and if he is a caller to his religion, he cannot deceive a Muslim, because he wants people to praise him, love him, and respect him as one who gives sincere advice. Thus, the correct view in this matter is that what counts is the physician’s skill, the reliability of his statement, and his trustworthiness, even if he is not Muslim.

The evidence for this is that the Prophet ﷺ accepted the word of a disbeliever in material matters based on experience. This was when he hired a polytheist man from Banū al-Dīl, named Abdullah ibn Urayqiṭ, to guide him along the route during his migration journey (1). The Prophet ﷺ hired him while he was still a disbeliever, and entrusted him with his own camel and Abu Bakr’s camel, so that he would bring them to the Cave of Thawr after three nights. This was a tremendous act of trust with respect to both property and life.

Even uprightness: if we were to stipulate it in physicians’ reports, we would not act upon the statement of a single physician—except as Allah wills—because most physicians are not characterized by uprightness. Most of them do not pray in congregation, smoke, and shave their beards. If we were to require uprightness, we would disregard the statements of most physicians.

The same applies to number. The author stipulated that there must be two or more, but the correct view is that one is sufficient, because this falls under the category of mere reporting and earning a livelihood through one’s profession. Thus, the report of one person is sufficient in this regard.

So, if a skilled physician says, “This is a serious illness from which death may be expected,” we act upon his statement and say that, for a patient afflicted by this illness, his gifts are restricted to one-third of his estate.