792 – Samura ibn Jundub (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Whoever surrounds a piece of land with a wall, it becomes his.” Narrated by Abū Dāwūd, and Ibn al-Jārūd declared it sound. (1)

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Authenticity of the ḥadith
The ḥadith is ṣaḥīḥ (sound). In al-Talkhīṣ it is stated: “The ḥadith of Samura was transmitted by Aḥmad and Abū Dāwūd from him, and by al-Ṭabarānī and al-Bayhaqī through al-Ḥasan from him, though there is a dispute over whether al-Ḥasan actually heard it from Samura.” It was also related by ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd through Sulaymān al-Yashkurī from Jābir; al-Ḥāfiẓ remained silent about it in al-Talkhīṣ, while al-Suyūṭī graded it sound in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr.

Points derived from the ḥadith
1 – The report establishes one method of reviving barren land (iḥyāʾ), namely, enclosing mawat (unclaimed, dead land) with a sturdy wall high enough to keep animals from jumping over it. Whoever erects such a barrier around a plot has revived that land.
2 – Once the land has been revived, the reviver acquires lawful ownership of it, in view of the Prophet’s words, “it becomes his.”
3 – The jurists state that anyone who surrounds mawat with a strong wall of the materials customarily used in that locality—whether unfired brick, fired brick, stone, cane, wood, or the like—has revived it, whether his purpose is to build on it or something else. The operative measure is whatever is linguistically regarded as a “wall.”

Al-Ṭayyibī said in his commentary on al-Mishkāt: The verb “encircled” indicates that a wall was in fact built.