it is made an endowment by whoever conquered it for the Muslims, as ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, did with al-Sawād, imposing the kharāj upon them. It is treated as the conqueror treated it, provided that he was one of the rightly guided imams.”

The apparent meaning of this is that it becomes an endowment merely through its seizure, without the imam having to declare it an endowment verbally. A report transmitted from him likewise indicates that it becomes an endowment through its seizure. In the narration of Ḥarb, he said: “Kharāj land is land conquered by the Muslims that thereby became fayʾ belonging to them; then they returned it to its people and imposed a levy upon it. That levy remains in force for the Muslims.”

Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥarb likewise transmitted: “Kharāj land is land conquered by the Muslims that thereby became fayʾ belonging to them.” Thus, he stated without qualification that it becomes fayʾ and that kharāj is due, without requiring an express declaration of endowment. This was also the position chosen by Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz in al-Amwāl, who said: “Everything conquered by the Muslims through force is subject to kharāj as a charge upon the land itself.”

Once it is established that the land becomes an endowment—whether through an express declaration or through the seizure itself—it may neither be sold nor pledged as security.