793 – ʿAbd Allah ibn Mughaffal (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever digs a well is entitled to forty cubits as a watering place for his livestock.” Ibn Majah recorded it with a weak chain of transmission (1).

Grade of the hadith
The report is weak. Al-Talkhīs states: “Ibn Majah transmitted it, and in his chain is Ismaʿil ibn Muslim, who is weak.” Al-Tabarani also narrated it through the route of Ashʿath from al-Hasan, and both Ibn al-Jawzi and Ibn ʿAbd al-Hadi declared it weak. Al-Zaylaʿi, however, considered it sound. Al-Busiri writes in al-Zawaʾid: “This hadith revolves around Ismaʿil ibn Muslim al-Hakamī, and scholars differ over his reliability.” There is a corroborating narration from Abu Hurayrah in Ahmad’s Musnad (2/494).

Vocabulary
• dhirāʿan (cubit): the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. The most common standard, the Hāshimī cubit, equals 32 finger-breadths, or about 64 cm.
• ʿaṭanan (watering place): the spot where camels or sheep kneel around the water after drinking so that they can drink again; the plural is maʿāṭin.
• māshiyatuh (his livestock): camels, cattle, and sheep—most often used collectively for sheep, the plural being mawāshī.