3074 - Hannād ibn al-Sarī narrated to us, ʿAbdah narrated to us, from Muḥammad—meaning Ibn Isḥāq—from Yaḥyā ibn ʿUrwah, from his father, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Whoever revives dead land, it is his." And he mentioned something similar.

He said: Indeed, the one who narrated this ḥadīth to me told me that two men brought a dispute to the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him—one of them had planted palm trees in the land of the other. He ruled that the land belonged to its owner, and ordered the owner of the palm trees to remove his palm trees from it. He said: I saw them, and their roots were being struck with axes, and they were mature palm trees, until they were removed from it.

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And from ʿĀʾishah, similar to what has just preceded.
See also what follows, and what will come under numbers (3075) and (3076).

Yaḥyā ibn Ādam said (284): Reviving dead land means that one brings forth from it a spring or a well, or channels water to it, and it is land that was not in the hands of anyone before him to cultivate or to work until it becomes suitable for cultivation. This land belongs to its owner forever, and it does not leave his ownership even if he later abandons it, because the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "Whoever revives dead land, it is his." This is permission from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, to the people concerning it. If he dies, it belongs to his heirs, and he may sell it if he wishes.

We say: The explanation of "the unjust root" will come with the following ḥadīth.

One might suppose that this ḥadīth contradicts the ḥadīth of Rāfiʿ ibn Khadīj, raised to the Prophet: "Whoever plants in the land of a people without their permission, he has nothing of the crop, but he is entitled to his expenses." This will come with the compiler under number (3403). There is no contradiction there, as we have clarified in that place.

(1) Ṣaḥīḥ by virtue of corroboration, and this chain is ḥasan because of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, and his ʿanʿanah here is acceptable because he is followed up, as has preceded in the previous chain. Al-Ḥāfiẓ deemed its chain ḥasan in "Bulūgh al-Marām" (897).
It was also recorded by Abū Yūsuf in "al-Kharāj" pp. 64-65, Yaḥyā ibn Ādam in "al-Kharāj" (274) and (275), Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām in "al-Amwāl" (707), and Ḥumayd ibn Zanjawayh in...