Al-Qudūrī - Al-Quduri - (140)

27 – Book of Reviving Dead Land (Iḥyāʾ al-Mawāt)

Dead land (mawāt) is ground from which no benefit is presently derived because its water supply has ceased, or because it is submerged, or for any similar reason that prevents cultivation. Any such tract that is wild and has no owner, or that was once owned within Islam but whose specific owner is unknown, and that lies so far from the settled area that were a person to stand at the farthest edge of the habitation and shout his voice would not be heard there, is deemed mawāt.

Whoever revives this land with the permission of the ruler (imam) becomes its owner. If he revives it without permission, he does not own it according to Abū Ḥanīfa, whereas Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad hold that he does.

A dhimmi (non-Muslim subject) acquires ownership through revival just as a Muslim does.

If someone marks off (ḥajjara) a parcel of land but fails to develop it for three years, the imam repossesses it and grants it to another.

It is not permissible to revive land that lies near inhabited property; pasture must be left for the villagers and a place where they may dump the remains of their harvest.

Whoever digs a well in the open wilderness is entitled to a protective zone (ḥarīm) around it: for an animal-watering well the ḥarīm is 40 cubits, for a drawn-water well 60 cubits, and for a natural spring 300 cubits. Anyone who wishes to dig within that ḥarīm is prevented from doing so.

When the Euphrates or the Tigris abandons a tract of riverbed and shifts course, if there remains a possibility that the river will return, the land may not be revived. If it is certain that it will not return, the land is treated like mawāt—provided it is not within the ḥarīm of an inhabited area—and, according to the Imam (Abū Ḥanīfa), whoever revives it with the ruler’s permission becomes its owner.

If a person owns a canal that traverses another man’s land, he has no right to a ḥarīm around it, according to Abū Ḥanīfa, unless he can produce evidence to that effect. Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad, however, maintain that he is entitled to a raised embankment on which he may walk and onto which he may deposit the canal’s silt.

٢٧ - كتاب إحياء الموات الموات: ما لا ينتفع به من الأرض لانقطاع الماء عنه أو لغلبه الماء عليه أو ما أشبه ذلك مما يمنع الزراعة فما كان منها عاديا لا مالك له أو كان مملوكا في الإسلام لا يعرف له مالك بعينه وهو بعيد من القرية بحيث إذا وقف إنسان في أقصى العامر فصاح لم يسمع الصوت فيه فهو موات من أحياه بإذن الإمام ملكه وإن أحياه بغير إذنه لم يملكه عند أبي حنيفة وقال أبو يوسف ومحمد: يملكه ويملك الذمي بالإحياء كما يملك المسلم ومن حجر أرضا ولم يعمرها ثلاث سنين أخذها الإمام ودفعها إلى غيره ولا يجوز إحياء ما قرب من العامر ويترك مرعى لأهل القرية ومطرحا لحصائدهم ومن حفر بئرا في برية فله حريمها فإن كانت البئر للعطن فحريمها أربعون ذراعا وإن كانت للناضح فستون ذراعا وإن كانت عينا فحريمها ثلاثمائة ذراع ومن أراد أن يحفر في حريمها منع منه وما ترك الفرات أو الدجلة وعدل عنه فإن كان يجوز عوده إليه لم يجز إحياؤه وإن كان لا يجوز أن يعود إليه فهو كالموات إذا لم يكن حريما لعامر يملكه من أحياه بإذن الإمام عند الإمام ومن كان له نهر في أرض غيره فليس له حريمه عند أبي حنيفة إلا أن يقيم بينة على ذلك وقال أبو يوسف ومحمد: له مسناة يمشي عليها ويلقي عليها طينه