Rights regarding water. According to Muḥammadan law, water is of four kinds:—
(1) The water of the ocean, to which every person has a perfect and equal right, for the enjoyment of the ocean is common to everyone, in the same manner as the light of the sun or the air we breathe.
(2) The waters of large rivers, such as the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Indus, or the Oxus, from which every person has an absolute right to drink, and also a conditional right to use it for the purpose of irrigating his lands. For example, if a person desire to cultivate waste land, and dig a watercourse or canal for the purpose of conveying water to it from the river, he may lawfully do so, provided the act be in no sense detrimental to the people. The same law applies to the erection of a water-mill on the banks of a river.
(3) Water in which several have a share; in which case also the right of drinking is common to all, whilst there are certain restrictions regarding its use for the purposes of irrigation, which will be hereafter treated of.
(4) Water which is kept in vessels; which is regarded as property, except in times of scarcity, when it is even lawful to seize it for common use.
The law regarding the division of water for the purposes of irrigation, known as shirb (شرب), or “a right to water,” is most important in the East, where so much of the cultivation of land depends not upon the fall of rain but upon irrigation. In Afghanistan, there are more disputes and more murders committed over the division of water than with regard to any other question. A claim of shirb, or “right of water,” is valid, independent of any property in the ground, for a person may become endowed with it, exclusive of the ground, either by inheritance or bequest; and it sometimes happens that when a person sells his lands, he reserves to himself the right of shirb. No person can alter or obstruct the course of water running through his ground, and in the case of disputes regarding a rivulet held jointly by several, it is the duty of the judge to make a distribution of the water according to the extent of land which they severally possess; for, as the object of right to water is to moisten the lands, it is but fit that each should receive a just proportion. A rivulet must not be dammed up for the convenience of one partner without the consent of the others; nor can he dig a trench or erect a mill upon a rivulet used for irrigation, without the general consent of all persons concerned. The same restriction applies, also, to a water-engine or a bridge. One partner cannot alter the mode of partition without the others’ consent, nor increase the number of sluices or openings through which he receives his share, nor convey his share into lands not entitled to receive it, nor even to lands which are entitled to receive it, nor can he shut up any of the sluices, or exchange the manner of division in any way, as, for example, by taking the water in rotation instead of division by sluices. A right to water cannot be consigned as a dower, nor given as a consideration in K͟hulʿ, when a wife bargains for her divorce [[KHULʿ]], nor in composition for a claim, nor sold to discharge the debts of a defunct owner. It is also noted that if a person, by irrigating his lands, should by that means overflow those of his neighbour, he is not liable to make compensation, as he was not guilty of any transgression.
WAʿZ̤ (وعظ). A sermon. [[KHUTBAH], [WAIʾZ].]
WAZ̤ĪFAH (وظيفة), from waz̤f, “a daily ration of food.” (l) A term used for a daily lesson, or portion from the Qurʾān which is read by devout Muslims. The Qurʾān is divided into thirty sipārahs as the daily waz̤īfah to be read during the month of Ramaẓān.
(2) A pension or stipend granted to pious persons.
(3) Revenue collected at a stipulated rate.