And whatever is of the same kind as these two reports is restricted to the kharaji lands (al-aradin al-kharajiyyah), because lands are of three types. One of them is; ‘Land whose people embraced Islam upon it voluntarily’, so there is nothing upon them in it more than the tithe and half the tithe. And ‘land whose people have departed from it, or which was dead land and then was revived (mawat)’, It belongs specifically to the (divinely guided) Imam, so he leases it to whomever he wills, and it is obligatory upon him to pay what he accepted the land for, and after that he takes out from his share the zakat of the tithe and half the tithe. And ‘land that was taken by force with the sword (anwatan)’, it is the land of the Muslims. The (divinely guided) Imam leases it to whomever he wills, so upon the one who accepts it is to pay what he accepted it for, and after that he takes out from his share the zakat of the tithe or half the tithe. Thus the Imam عليه السلام saying, peace be upon him, “There is no zakat upon one from whom the ruler has taken the land tax (kharaj),” means that there is no zakat upon him for all that the land has produced, though it is binding upon him regarding what remains in his hand. And we will clarify that after this, if Allah سبحانه وتعالى, the Exalted, wills. And that which indicates what we have mentioned regarding the categories of lands is what he narrated (in the following hadith):
Commentary #3