The Encouragement in Islaam to Utilize and Till the Land

The Encouragement in Islaam to Utilize the Land

 & to

Till the Land

Taken from

‘Silsilah Ahadeeth As-Saheehah’

By the
Muhaddith, Shaykh, Allamaa’
Muhammad Nasir uddeen al-Albaani

Translated by

Abbas Abu Yahya

‘There are many Ahadeeth regarding this, I will mention a few of them:

7 – From Anas the Prophet -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam- said:

‘There is no Muslim who plants a plant or a tree, or sows a seed and no bird, or human or animal eats from that except that it is a charity for that person.’
[Collected by Bukhari, Muslim & Ahmad]

8 – From Jabir from the Prophet -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam:

‘There is no Muslim who plants a plant or a tree, except that whatever is eaten from it is a charity for him.  Whatever is stolen from that is a charity for him.  Whatever is eaten from it by an animal is a charity for him.  Whatever a bird eats is a charity for him, no one suffers a loss except that it will be a charity for him till the Day of Judgement.’
[Collected by Muslim]

No. 9 – From Anas -Radi Allaahu anhu- from the Prophet -sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam- said:

‘If the final hour comes and one of you has a small date-palm plant in his hand, and if you can plant it before you stand then plant it.’

‘Imam Bukhari brought a chapter heading in the previous book (al-Adab al-Mufrad) for this Hadeeth, where he said: ‘Chapter: The Production of Wealth’ then he narrated from al-Harith bin Laqeett who said:

‘There used to be a man from amongst us who would get his horse to reproduce, and then slaughter it. And he would say: ‘Why should I live so that I ride this thing? [i.e. The Day of Judgement is very close].’
Then a letter came to us from Umar:
‘You should cultivate and prosper with that which Allaah has provided you, since indeed in this regard there is enough time.’
Its chain is authentic.

Bukhari also narrated from Dawood with an authentic chain, who said: Abdullaah bin Sallam said to me:

‘If you hear that the Dajjal has exited and you are about to plant a small tree, then do not delay tending to cultivating it, because the people will have a sustenance from that later.’

And Ibn Jareer narrated from ‘Amaarah bin Khuzaimah bin Thaabit who said:

‘I heard Umar bin al-Khattab say to my father: ‘What prevents you from tilling your land?’
My father replied to him: ‘I am an old man and I may die tomorrow.’
So Umar said to him:
‘I swear that; indeed you must plant on your land.’
Indeed I saw Umar bin al-Khattab plant a plant or tree with his own hands along with my father.’
[From ‘al-Jamia’ al-Kabeer’ by Suyootee]

This is why some of the Companions used to regard a man who works on his land as a worker from the workers of Allaah – Azza wa Jal.

Bukhari narrated in ‘al-Adab al-Mufrad’ from Nafi’ bin ‘Aasim that he heard Abdullaah bin ‘Amr say to his nephew, when he was coming out of his [al-Waha] farm:

‘Are your workers doing their jobs?’
He replied: ‘I do not know.’
Abdullaah said: ‘As for me, if I was skilled and trained I would learn the job your workers do.’
Then he turned towards us and said: ‘Indeed if a person works along his workers in his home [and the narrator once mentioned: ‘with his wealth’]; then that person would be a worker from the workers of Allaah – Azza wa Jal.’
Its chain is ‘Hasan’ InshAllaah.

‘al-Waha’ in the Arabic  language means: a garden, and it was a very large piece of land which was owned by ‘Amr bin ‘al-Aaas in Taif about three miles from Wajja, and it seems he left it for his children.


Ibn ‘Aasakir collected in his book ‘Tareekh’ with an authentic chain from ‘Amr bin Dinar who said:

‘Amr bin al-Aaas entered a farm which he owned in Taif which was called al-Waha, it had a million stakes of wood [which were used to prop up the grapes], he had bought every stake of wood for a Dirham.’

These are some of the general benefits from those Ahadeeth from the Salaf as-Salih -Radi Allaahu anhum.

Bukhari wrote a chapter heading in his ‘Saheeh’ for the first two Ahadeeth by saying:

‘Chapter: The excellence of growing plants if they are eaten from’

[Taken from ‘Silsilah Ahadeeth As-Saheehah’ vol. 1 hadeeth no 7-9 p.37-40]