the Sunnah has permitted using a gold prosthetic nose and securing teeth with gold. The Prophet also permitted al-Zubayr and ʿAbd al-Rahmān to wear silk because of an itch that afflicted them. These many precedents thus establish that prohibited things become permissible when there is a need for them.”

I reply:

It is indeed true that they become permissible in cases of necessity. However, medical treatment is not a necessity, for several reasons.

First: Many sick people—or most of them—recover without medical treatment, especially nomadic tent-dwellers, villagers, and those living in outlying regions. Allah heals them through the natural powers He has created within their bodies to overcome illness, or through what He makes available to them: some form of movement or work, an answered supplication, a beneficial ruqyah, strength of heart, sound reliance upon Him, or the many other means besides medicine. Eating, by contrast, is essential. Allah has made the bodies of living creatures dependent upon nourishment; without eating, a person would die. This establishes that medical treatment does not fall within the category of necessity at all.

Second: Eating in a case of necessity is obligatory. Masrūq said:

“Whoever is compelled by necessity to eat carrion, yet refuses to eat it and dies, will enter the Fire.”

Medical treatment, however, is not obligatory. Anyone who disputes this is refuted by the Sunnah account of the black woman whom the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, gave a choice between patiently bearing her affliction and entering Paradise, and having him supplicate