Islamic Fiqh > Endowments (waqf) and property > Shuf'a: the right of preemption
Shuf'a (preemption): buying back a partner's sold share to reunite a property, its evidence, its holders, its conditions and its causes of extinction.
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Updated on 31 August 2026 at 3:55 AM
Shuf'a, the right of pre-emption, lets the co-owner buy back the share sold to a stranger. Jabir reports: « The Messenger of Allah ruled pre-emption in every undivided property, land or garden: it is not lawful to sell without informing the partner; if he wills, he takes it; if he wills, he leaves it. If he sells without leave, the partner has the greatest right to it » (al-Bukhari 2138, Muslim 1608). On the neighbour: « The neighbour has greater right to his neighbour's pre-emption; he is awaited, though absent, when their path is one » (Abu Dawud 3518, Ibn Majah 2494). Consensus is reported by Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Battal and al-Mawardi; al-Asamm and Ibn Ulayya denying it, al-Mawardi answers them by the Companions' unanimous practice.
Pre-emption attaches to ownership (raqaba), not mere enjoyment: Hanafis, Malikis in one view, Shafiites and Hanbalis state it; two tenants of one house have no pre-emption over each other per the majority, Malik having two ways, the famous one denying. It does not attach to movables or animals: « there is no pre-emption except in land or garden »; Malik however reported widened views up to clothing, a report Ibn al-Mundhir judges divergent.
The pre-emptor's death before claiming: Hanafis and Abu Hanifa make it lapse, a right not transmitted; Malikis, Shafiites and one Hanbali way transmit it to heirs, per « whoever leaves a wealth or a right, it goes to his heirs » (al-Bukhari 6350, Muslim 1619), Ahmad transmitting it only if he had already claimed. Waiving: failing to claim at once makes it lapse per Hanafis, Shafiites in the soundest view and Hanbalis of the school; ceding the right for compensation extinguishes it per the majority, compensation not being wealth; Shafiites in the correct view and the Hanbali Qadi maintain it after received compensation is annulled.
Co-owner of an undivided property: informing the partner before sale is his due, and his buy-out at the sale price outranks the stranger; a neighbour served by the same path is first per Jabir's hadith. Movables and beasts open no right.