to the development brought about by reviving it.
Lessons derived from the two ḥadiths:
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Both reports establish the permissibility of restoring barren land to productivity, and that such restoration is one of the Sharʿī causes of ownership.
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Whoever completes the revival in the manner recognised by the Law becomes its owner, for the Prophet ﷺ said: “it becomes his.”
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The general wording of the ḥadith indicates that the reviver owns what he has revived whether he is legally accountable or not, and whether he is a Muslim or—if living under Muslim rule—a protected non-Muslim (dhimmī).
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The text also shows that revival is valid even without the ruler’s permission. Kashshāf al-Qināʿ states, “The ruler’s permission is not a condition,” which is the position of the majority of scholars.
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The land to be revived must truly be wasteland: it must never have belonged to anyone whose ownership is inviolable and must be free of any specific entitlements. Reviving land that is already owned is invalid, as is reviving land someone has already staked out and begun to develop, for that has become his. The same applies to utilities and facilities serving an inhabited area; they may not be claimed, nor may whatever is tied to the public welfare of towns—roads, streets, squares, parks, cemeteries, clay pits, water channels and the like—be revived.
Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh said: “There is no doubt that when the authority forbids the revival of certain lands, this amounts to his reserving them for the Muslims’ general benefit; therefore any revival carried out in such cases is invalid.”
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The Law sets no fixed acreage for revival: whatever a person lawfully revives becomes his, even if it is extensive. Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm added: “There is no limit on the area that may be revived, unlike an iqṭāʿ (land grant), which is allotted according to the grantee’s need—this will be discussed, God willing.”
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The operative criterion for revival is what Imām Aḥmad stated: “Reviving land is whatever people customarily regard as revival,” on account of the Prophet’s words: