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If the illness is judged to be life-threatening, any voluntary transfer that exceeds one-third of the estate does not take effect; should the patient recover, it takes effect retroactively. If the illness is judged non-life-threatening yet he subsequently dies, then—if the death is attributed to a sudden accident—the disposition stands; otherwise the illness is treated as life-threatening. When we are uncertain whether an illness is life-threatening, that status is not established unless two free, upright physicians so testify.

Illnesses deemed life-threatening include: severe colic (qawlanj), pleurisy (dhāt al-janb), persistent nose-bleeding, continuous diarrhoea, a wasting disease (daq), the onset of paralysis (fālij), the passage of undigested food—or food expelled violently with pain or accompanied by blood—continuous fever, and every other fever except the quartan. The authoritative view further treats as life-threatening: captivity at the hands of unbelievers who customarily kill their prisoners, engagement in battle between two evenly matched forces, being led out for retaliation or stoning, violent winds or raging waves while aboard ship, the labour pains of a pregnant woman, and the period after delivery until the placenta is expelled.

The wording of a bequest may be: “I bequeath to him such-and-such,” “Hand it over to him,” “Give it to him after my death,” “I have assigned it to him,” or “It is his after my death.” If he merely says, “It is his,” that is an acknowledgement only—unless he adds, “from my estate,” in which case it is a bequest. A bequest may also be concluded through implicit wording, and writing counts as such an implicit form.

If the bequest is made to an unspecified group, such as “the poor,” it becomes binding at death without the need for acceptance. If it is made to a particular person, acceptance is required. No acceptance or rejection is valid during the testator’s life, and after his death immediacy is not required. If the legatee dies before the testator, the bequest is void; if he dies afterward, his heir may accept on his behalf.

Scholars differ as to when ownership transfers: upon the testator’s death, upon the legatee’s acceptance, or is it suspended. On the strongest view it remains in suspense: if the legatee accepts, it is deemed his from the moment of death; if he refuses, it is deemed to have belonged to the heir. On this basis are decided the fruits that grow, a slave’s earnings, and the slave’s maintenance and zakāt al-fiṭr that accrue between death and acceptance; the legatee may be charged those expenses if he delays in declaring acceptance or refusal.

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If the testator bequeaths “a sheep,” the word covers a small or large animal, sound or defective, whether sheep or goat; according to the sounder view it also includes a male, but it does not include a suckling lamb or a young female kid. If he says, “Give him a sheep from my flock,” yet owns no flock, the bequest lapses; but if he says, “from my wealth,” a sheep is purchased for the legatee.

The terms “camel” (jamal) and “she-camel” (nāqa) each include both the Bactrian and the Arabian breeds, yet one of the two words is not taken to include the other; this is the sounder position.