With the Hadith
Disposition of Land
We greet you all, dear listeners, everywhere in a new episode of your program "With the Hadith," and we begin with the best greeting, peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
From Al-Harith bin Bilal bin Al-Harith, from his father, "That the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, took the alms in the Qibliah mines, and that he allocated all of Al-Aqiq to Bilal bin Al-Harith," and when Omar, may God be pleased with him, said to Bilal: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, did not allocate it to you to keep it from the people, he only allocated it to you to work. He said: So Omar bin Al-Khattab allocated Al-Aqiq to the people "This is a Sahih Hadith, but they did not include it" Al-Mustadrak Ala Al-Sahihain by Al-Hakim.
Dear listeners, everyone who owns land is forced to exploit it, and the needy are given from the treasury what enables them to exploit it. But if he neglects that for three years, it is taken from him and given to someone else. The consensus of the companions has been established that whoever neglects his land for three years, it is taken from him and given to someone else.
The owner of the land has the right to cultivate his land with his machinery, seeds, animals, and workers, and to employ workers to cultivate it, hiring them to work on it. If he cannot do that, the state will help him, and if the owner does not cultivate it, he gives it to someone else to cultivate it as a grant without compensation. If he does not do that and holds it, he is given a period of three years. If he neglects it for a period of three years, the state takes it from him and allocates it to someone else. Yunus narrated from Muhammad bin Ishaq from Abdullah bin Abi Bakr, who said: {Bilal bin Al-Harith Al-Muzni came to the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, and asked him to allocate him land, so he allocated him a long and wide land. When Omar was appointed, he said to him: O Bilal, you asked the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, to allocate you a long and wide land, so he allocated it to you, and the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, would not prevent anything he was asked for, and you cannot bear what is in your hands. He said: Yes. He said: Look at what you can do of it and keep it, and what you cannot bear and what you cannot do, give it to us and we will divide it among the Muslims. He said: I will not do anything that the Messenger of God allocated to me. Omar said: By God, you will do it. So he took from him what he was unable to cultivate and divided it among the Muslims}, narrated by Yahya bin Adam in the book of Al-Kharaj. This is clear that if the owner cannot cultivate the land and neglects it for three years, the state takes it from him and gives it to someone else, as Omar bin Al-Khattab did with Bilal Al-Muzni in the Qibliah mines.
Therefore, every owner of land, if he neglects it for three years, it is taken from him and given to someone else, no matter what the reason for his ownership of the land, as the consideration is for the neglect of the land, not for the reason for its ownership. It cannot be said that this is taking people's money unjustly, because the Sharia has given the ownership of land a meaning different from the meaning of ownership of movable funds, and different from the meaning of ownership of real estate. It has made its ownership for its cultivation. If it is neglected for the period that the Sharia has stipulated, the meaning of its ownership goes away from its owner. The Sharia has made the ownership of land for cultivation by exploitation, and its ownership by allocation, inheritance, purchase, and so on, and has made its removal from its owner by neglect, all of that for the sake of the continuity of cultivating the land and exploiting it.
Dear listeners, until we meet you with another prophetic hadith, we leave you in God's care, and peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
