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June 12, 2023

Magic, Jinn and Ruqyah Series: Advice on Someone Affected with Jinn

A PDF of an English translation of the duʿa book but without Shaikh al-Albaani’s checking of the hadīth here.
A PDF of the Arabic version checked by Shaikh al-Albaani here.

Al-Albaani: Yes.
Questioner: As-Salāmu ʿalaikum.
Al-Albaani: Wa ʿalaikum salaam.
Questioner: How are you, my Shaikh?
Al-Albaani: Alḥamdulillah, well.
Questioner: May Allaah bless you and give you a long life dedicated to His obedience.
Al-Albaani: May Allaah protect you and give you the same.
Questioner: O Shaikh, I’m undergoing a great test from Allaah the Mighty and Majestic. I’ve been sick for the past two and a half years, and Allaah knows best but my sickness is due to the Jinn’s touch [مَس].
Al-Albaani: May Allaah remove any harm from mankind and the jinn from you.
Questioner: Āmīn, O Lord of all Worlds. O Shaikh, I’ve been tormented a great deal. All praise is due to Allaah, all praise is due to Allaah, Lord of all worlds. I haven’t left a place where there are Salafī Shaikhs except that I’ve been there, may Allaah bless them, so I have had lots of ruqyah done. But it didn’t help.

I’ve been tormented severely to such an extent that I can’t attend any Islamic lessons. I haven’t been able to pray in the mosque for a number of months. I can’t sleep. I can’t have physical relations with my family. I can’t drive my car. And many, many such disasters. I had to leave my job.

And this has tormented me severely, yaʿnī, to such an extent that … I’m patient, and all praise is for Allaah, but, yaʿnī, I ask the people and most of them say, ‘Brother, go and get yourself cured through any means necessary.’

I’m someone who, yaʿnī, alḥamdulillah—I don’t mean to praise myself—I’m practising, upon obedience to Allaah with His Permission, the Mighty and Majestic.

To be frank I’m being severely tormented to such an extent that when I read the Qurʾān blood comes out of my stomach. I can’t read the Qurʾān. I can’t perform my ṣalāh with khushūʿ. I am really sick. Even now when I am sat speaking to you I feel the fatigue/pain.

So I need a fatwā, O Shaikh. Yaʿnī, do I [try to] stay patient and hope for the reward from Allaah the Mighty and Majestic or do I meet Allaah the Mighty and Majestic with Him angry at me … [for trying to find a cure through something that goes against the Sunnah] or should I seek a cure …, yaʿnī, I’ve done lots and lots of checkups with doctors, laparoscopies and x-rays but they found nothing.

But in my intestines, in my stomach there is something that bloats and really hurts me …

Al-Albaani: How old are you?
Questioner: I’m twenty-seven, Shaikh.
Al-Albaani: Okay, so you said that you are practising?
Questioner: Inshā Allaah.
Al-Albaani: Okay, the first thing I advise you is not to go to Shaikhs who summon the Jinn.

Secondly, that you face all of your issues with the Prophetic adhkār, and they can be found in a small book by me printed under the name, ‘Ṣaḥīḥ al-Kalim aṭ-Ṭayib.’

So regard this small book as your [personal] medical prophetic prescription. Follow every supplication in it. Implement every dhikr that is in this book to the letter.

How? When you stand to pray you have to read al-Fātiḥah and when you bow or prostrate etc., [there are certain things you have to say] in the same way [learn and] use the words of remembrance that are mentioned in this book. For example, when you enter your house say: Bismillah [‘In the Name of Allaah’], when you leave it you say:

بِسْمِ اللهِ ، تَوَكَّلْـتُ عَلى الله
Bismillāh, tawakkaltu ʿalallāh.
In the name of Allaah. I place my trust in Allaah.

اللّهُـمَّ إِنِّـي أَعـوذُ بِكَ أَنْ أَضِـلَّ أَوْ أُضَـلّ، أَوْ أَزِلَّ أَوْ أُزَلّ،أَوْ أَظْلِـمَ أَوْ أَُظْلَـم، أَوْ أَجْهَلَ أَوْ يُـجْهَلَ عَلَـيّ
“Allāhumma ʾinnī ʾaʿūthu bika ʾan ʾaḍilla ʾaw ʾuḍall, ʾaw ʾazilla ʾaw ʾuzall, aw ʾaẓlima ʾaw ʾuẓlama, ʾaw ʾajhala ʾaw yujhal ʿalayya.

O Allaah! I take refuge with You lest I should stray or be led astray, or slip or be tripped, or oppress or be oppressed, or behave foolishly or be treated foolishly. [slip: i.e. to commit a sin unintentionally.]”

So when you enter the house it’s with Bismillah, when you enter the toilet you seek refuge with Allaah with the relevant dhikr mentioned in the book and so on. This is what I advise you with firstly and I hope that by using these Prophetic words of remembrance your cure will follow.

Secondly, I say to you that you need to be patient—and this is something you have to do—until the cure comes to you.

And I will remind you of a ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ. There was a woman who used to have fits/seizures. Do you know what that means?
Questioner: Yes, O Shaikh.
Al-Albaani: What does it mean?
Questioner: That she would lose consciousness.
Al-Albaani: Well done. And when she would fall unconscious she would become uncovered, you know what that [word tankashif] means?
Questioner: Yes, O Shaikh, [parts of her would] become bare …
Al-Albaani: May Allaah bless you. So she came to the Prophet ﷺ asking him to make duʿā for her. And this is the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ whose supplications are guaranteed answered. So he said if you wish I will supplicate for you and if you wish you can be patient and Paradise is yours. Do you understand?
Questioner: Understood, O Shaikh, may Allaah bless you.
Al-Albaani: And you too. [Her being] a religious, smart lady, she says if that is the case O Messenger of Allaah I will be patient. But supplicate that I do not become uncovered. So Allaah’s Messenger ﷺ made duʿā for her and thereafter she used to have seizures—why was she satisfied with having them? Because the Prophet ﷺ gave her the good news that if she was patient then Paradise is hers.

So [again] because she was intelligent and because of her dīn she wanted to guard her dignity so she said then supplicate to Allaah for me O Messenger of Allaah ﷺ that I do not become uncovered. So he ﷺ supplicated for her and thereafter whenever she would have a seizure none of her would become exposed.

So I advise you to be patient and not to become discontented and you must keep Allaah’s Saying in mind:

“We will certainly test you with a touch of fear and famine and loss of property, life, and crops. Give good news to those who patiently endure—who, when faced with a disaster, say, ‘Surely to Allaah we belong and to Him we will ˹all˺ return.’ They are the ones who will receive Allaah’s Blessings and Mercy. And it is they who are ˹rightly˺ guided.” [2:155-157.]

This is the answer I have for you. So in summary, I will repeat and say to you again, seek your treatment and cure with the Prophetic medicine. Then be patient. Clear?
Questioner: May Allaah reward you with good, O Shaikh.
Al-Albaani: And you too, inshā Allaah.
Questioner: All praise is due to Allaah, Lord of all Worlds.
Al-Albaani: Alḥamdulillāh always. And I hope that you are cured quickly.

Was-salāmu ʿalaikum.

August 25, 2011

What is the Correct Method to Cure Someone from Magic, the Evil Eye and Possession?

Al-Albani: I do not know a cure for magic apart from the legislated ruqyah and recitation of the Quraan, and to seek shelter and protection with Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, earnestly imploring Him to cure the afflicted person from it.

As for going to soothsayers or fortune-tellers to try to discover who the person who performed the magic is and what type of magic was used in order to be able to remove it and so on, then along with the fact that this does not benefit it is also a use of means that is not legislated.

Indeed, such means may be polytheistic due to the incantations in some of them whose meaning is not [even] known. And they may also contain [phrases which involve] seeking refuge with the devils whose names we do not know–the only ones who know their names are these imposters [Dajjaals] who seek the aid of their companions from the Jinn, as the Lord of all Creation said, “And verily, there were men among mankind who took shelter with the masculine among the jinns, but they increased them [mankind] in sin and disbelief.” [Jinn 72:6]

As for that which is connected to the one possessed or afflicted with the Evil Eye … then the one who has been afflicted with the Evil Eye has a cure mentioned in Al-Muwatta and other than it. [Which is that] the one who is thought to have [most likely] given the Eye and who is then known is brought and told to perform ablution. The water from his ablution is then taken and wiped on the limbs of the afflicted person. This is a legislated means for his cure.

There may be further details in the hadith which I do not recall right now. This is present in Al-Muwatta and others from the Sunan collections.

As for the one possessed by a Jinn, then his cure is through recitation of verses from the Noble Quraan by a righteous Muslim well-known for his righteousness. This benefits on many occasions.

This is the answer I have to this question.

Fatwaawaa Jeddah, 21.

March 20, 2011

Did the Angels Harut and Marut Teach Magic?

Questioner: “What is the explanation of the Aayah, ‘They followed what the devils gave out (falsely of the magic) in the lifetime of Sulaiman. Sulaiman did not disbelieve, but the devils disbelieved, teaching men magic and such things that came down at Babylon to the two angels, Harut and Marut …?’” Baqarah 2:102

Al-Albaani: “There is no doubt that there is a difference of opinion concerning the aayah among the scholars of quranic exegesis [tafsir]. But that which I personally hold to be the stronger opinion is that the word maa [ما] in His Saying, “… and such things that came down at Babylon to the two angels …” is not the maa of negation^[1] but rather a relative pronoun, i.e., that Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, sent down the two angels to teach magic to the people, since magic was widespread at that time and [as a result there was] confusion [in differentiating] between it and miracles which some of the Prophets would bring. Like the story of the magicians and Musa, عليه الصلاة والسلام, where Pharaoh, through the magicians, had wanted to misguide his people from the call of Musa to the Truth. Since what Pharaoh had come with was nothing but magic. Then, as we know, Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, eradicated the magic of the sorcerers who then became Muslims, believing in Allaah, the Lord of all Creation. So their knowledge of magic was the reason which enabled them to distinguish between that which was mere slight of vision and magic and between reality, “Then Musa threw his stick, and behold, it swallowed up all the falsehoods which they showed!” Ash-Shu’araa 26:45.

The magicians believed in this reality before all of the other people since through their knowledge of magic they knew that it was nothing but concealment, disguising and deception which had no reality to it. Thus when they were overcome and dumbfounded by the miracle of Musa, عليه الصلاة والسلام, the difference between reality and magic became manifest to them [so they fell down prostrate], “Saying, “We believe in the Lord of all Creation.” Ash-Shu’araa 26:47.

So it was through Allaah’s Wisdom that He sent down two angels, Harut and Marut, so that they would teach the people magic not for the sake of magic but rather to enable them to recognise that magic which many of the imposters/fraudsters [dajjaals] used at that time to deceive and enslave the people. As occurs in the story of the boy and the sorcerer, and maybe you remember that story.

Its summary, and [it being so important] a summary of it must be mentioned, is that the [tyrannical] king of that time, who is the companion of the Trench mentioned in the Quraan [See Surah no. 85, Burooj], would use a magician in order to enslave the people. When this magician saw that he had grown old, become white haired and frail, he said to the king, ‘Chose a boy from the people for me who [I can teach such that he] will be able to help you after I am gone.’ Why? So that this king could continue to enslave his people through magic. This is how the kings of old were, taking advantage of the people through magic.

So Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, sent the two angels to teach all of the people–not like what the king’s magician, the king of the Trench, did, since this magician had said to the king, ‘Chose a boy for me …’ since it did not suit him that the knowledge of magic become widespread among all of the people since then they would come to realize that the king was misguiding them through magic, something which then they would have come to know.

So Allaah through His Wisdom saw fit to send two Angels to teach magic to the people so that they would be able to distinguish between magic and a miracle. Because magic, without a shadow of a doubt, is a means of spreading corruption: Allaah said in the same aayah, “… but neither of these two (angels) taught anyone (such things) until they had said, ‘We are only for trial so disbelieve not (by practicing this magic).’ And from these (angels) people learn that by which they cause separation between man and his wife …”

So they came to teach magic for a purpose, but this teaching could lead to a trial, and thus they learn that which harms them and does not benefit them^[2] and that which causes separation between a man and his wife.

This is what I understand regarding the explanation of this aayah.

And Allaah knows best.”

Al-Fataawaa al-Kuwaitiyyah, pp. 49-51.

^[1] [The compiler of the book, Amr Abdul-Mun’im Saleem has a footnote here where he says, “Ibn Jarir has mentioned the difference of opinion in the explanation of this aayah (2/419), so from them are some who say the Arabic word maa [ما] here means ‘did not’ [لم], i.e., that magic was not sent down to the two angels, and this saying has been reported from Ibn Abbaas and Rabee’ ibn Anas but with weak chains of narrations. And there are others who explained that maa here means ‘that which’ [الذي] as Shaikh al-Albaani said here, and this saying has been reported from Abdullaah ibn Mas’ood with a chain of narration which has some disconnection in it, it is also reported from Qataadah, Ibn Zaid and others–and this opinion is also the one preferred by Ibn Jarir at-Tabari.

It has been reported from Qataadah, with an authentic chain of narration (2/421), that he said, “Magic is of two types: magic taught by the devils, and magic taught by Harut and Marut.”

And Ibn Jarir at-Tabari clarified the wisdom behind the reasoning as to why Allaah sent down magic, and whether it was permissible for His Angels to teach the people magic, so he said, ‘If someone were to say to us, ‘And is it permissible [to say] that Allaah would send down magic or is it permissible for His Angels to teach the people magic?’ We would say to him, ‘Indeed Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, [is the One who] has sent down good and bad, all of it, and He clarified all of that to His servants, revealing as such to His Prophets ordering them to teach His Creation and to make known to them what is permissible for them from that which is forbidden, such as fornication, stealing, and all of the other sins that He made known to them and forbade them from committing.

So magic is another one of those sins which He told them about and forbade them from practising. Having knowledge about magic is not a sin, just as there is no sin in [actually] knowing how to produce alcohol, or how to carve out an idol, a lute, or other types of [forbidden] amusement–rather the sin is in practising it and preparing such things. Likewise, there is no sin in having knowledge about magic, the sin is only in practising it and using it to harm people it is not permissible to harm.

So there is no wrongdoing in the fact that Allaah sent it down to His Angels and neither in the fact that His Angels taught it to whoever they taught it to from the people, since their teaching of that to whoever they taught it to was with the Permission of Allaah after they informed [whoever they would teach it to] that they were a trial and test and after they would forbid them from practising it and from disbelief. So the sin was only on whoever learnt it from them and then practised it, since Allaah, Lofty is His Mention, has stated that He had forbidden them learning and then practising it …”

^[2]The compiler, Amr Abdul-Mun’im Saleem, said here, “And the complete aayah pointsto what Ibn Jarir mentioned, i.e., that the two Angels would teach the knowledge of magic but would never order that it be practised–rather that they would forbid it in the extreme, warning against it severely.”

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