the hadith in its general sense. It is also reported from him that he required the usurper to return the yield from both animate and immovable property. This is one of his two positions in al-Mudawwanah. According to this report, he restricted the hadith to the circumstances in which it was uttered: liability resting on an apparent legal basis. Both positions are consistent applications of analogy.
His distinction between animate and immovable property, however, rests on juristic preference rather than analogy. Its rationale is that he understood the hadith generally with respect to animate property, which is not secure against loss, whether liability rests on an apparent legal basis or not. He excluded immovable property because it is secure and not feared to perish, so liability for it arises only exceptionally; exceptional cases are not made the basis of a ruling. Likewise, the distinction some draw regarding immovable property between letting it out and residing in it, including in Abū al-Faraj’s report from Mālik, and the corresponding distinction some draw regarding animate property also rest on juristic preference rather than analogy. Nevertheless, these are all well-known, established opinions.
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This concerns rental income and the use of services. As for yields generated by the property recovered through an established ownership claim—such as milk and wool from animals, and fruit from immovable property—the explicit wording of the reports requires the usurper to return all of this together with the underlying property if the yield is still available, or a measure corresponding to its estimated quantity if it is no longer available. Analogy provides no basis for distinguishing between these cases. Muhammad ibn al-Mawwāz regarded these as divergent opinions, and this is correct, Allah willing. Further evidence that these represent divergent opinions is Ibn al-Muʿadhdhal’s report from Mālik that yields generated by usurped property belong to the usurper because he bears liability, and that he is not required to return them. I have not seen this report in an original source book; rather, one of our colleagues informed me of it.
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To summarize this subject, liability falls into two categories:
The first is liability resting on an apparent legal basis.