but rather he is treated like a mutahajjir (one who has staked a preliminary claim by marking out the land for revival). If he brings it to life, it becomes his property, and from that moment it may not be taken back from him, for his ownership has been established through revival. Should he fail to revive it and someone else is eager to do so, the ruler—or his deputy—sets the grantee a deadline that he deems appropriate; if the land is revived within that period it remains with the grantee, otherwise it is reclaimed.

Al-Inṣāf states: “Ownership is confirmed by the act of allotment itself, so the grantee may sell the land and it passes to his heirs.” This is the soundest view, and it is the ruling adopted by the Judicial Council in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Iqnāʿ and its commentary add: “If anyone other than the mutahajjir revives the land during the grace period or before it expires, he does not acquire ownership, because the mutahajjir’s right is prior and therefore takes precedence. This accords with the Prophet’s ﷺ saying: ‘Whoever revives dead land that is not already the right of a Muslim, it is his.’”

The ruler should allocate only what the recipient is capable of reviving, for granting more than that would restrict the public in a right shared among them. ʿUmar, during his caliphate, reclaimed from Bilāl ibn al-Ḥārith the portion of the ʿAqīq valley he had been unable to develop, even though the Prophet ﷺ had originally granted it to him.

Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm likewise said: “The ruler should grant each individual only what he can revive; granting him more would curtail people’s share in a common right among them.”

The commentary on al-Iqnāʿ and other works further notes: “It is impermissible for the ruler to allot land that may not lawfully be revived—such as land situated near inhabited areas and tied to their utilities—because it is, in effect, owned by the residents of that settlement.”

The Judicial Council in Saudi Arabia has ruled: “The allotment of dead land does not extend to the property of others, to the town’s utilities, its public interests, or the lands required for them.”

Second: Shaykh al-Islām said: “I know of no Muslim scholar—whether among the four imams or anyone else—who has declared the leasing of allotted lands impermissible, until some people in our own era appeared and innovated that opinion.”