Hima (protected reserve)

الحِمى

A reserved pasture closed to all but those for whom it is set aside; in Ibn Hisham the Prophet ﷺ set a hima around the village of Jurash with marked boundaries for the horse, the riding camel and the plough-ox, declaring the property of any outsider who grazed it forfeit, and wrote to Hamdan that the heights and lowlands of their land were theirs to graze while they prayed and paid zakat. Al-Hamdani's gazetteer still maps the tribal himas by name two centuries on — the hima of Dariyya, of the Qutayf and of the Nuta among them ¹.

Depth

At a glance

Era: The Prophetic Era
Region: Arabia
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Overview

A hima is land that the ruler reserves, so that none may graze it except those for whom it has been reserved. ²

In the Sira of Ibn Hisham

When the people of Jurash embraced Islam, the Prophet reserved for them a hima around their village, marked by known signs, for the horse, the riding camel, and the plough-ox (muthira). Whoever grazed his livestock there would have gained unlawfully. See the campaign of Surad against Jurash. ² In the Prophet's letter to the delegation of Hamdan it is stated that they have the open pasture of their land and its lowlands and highlands, that is, its heights and its depressions; they may eat its fodder and graze its pastures as long as they maintain prayer and pay the alms. ³

What is not recorded here

The rulings on the hima in jurisprudence, the hima of al-Naqi', and the saying of the Prophet "there is no hima except for God and His Messenger," would be added from the books of hadith and jurisprudence.