encompasses obligation, prohibition, and permission. This includes the medical benefits to which he directed people, for this establishes the permissibility of using and benefiting from that remedy. It is thus legislation establishing its permissibility, and it may also establish that it is recommended. People have differed over whether seeking treatment is permissible, recommended, or obligatory.

The correct assessment is that some forms of treatment are forbidden, some are disliked, some are permissible, and some are recommended. Some may even be obligatory: namely, treatment known to be the only means of preserving life. This is comparable to the obligation to eat carrion when compelled by necessity, which is obligatory according to the four imams and the majority of scholars. Masrūq said, “Whoever is compelled by necessity to eat carrion but refuses to eat it until he dies will enter the Fire.” Sometimes, when an illness becomes severe, a person may reach a condition in which he will die without treatment, whereas the customary treatment will preserve his life—as with nourishing someone who is weak, or drawing blood in certain cases.

The point is that a religious ruling can be derived from all his statements. When he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—saw them pollinating date palms, he said to them, “I do not think this…”—meaning, that it achieves anything. He then said to them:

“I merely expressed an opinion, so do not hold me to an opinion. But when I tell you something from Allah, I will never speak falsely about Allah.”

He also said:

“You know best about your worldly affairs; as for matters of your religion, refer to me.”

He did not forbid them to pollinate the trees. Rather, they were mistaken in thinking that he had forbidden them, just as some mistakenly thought that “the white thread” and “the black thread” meant white and black cords.