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Selling medical supplies to doctors who treat opposite sex

Question

I trade in medical and dental products like examination gloves. I sell these products to all doctors. Some of these doctors are women who treat men, and some are men who treat women. Am I sinful because I sell these things to them even though they may use them in a haram way? Please note that I live in a non-Muslim country.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

There is no problem with you selling lawful medical products like examination gloves or the like. What you mentioned does not cause selling these products to be forbidden, and you bear no sin for it. You should know that it is not absolutely prohibited for male doctors to treat female patients or for female doctors to treat male patients under all circumstances.

The Council of the Islamic Fiqh Academy, after researching and discussing the papers concerning male doctors treating female patients, concluded:

"As a general rule, if a female specialist doctor is available, then she should be the one to examine the female patient. In the absence of such a specialist, the patient may be examined by a trustworthy non-Muslim female doctor, if not, then by a Muslim male doctor, and if not, then by a non-Muslim male doctor; on the understanding that in diagnosing and treating the ailment, the doctor should see only the minimum necessary of the patient's body and should divert his look to the extent possible, and that the doctor's treatment of the female patient should be in the presence of a mahram (permanently unmarriageable) man or a husband or a trusted woman in order to avoid 'khalwah' (two persons of opposite sex being together in seclusion)."

Allaah knows best.

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