when the bedouin saw how he reacted, he repeated his question to him. ‘Umar replied: ‘Property is the property of Allah (swt), and the servants are the servants of Allah (swt). By Allah (swt), were it not for what I carry upon it in the way of Allah (swt), I would not protect a handspan by handspan.’” And from Aslam, he said: “I heard ‘Umar b. al-Khattab as he was speaking to Hani when he appointed him over the Hima of Al-Rabatha: ‘O Hani, withhold your hand (i.e. restrict yourself) from the people and fear the Dua’a of the oppressed for it is accepted. Allow to enter the owner(s) of camel and sheep, but turn away the grazing livestock of ibn ‘Affan and ibn ‘Awf for if the livestock of these two die they will return to palm trees and palms. But if the livestock of this miserable man die he will come shouting: ‘O Amir al-Mu’mineen, has the pasture become of little importance to me or has gold and money suffered loss?’ For verily it is their land upon which they fought in (the days of) Jahiliyyah and became Muslims in (the days of) Islam, and their view is that we are oppressing them. Were it not for the livestock upon which things are borne in the way of Allah (swt), I would never have protected anything from the people of their land.’.