and Muhammad ibn Maslama, Abu Ubayd, and Ishaq. Abu Ubayd argued based on the letters of the Messenger of Allah (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to his administrators, commanders, regarding his governorships, his rulings, and his traditions. Then, there is what the rightly-guided, guided Caliphs did after him by their own letters to their governors regarding rulings involving blood, private parts, and wealth; they would send them sealed, and the carrier would not know what was inside them, yet they enforced them exactly as they were. He also mentioned the appointment of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz by Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik through a letter he wrote and sealed, and we know of no one who disapproved of this, despite its fame and spread among the scholars of the era; thus, it was considered a consensus. The argument for the first view is that it is a document whose contents are unknown to the witness, so it is not permissible for him to testify based upon it, like the letter of one judge to another judge. As for what is established of the bequest, whether by testimony or the heirs' admission of it, its legal ruling is established, and it is acted upon so long as it is not known that he rescinded it, even if a long time passes and the circumstances of what was bequeathed change, such as if he makes a bequest during an illness then recovers from it, then later dies or is killed; this is because the basic principle is its remaining [in effect], and its legal standing is not removed by mere possibility and doubt, like other legal rulings.

Section: It is recommended that the testator write his bequest and have it witnessed, because it is more protective of it and more cautious regarding what it contains. It has been authentically reported that the Prophet (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "It is not the right of a Muslim man who has something for which he should make a bequest to let two nights pass without having his bequest written down with him." It was narrated from Anas that he said: