the land and the indemnity for its decrease, or pay him his expenses and the crop becomes his. Abu Ubayd held this view. Most jurists said: He has the right to force the usurper to uproot it, and the ruling regarding it is the same as for planting trees, based on his (peace and blessings be upon him) saying: "There is no right for an unjust root" (2). And because he cultivated in another's land unjustly, it is like planting trees. Our view is what Rafi' ibn Khadij narrated, saying: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever cultivates in the land of a people without their permission, he has no share in the crop, and he is liable for its expenses." Narrated by Abu Dawud and At-Tirmidhi (3), who said: It is a Hasan (sound) Hadith. It contains evidence that the usurper is not forced to uproot it, because it is property belonging to the one from whom it was usurped. It was narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw a crop on the land of Zuhayr (4), and admired it, so he said: "How excellent is the crop of Zuhayr!" He replied: It is not for Zuhayr, but for such-and-such person. He said: "Take your crop and return his expenses to him." Rafi' said: So we took our crop and returned his expenses to him (5). And because it is possible to return the usurped property to its owner without destroying the property of the usurper within a short time, so it is not permissible to destroy it, just as if he usurped a ship and loaded his property onto it and took it into the sea, or usurped a plank and patched a ship with it; he is not forced to return the usurped item in the deep sea, and it is waited for until it reaches port, to protect the property from destruction. It is the same here. And because it is a crop that occurred in the property of another, so he is not forced to uproot it in a way that harms it, just as if the land were borrowed or subject to pre-emption (shuf'a). It differs from trees and date palms because their duration is long, and it is not known when they will be cleared from the land, so waiting for them leads to the total abandonment of returning the original property. Their Hadith refers to planting, and our Hadith refers to cultivation, so the two Hadiths are reconciled, and each one is applied in its appropriate place. That is better than invalidating one of them. When