Ibn al-Mansur also transmitted from him a statement indicating that those improvements may not be sold. He said: “I asked Aḥmad: ‘The farmer wishes to leave the land; may he sell the crop?’ He replied: ‘He may not sell it until its ripeness becomes evident.’ I asked: ‘May he sell the work of his hands and what he has done on the land when there is no crop on it?’ He replied: ‘Nothing has yet become due to him; it becomes due only upon completion.’”

If someone stakes out a tract of dead land, he has a greater right to revive it than anyone else. But if another person prevails over him and revives it, the one who revives it has a greater right to it than the person who merely staked it out. Thus, if the person who has staked out the land wishes to sell it before reviving it, that would not be permissible according to the apparent meaning of Aḥmad’s words. He said, in the narration of ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd: “If he plows around it, he does not thereby acquire any right to it until he encloses it.” His statement, “he does not thereby acquire any right to it,” means that he does not acquire ownership of it. If he does not own it, the sale is invalid.

If he stakes out the land and channels water to it without plowing, he acquires ownership of the water, the portion of dead land reached by it, and its protected area; but he does not acquire ownership of the rest of the land he staked out. Any dead land he revives is subject to ʿushr (the agricultural tithe), and no kharāj (land tax) may be imposed upon it, whether it is irrigated with kharāj water or with ʿushr water.