‘Umar from him what he was unable to revive from al-‘Aqiq, which the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) had granted to him (48). Had he owned it, its reclamation would not have been permissible. ‘Umar also retracted the land grant that Abu Bakr had made to ‘Uyaynah ibn Hisn, so ‘Uyaynah asked Abu Bakr to renew the document for him, to which he replied: "By Allah, I will not renew something that ‘Umar has revoked." This was narrated by Abu ‘Ubayd (49). However, the grantee becomes more entitled to it than the rest of the people and has a greater priority to revive it. If he revives it, then [he keeps it]; otherwise, the ruler says to him: "Revive it, or else withdraw your hand from it." As ‘Umar said to Bilal ibn al-Harith al-Muzani: "The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) did not grant it to you to fence it off from the people, but rather he granted it to you to cultivate, so take from it what you are capable of cultivating, and return the rest." If he requests a respite for a valid excuse, he is granted respite accordingly. If he requests it without an excuse, he is not granted respite, according to what we mentioned regarding the one who stakes out land. If someone else reaches it first and revives it before anything is said to him, or during the period of respite, does he own it? There are two views. It is narrated from ‘Amr ibn Shu‘ayb that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) granted some people from Juhaynah or Muzaynah land, but they left it idle, so a group of people came and revived it. Those to whom the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) had granted the land disputed with them before ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), and ‘Umar said: "If it were a grant from me or from Abu Bakr, I would not revoke it, but it is a grant from the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), so I must revoke it!" This indicates that if it were a grant from someone other than the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), then it belongs to the one who revived it. The second [view] is that he does not own it because the right of the original grantee is attached to it, and the import of his statement (peace be upon him): "Whoever revives dead land that does not belong to any Muslim, it is for him" implies that if a Muslim's right is attached to it, it is not permissible to revive it. We have mentioned both views regarding the one who stakes out land, and this is similar. The school of al-Shafi‘i in this section is similar to what we have mentioned.

Section: The Imam may not grant what is not permissible to revive, such as open-surface mineral deposits, because when Abyad ibn Hammal al-Ma'ribi asked the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) for the salt deposits in Ma'rib, it was said: "O Messenger of Allah, you have granted him…"