Points inferred from the hadith:
Three legal issues arise with respect to digging wells:

1. When is a well deemed “revived” and therefore becomes the property of the one who digs it?
2. How are wells classified according to the digger’s intention?
3. How does the protected buffer zone (ḥarīm) around a well vary with its intended use?

First ruling:
If someone digs a well and reaches the water table, he has revived it and it becomes his property. If he digs but does not reach water, the act is not considered a revival; it is merely a preliminary claim (taḥajur). In that case he has priority over others, yet should another person wish to revive and exploit the well, the ruler sets a time-limit for the claimant. If he completes the revival within that period, the well remains his; otherwise, it is taken from him and given to the one prepared to revive it.

Second ruling:
Once the digger reaches water, his purpose will be one of three:
• He may intend to own the well for personal cultivation or exclusive irrigation—this is a revived, privately owned well.
• He may have dug it for the benefit of travellers; in that case, everyone shares its water equally, with no preference for anyone. The digger is merely one of the users for drinking and watering, because he did not reserve the well for himself or anyone else.
• He may dig it without wishing to own it, but to draw water for himself only while he remains encamped there. When he moves on, others may use it. Such a well is not owned; he simply enjoys priority to its water while he is present. When he departs it becomes public, and if he returns, his preferential right to draw from it returns as well.
This is the practice of nomadic Bedouins who set up temporary encampments and move with the pastures according to the seasons of the year.

Third ruling:
What is the prescribed breadth of the well’s protected zone?