The Ruling on Magic (Sihr) in Islam: Types and Cures

Understanding the Different Types of Magic and How to Cure Them in Islam

Ruling on Magic (Sihr) – Part 1 – Types of Magic:

Magic: Magic is the greatest of the major sins after shirk, it is disbelief in Allāh, such as breaking a husband and a wife apart or bringing two people not interested in one another together. Whoever practices it or is pleased with it is not a Muslim. It is not allowed to visit them [sorcerers, black magicians], their websites, their channels, and read the horoscope in newspapers and magazines.

Teaching Magic by knots and Jinn is major disbelief: Allāh says,

﴿وَمَا يُعَلِّمَانِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ فِتْنَةٌ فَلَا تَكْفُرْ﴾

“But neither of these two [angels] taught anyone [such things] till they had said, “We are only for trial, so disbelieve not [by learning this magic from us].” Sūrah Al-Baqarah (2): 102.

Magic (sihr) can be divided into three broad types:

• 1) Sihr Ḥaqīqī: [i.e. magic with an actual physical effect on an individual in terms of illness, death or separation], such as the magic which separates between two spouses, and two friends and what is like that.
• 2) Sihr Takhyīlī: [i.e. magic which does not have a physical effect on things or change the realities of things but involves altering the perceptive faculties of a person], which is the one in which the eyes are made to believe [they are seeing something], in that a person who has had magic done on him sees things upon other than their realities, so he sees for example a donkey as a person, or a person as an animal or a stone as gold, or ropes as snakes which move swiftly, as was done by the magicians of Pharoah.
• Ruling: Allāmah Abdur-Rahmān bin Nāsir al-Barrāk mentioned: Both of these types of magic [Ḥaqīqī and Takhyīlī] are from the knowledge of the devils and both of them are Kufr [disbelief].
• 3) Sihr Majāzī: Figurative magic, meaning, magic only with the linguistic meaning of the word, which means that which takes place by hidden, imperceivable and this includes those who use potions and the likes in order to cure people as they claim, and also the sleight of hand magic that involves deception using skills a magician has developed.
• Ruling: Allāmah Abdur-Rahmān bin Nāsir al-Barrāk mentioned: And this magic is magic only in the linguistic sense, it is not from the magic which is kufr [i.e. does not take one out the fold of Islām].

Primary source: Sharh Nawāqid al-Islām by Allāmah Abdur-Rahmān bin Nāsir al-Barrāk (pp. 33-34).

Part 2 – Ruling on Nushra (to remove the effects of the magician from the one afflicted with it)

Ruling on Magic (Sihr) – Part 2 – How do we cure magic? 

• Meaning of Nushra:
• The term Nushra (to remove the effects of the magician from the one afflicted with it) has two meanings:
• 1) It can be seeking a cure from magic by using another type of magic (Nushra).
• 2) It can refer to Ruqyah and making supplications.
• 1. An-Nushra: The act of seeking a cure from magical spells/incantations, which means going to a magician to undo the magic. This way is haraam (forbidden) and could lead to Kufr if the person practices some Kufr actions the magician might request from him. Jābir narrates Allāh’s Messenger (ﷺ) was asked about An-Nushra. He (ﷺ) said: “It is of the deeds of Shaytān (devil).”

Musnad Ahmad (3/294) and Sunan Abū Dawūd (no. 3868). Graded Sahih by Shaykh Al-Albānī in Sahih Sunan Abī Dawūd (no. 3868).

Allāmah Muhammad al-Amīn Ash-Shanqītī said: If removing magic is done using magic, or non-Arabic expressions, or with (words/statements) whose meanings cannot be understood, or with some other type from (those types) which are not permissible, then it is forbidden. This is clear and it is what is correct.” See Adhwā’ul Bayān (4/465).

• 2. Ruqyah: Reciting the Qur’ān (any verses from the Qur’ān will do although some are more likely to be more effective such as chapter 1, 112, 113, 114, verse 255 of chapter 2) and supplications from the Sunnah then blowing on the affected body. This is the legal way.

See I’lām al-Muwaqqi’īn (4/399) of Imām Ibnul Qayyim.

Compiled by Abū Ismā’īl