The second kind is firm, compact ground in which (1) water can settle and be stored. People benefit by coming to it (2): they draw water from it to drink, to irrigate, and to cultivate their crops.

This (3) is the likeness of the heart that safeguards knowledge. It preserves it exactly as it was heard, without exercising reflection or deduction (4); its virtue lies in pure memorisation. It conveys what it received just as it received it, and it belongs to the category about whom (5) the Prophet ﷺ said (6): “Perhaps a bearer of fiqh conveys it to someone more insightful than he, and perhaps a bearer of fiqh is himself no jurist.” (7)

The first type, then, is like (8) a wealthy merchant versed in the various avenues of trade and profit, earning with his capital whatever he wishes.

The second is like a rich man who has no expertise in the means of gain and commerce (9); he merely safeguards his wealth and does not know how to manage or invest it.