For land intended for cultivation or planting, one of two measures is required: either enclosing it with a wall, or directing water to it if it is dry ground, or diverting water away from it if it is low-lying, waterlogged land. The revival of dry ground is achieved by bringing water to it, while the revival of waterlogged land is achieved by diverting water away from it until it becomes possible to cultivate and plant it. Merely piling up the soil surrounding it—even when it becomes a barrier between it and the neighboring land—does not take the place of a wall. Plowing it is not required; tilling includes turning over level ground, clearing elevated ground, and filling depressions.

Aḥmad said, according to a narration from ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd: “Revival occurs only by enclosing the land. If a person merely plows around it, he does not acquire any right to it by doing so until he encloses it.” He also said: “Revival is achieved by enclosing land with a wall or digging a well. Whoever encloses land in a manner that keeps people and animals out, it belongs to him, whether he plants it or not. Whoever digs a well, its protected area is twenty-five cubits.” Thus, he did not regard gathering soil with a scoop as revival; rather, he required either a wall or that water be made available to the land.

The same was reported from ʿAbd Allāh: “Marking it with stones is of no consequence unless he encloses it with a wall.” Likewise, according to the narration of Aḥmad ibn Abī ʿUbaydah, concerning a salt-affected tract with no owner over which people had staked claims, he asked: “Has a wall been built around it?” When he was told that it had not, he said: “No [claim is established] unless a wall is built around it.” According to the narration of Isḥāq, he said: “Dead land is revived only by working it, or by digging and building on it; through this it is revived. Planting it alone does not constitute its revival.”

Abū Bakr narrated through his chain of transmission from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh that the Prophet said: “Whoever encloses a piece of land with a wall, it belongs to him.” The apparent meaning of this is that he acquires ownership of it by enclosing it with a wall. Roofing is not required for this, nor is plowing, just as he said: “Whoever kills an enemy combatant, his spoils belong to him.” Moreover, dead land is land from which no benefit is derived. Once a person encloses it with a wall, he can make practical use of it through various works and by gathering livestock; it thereby ceases to fall under the ruling of dead land.

If, after the land has been revived, its owner has someone plant and till it, the person who revived it owns the land, while the tiller owns the improvements. If the landowner wishes to sell it, he may do so. If the owner of the improvements wishes to sell them, then, according to the analogy of the school, he may sell the improvements—namely, the tilling—whether they include existing physical assets such as trees or crops or not. The farmer is therefore a partner in the land by virtue of his improvements, since Aḥmad said concerning a usurper: “If he has made improvements to the property, he is a partner in it to that extent.”