the interest of doing so requires it—such that we visit him in order to present Islam to him—then visiting him is prescribed, either as an obligation or as a recommendation. It is authentically reported that “a Jewish boy used to serve the Prophet. He fell ill, so the Prophet came to visit him. He sat by his head and said to him, ‘Accept Islam.’ The boy looked at his father, who was with him, and his father said, ‘Obey Abu al-Qasim.’ So he accepted Islam. The Prophet then left, saying, ‘Praise be to Allah, who saved him from the Fire.’” (1)

As for the openly sinful Muslim—that is, one who commits a major sin, or a minor sin and persists in it—there is likewise some detail to be considered. If we visit him in order to call him to repentance, hoping that he will repent, then visiting him is prescribed, either as an obligation or as a recommendation. Otherwise, it is preferable not to visit him. It may, however, be said that visiting him remains prescribed so long as he has not ceased to be described as a believer or a Muslim, in view of the Prophet’s saying: “The Muslim has five rights over his fellow Muslim” (2); and in another narration: “six” (3). Among those rights, he mentioned visiting the sick.

Visiting the sick includes both those who are near and those who are distant: those near to one through ties of kinship, marriage, or friendship, and those who are distant by virtue of the generality of this ruling. For this is a right of one Muslim over another, not merely of a relative over a relative. Yet the stronger the relationship, the more emphatic and pressing the duty of visiting becomes. It is well known that when one’s full brother falls ill, it is not like the illness of one’s distant cousin; and likewise, if