‘Amr b. Shu'aib, on his father’s authority, said his grandfather told that God’s Messenger decided regarding the stream al-Mahzur* that its water should be held back till it reached the ankles and that the upper waters should then be allowed to flow to the lower.
Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah transmitted it.
* Taj al-'arus quotes Ibn al-Athir as saying this was the wadi of the B. Quraizah, and that water flowed in it only when rain fell.
Sharh as-sunna tells of the Prophet assigning to ‘Abdallah b. Mas'ud the open spaces in Medina between the dwellings and palm gardens of the Ansar, and when the B. 'Abd b. Zuhra said, “Remove from us the son of Umm ‘Abd,” (His mother was Umm 'Abd daughter of al-Harith b. Zuhra b. Kitab) replying, “Why then did God send me? God does not bless a people among whom a weak man is not given his right.”
Samura b. Jundub told that he had a row of palm-trees in the garden of a man of the Ansar who had his family with him. Samura used to go in, and as the Ansari was annoyed by this he went and mentioned the matter to the Prophet. He asked him to sell it (. i.e. he asked Samura to sell his row of palm-trees), but he refused, so he asked him to take something else in exchange, but he refused. He then said, “Give it to him and you can have such and such,” mentioning something with which he tried to please him, but he refused. He therefore told him he was a nuisance and told the Ansari to go and cut down his palm-trees.
Tawus, in mursal form, reported God's Messenger as saying, “If anyone cultivates barren land it belongs to him, but ancient property belongs to God and His Messenger and then comes to you from me.”
