and He placed it ahead of other duties in the wording of the verse to draw special attention to it and urge its fulfillment, so long as it is carried out in the prescribed manner. Moreover, Allah has threatened those who treat it lightly, or alter and tamper with it without a legitimate Sharʿī justification. He says: “Whoever alters it after he has heard it, the sin rests only upon those who alter it; surely Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing” (Qur’an 2:181).

Imam al-Shawkani comments in his Tafsir: “Tabdīl means to change. This verse is a threat to anyone who tampers with a bequest that accords with the truth and contains neither bias nor harm; such a person bears the sin, while nothing of it falls upon the testator, for the latter has freed himself of liability by making the bequest.” End quote.

Among the rulings of bequests is that they are valid for anyone capable of owning property, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. Allah the Exalted says: “unless you show kindness to your allies” (Qur’an 8:72). Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah explained, “It refers to a Muslim’s bequest to a Jew or a Christian.”

ʿUmar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) once clothed his brother while the latter was still an idolater. Asmāʾ maintained ties with her mother even though she remained outside of Islam. Safiyyah, Mother of the Believers, bequeathed one-third of her estate to her Jewish brother. The Almighty also says: “Allah does not forbid you from those who have not fought you on account of religion…”