Section

A tenth is due on that which is irrigated without expense, …

His statement, “A tenth is due on that which is irrigated without expense”: In this section, the author explains the amount due once the nisab has been reached.

What is due is either one tenth, half of one tenth, or three quarters of one tenth, depending on the expense involved.

If it is irrigated without expense, then one tenth is due, because its cost is lower.

That which is irrigated without expense includes three categories:

First: that which is nourished by its roots; that is, it does not require water.

Second: that which is irrigated from rivers and springs.

Third: that which is irrigated by rainfall.

If someone asks: If it is irrigated from rivers, and one digs an irrigation channel or canal to water the land, is this regarded as irrigation involving expense or without expense?

The answer is that it is irrigation without expense. Similarly, if one digs a well and the water emerges naturally as a spring, it is without expense, because conveying the water to the location does not constitute the relevant expense. The expense pertains to the actual act of irrigation itself—namely, when the water must be drawn at the time of irrigation by pumps or waterwheels. As for merely conveying it to the location, involving only the expense of digging or of cutting a canal from the river, or the like, this is considered irrigation without expense.