a fixed period within which to revive it; if he accomplishes the revival during that time the land remains his, but if he fails it is taken from him and transferred to the one who is ready to bring it to life.

14 – The leader of the Salafī daʿwah who succeeded his father, Shaykh ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad, and who also served as Grand Mufti of the Saudi realm, issued the following fatwa concerning runoff channels (masāyil):

Runoff channels fall into two categories:

1. Channels in which the owners have undertaken work—those they excavate so that flood-waters may flow through them. Such channels are acquired by revival; digging them and directing the water through them is an alteration and therefore a valid act of revival that confers ownership.

2. Channels in which the owners have done no digging or similar work; rather, the proprietor simply found that the water from the mountain naturally descends toward his land. If the owned land later becomes independent of that channel and no longer needs its water—because, for example, the tract has been turned into housing—the owners’ special right to that flow appears to lapse, and the channel takes on the status of uncultivated land, unless they possess some other basis for exclusive claim, such as taḥajjūr (staking out) or the digging of a well that has not yet reached the water table.

This fatwa was subsequently endorsed by Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Āl al-Shaykh, the former Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia.