a traveler might descend to a place, and he might enclose his luggage with something similar to that. If he descended to a place and set up a tent or pavilion, it would not be considered bringing to life. If he intended it for agriculture, it is by preparing it for the possibility of cultivation therein. If it can only be cultivated with water, then it is by channeling water to it from a river or a well. If it is land that cannot be cultivated due to the abundance of its stones, such as the land of the Hijaz, it is by removing its stones and clearing them until it is suitable for cultivation. If it consists of thickets and trees, such as the land of al-Sha'ra (6), it is by uprooting its trees and removing their roots which impede cultivation. If it is land that cannot be cultivated except by damming water away from it, such as the swamplands that are ruined by flooding due to an excess of water, then bringing it to life is by damming the water away from it and making it in a state that enables its cultivation, because through this, the ability to benefit from it as intended is achieved without the need to repeat that every year, so it is considered (7) bringing to life, just like channeling water to land that has no water. Neither plowing nor planting the land is considered bringing it to life, because that is something that is repeated whenever one wishes to benefit from it, so it is not considered in the act of bringing to life, just like watering it or inhabiting houses. It [does not result] (8) in bringing to life if he does so for that reason alone, for the reasons we have mentioned. It is also not considered part of bringing land to life for habitation to install doors on the houses. The Shafi'i held this view, regarding what we mentioned in the second narration, except that he has a position that plowing and planting are considered bringing the land to life, that this is considered in its revitalization, and it is not complete without it, and likewise installing doors on houses, because it is something customary, so it resembles roofing. This is incorrect, for the reasons we have mentioned, and because habitation is possible without installing doors, so it resembles plastering the surfaces of houses or whitening them.

916 - Issue: He said: (Or he digs a well in it, and he shall have twenty-five cubits around it; and if he arrives first at an ancient well, its protected perimeter (harim) is fifty cubits.)

The "ancient well" (al-bi'r al-'adiyya), with a shadda on the ya, means the old one, attributed to 'Ad, though he did not intend 'Ad specifically, but...