Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah

Hazrat Adi bin Fazil (may Allah have mercy on him) narrates that I presented myself before Hazrat Umar bin Abdul Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him). I requested him for the digging of a well. He said, "Write down its enclosure as fifty cubits, and in it, the right will not be exclusive to a Muslim, nor will anyone be harmed by it, and the traveler will have more right to drink from it."

Hazrat Muhammad bin Ishaq (may Allah have mercy on him) says that I asked Hazrat Abu Bakr bin Muhammad bin Amr bin Hazm (may Allah have mercy on him) about the enclosure of a well. He replied: In the time of ignorance, the area around it was fifty cubits, and between two wells it was one hundred cubits. When the era of Islam came, it was observed that less than this was also sufficient, so then for each well it was made twenty-five cubits, and for its surrounding area, fifty cubits.

Hazrat Aamir, may Allah have mercy on him, says that the enclosure (edge) of the well will be forty cubits in total. No one will be allowed to take possession of its place or water.

Hazrat Urwah (may Allah have mercy on him) says that a well dug in the early days of Islam will have a circumference of twenty-five cubits, a fully dug well will have fifty cubits, and a well for agriculture will have three hundred cubits. Hazrat Imam Zuhri (may Allah have mercy on him) says that I have received information that a spring well will have six hundred cubits.

Hazrat Sha'bi (may Allah have mercy on him) said that the edge of the well is forty cubits.

It is narrated from Hazrat Saeed bin Al-Musayyib (may Allah have mercy on him) that the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The parapet of a well dug in the early days of Islam will be twenty-five cubits, and that of an old well will be fifty cubits. Hazrat Saeed (may Allah have mercy on him) says that the well of Dhahab will be three hundred cubits.

It is narrated from Hazrat Bilal bin Yahya Al-Issa, may Allah have mercy on him, that the Noble Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: There is no enclosure except for three things: the enclosure of a well, the enclosure of people sitting in a gathering. (The third thing is not mentioned here, but it is found in other books of hadith, and that is: the length of a horse, meaning the enclosure of the place where a person ties his horse.)