789 – Saʿīd ibn Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him) relates that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever revives barren land, it becomes his.” The Three—Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī and al-Nasāʾī—narrated it. Al-Tirmidhī graded it ḥasan and remarked, “It has also been transmitted as a mursal report,” which is indeed the case. There is disagreement about the Companion in the chain: some say Jābir, others ʿĀʾishah, and others ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, but the preponderant view is the first. (1)

• Status of the ḥadīth
  This ḥadīth is ḥasan.
  It was recorded by Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī and al-Tirmidhī through the chain of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Thaqafī → Ayyūb → Hishām ibn ʿUrwah → his father → Saʿīd ibn Zayd, in which the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever revives dead land, it is his, and no oppressor has any right to a single furrow.” Al-Tirmidhī commented, “A ḥadīth that is ḥasan gharīb.” The same topic is also reported from ʿĀʾishah, Samurah ibn Jundub and ʿUbādah ibn al-Ṣāmit. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said in Fatḥ al-Bārī: “The chains have points of critique, yet they strengthen one another.” Al-Suyūṭī declared it ṣaḥīḥ in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr.

• Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
  – “Whoever” (man) introduces a conditional clause; “revives” is the condition, and its answer is “it becomes his.” Reviving dead land is done by planting, sowing, building or the like; neglect is likened to death.
  – “Dead” (mayyitah): the original form was miywutah, where yāʾ and wāw met with one of them sakin; the wāw therefore turned into a yāʾ and the two yāʾs were merged, producing mayyitah with a doubled yāʾ. It should not be lightened, for that would drop the feminine tāʾ.
  – “Dead land” (al-arḍ al-mayyitah) denotes land that has never been settled; bringing it to life means developing it. It was likened