as is the case with land not prepared for hunting, such as agricultural land into which water containing fish enters, then recedes, or a gazelle enters, or a bird nests, or locusts fall, or salt forms—the owner does not own it because it is not part of the land's growth, nor is it something for which the land was prepared. However, he has a stronger claim to it, since others have no right to trespass upon his land or benefit from it. If someone does trespass and takes it, he has acted wrongly but he owns it. Ahmad said regarding a wood pigeon on someone’s palm tree that was hunted by a person: 'It belongs to the hunter.' He also said regarding a dove belonging to some people that hatched in their neighbors' house: 'The fledgling follows the mother, and the fledglings are returned to the owners of the dove.' Ibn Aqil chose the view, regarding things taken from people's property—such as game, forage, and the like—that one does not become the owner by taking them, because it is a forbidden cause, and thus it does not confer ownership, just like a forbidden sale. For the cause does not differ between whether it is a sale or otherwise, due to his statement (peace be upon him): 'Whoever performs an act not in accordance with our affair, it is rejected.' The correct view is the first one. We do not concede that the cause is forbidden; for the cause is the 'taking,' and that is not forbidden; rather, the 'entry' was forbidden, which is not the cause. This is unlike a sale. Furthermore, the prohibition here is for the sake of a human right, so it does not prevent ownership, as in the cases of selling a musarrat (an animal whose milk has been withheld in the udder to deceive the buyer), defective goods, meeting the caravans (for trade outside the market), najash (bid-rigging), and selling over the sale of one's brother. If he prepares his land for salt, making it a salt pan so that water collects in it and becomes salt—like land on the seashore where he creates a channel for the water and, once filled, cuts it off, or his land is saline and he opens water to it from a spring, or collects rainwater in it, and it becomes salt—he owns it by that act, because it is prepared for that purpose, so it resembles a pond prepared for hunting. If he did not prepare it for that, he does not own what ends up in it, as we previously stated regarding similar cases. If it is said: 'It has been narrated from Ahmad that regarding a person who shot a bird with a pellet bow, and it fell into the house of some people, it belongs to them, not him.' This indicates that they owned it by it falling into their house. We say: 'This is interpreted as meaning that it fell while still able to flee, so the people of the house hunted it and thus owned it through their hunting.' Ibn Aqil said the same. It is necessary to interpret it this way because if they do not own what enters their house through the act of God Almighty, then that which enters through the act of a human is even more so the case. Furthermore, it fell into the house after the blow that rendered it incapable, by which game is owned, so it resembles the case where the wind blows a person's garment and drops it into their house. If the hunting tool, such as a net, a snare, or blades, is not set up for hunting and hunting is not intended by it, and game becomes caught in it, its owner does not own it by that, because it is not prepared for hunting in this state, so it resembles land that is not prepared for it.

Section: Whatever game is caught by a person’s dog, falcon, or leopard, having been released at its owner’s command, belongs to him, because it is more certain than a net, as it is an animal that achieves this through its action, intent, and its owner’s release, so it is like his arrow. Moreover, God Almighty said: 'Eat of what they catch for you.' If it is released on its own, its ruling is the same as the ruling on game that ends up in a person's land, in that he does not own it, and others have no right to take it; yet if someone else takes it, he owns it, like forage. The same applies to grass that grows in a pasture within a person’s livestock enclosure.