Praise be to Allaah.
Praise be to Allaah and blessings and peace be upon the Messenger
of Allaah, and his family and companions and those who follow his guidance.
Sihr is a serious crime and is one of the kinds of kufr. It is one
of things with which people have been tested, in the past and currently,
among the nations of the past, during the Jaahiliyyah and in this ummah.
The more ignorance increases, the less there is knowledge and awareness
of faith, the less attention the authorities pay to this matter – the
more the practitioners of sihr and trickery increase and spread in the
land, to take the people’s wealth and confuse them and do other things.
When knowledge prevails and faith increases, and the Islamic authorities
are powerful, the number of these evil people shrinks and they move
from one land to another, seeking a place where their falsehood will
be accepted and they will be able to engage in their trickery and corruption.
The Qur’aan and Sunnah have described the kinds of sihr and the rulings
on these matters.
Sihr is so called because its means are hidden or secret, and because
the practitioners of sihr deal with things in secret which enable them
to perform illusions to confuse the people and deceive their eyes, and
to cause them harm or steal their money, etc., in a secretive manner
so that in most cases nobody realizes what is happening. Hence the last
part of the night is called sahar,
because at the end of the night people are unaware and they do not move
about much. And the lungs are also called sahr,
because they are hidden inside the body.
According to sharee’ah,
the meaning of sihr is what the magicians do to delude and confuse people,
so that the one who is watching thinks that it is real when in fact
it is not. As Allaah said concerning the magicians of Pharaoh (interpretation
of the meaning):
“They
said: ‘O Moosa! Either you throw first or we be the first to throw?’
Moosa
said: ‘Nay, throw you (first)!’ Then behold! their ropes and their sticks,
by their magic, appeared to him as though they moved fast.
So Moosa conceived fear in himself.
We (Allaah) said: ‘Fear not!
Surely, you will have the upper hand.
And throw that
which is in your right hand! It will swallow up that which they have
made. That which they have made is only a magician’s trick, and the
magician will never be successful, to whatever amount (of skill) he
may attain.’”
[Ta-Ha 20:65-69]
Sihr may involve things that the magician does when tying
knots on which he blows, as is referred to in the Qur’aan (interpretation
of the meaning):
“And
from the evil of those who practise witchcraft when they blow in the
knots”[al-Falaq 113:4]
And it may involve
other things which they manage to do through the shayaateen (devils),
so they do things that may affect a man's reason or make him sick; they
may cause division between a man and his wife, resulting in her looking
ugly to him, or by making her hate her husband or be put off by him.
This is blatant kufr as the Qur’aan states. Allaah says (interpretation
of the meaning):
“They
followed what the Shayaateen (devils) gave out (falsely of the magic)
in the lifetime of Sulaymaan (Solomon). Sulaymaan did not disbelieve,
but the Shayaateen (devils) disbelieved, teaching men magic”
[al-Baqarah 2:102]
Allaah informs us that they (the shayaateen) committed
kufr by teaching men magic. Then He says (interpretation of the meaning):
“and
such things that came down at Babylon to the two angels, Haaroot and
Maaroot, but neither of these two (angels) taught anyone (such things)
till they had said, ‘We are for trial, so disbelieve not (by learning
this magic from us).’”[al-Baqarah
2:102]
Then Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And
from these (angels) people learn that by which they cause separation
between man and his wife, but they could not thus harm anyone except
by Allaah’s Leave”[al-Baqarah
2:102]
i.e., this magic and any harm that results from it is subject
to the prior decree and will of Allaah, for our Lord cannot be overwhelmed
and nothing can happen in His Dominion against His Will. Nothing happens
in this world or in the hereafter except by His prior decree and His
great wisdom, as He wills. So some people may be tested by sihr, and
others may be tested by sickness, or by being killed…etc. Allaah
is All-Wise in all that He wills and decrees, and in all that He prescribes
for His slaves. Hence Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“but they could not thus harm
anyone except by Allaah’s Leave”
[al-Baqarah 2:102]
i.e., by His universal (kawni)
will and decree, not by His legislative (shar’i) will [i.e., He wills
that it should happen but He does not enjoin it and He is not pleased
by such actions]. For sharee’ah does not allow such things, indeed it
forbids them, but by His universal leave He already knows and has already
decreed that So and so will do sihr, and that So and so will be affected
by sihr, just as He already knows and has already decreed that So and
so will be killed, or afflicted with a certain sickness, or will die
in a certain land, and will receive such and such provision, or will
be rich or poor. All of that happens by the will and decree of Allaah,
as He says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Verily,
We have created all things with Qadar (Divine Preordainments of all
things before their creation as written in the Book of Decrees
Al‑Lawh Al‑Mahfooz)[al-Qamar
54:49]
“No calamity befalls on the earth or in yourselves
but it is inscribed in the Book of Decrees (Al‑Lawh Al‑Mahfooz)
before We bring it into existence. Verily, that is easy for Allaah”
[al-Hadeed 57:22]
The evils that come at the hands of the magicians
or others do not happen because our Lord is ignorant, for He knows all
things and nothing at all is hidden from Him, as He says (interpretation
of the meaning):
“Verily,
Allaah is the All-Knower of everything”[al-Anfaal
8:75]
“that
you may know that Allaah has power over all things, and that Allâh surrounds
all things in (His) Knowledge”[al-Talaaq
65:12]
So Allaah knows all things, and nothing happens in
His Dominion that He does not will, but He has perfect wisdom and good
aims in whatever He decrees should happen to people of honour or humiliation,
losing or gaining power, sickness or health, magic and other things.
Everything that happens to people happens by the will of Allaah and
in accordance with His prior decree. These magicians may perform their
illusions, as stated in the aayah quoted above (interpretation of the
meaning):
“They
said: ‘O Moosa! Either you throw first or we be the first to throw?’
Moosa
said: ‘Nay, throw you (first)!’ Then behold! their ropes and their sticks,
by their magic, appeared to him as though they moved fast. [Ta-Ha
20:65-66]
It appeared to the onlooker as if these sticks and
ropes were snakes, moving fast in the valley. They were only sticks
and ropes, but the magicians, through what they had learned, made what
they demonstrated before the people look different in their eyes to
what it really was.
Allaah says (interpretation if the meaning):
“by their magic,
appeared to him as though they moved fast”
[Ta-Ha 20:66]
And in Soorat al-A’raaf Allaah says (interpretation
of the meaning):
“He
[Moosa] said: ‘Throw you (first).’ So when they threw, they bewitched
the eyes of the people, and struck terror into them, and they displayed
a great magic” [al-A’raaf
7:116]
But in fact their sticks and ropes did not change;
it was the people’s sight which changed because of the sihr, so they
thought they were snakes, because of the illusion brought about by the
magicians. Some people call this taqmeer,
which is when the magician does things to make a person not sense reality
as it really is, so his eyes do not see what is really there and things
may be taken from his shop or his home without him realizing it, i.e.,
he does not know what is really happening. So he may see a rock as a
chicken or as an egg, and so on, because reality has been changed in
his eyes because of the confusion wrought by the magician, and because
his eyes have been bewitched. There are things that the magicians do
with certain substances to make people’s eyes not see what is really
happening. This is the kind of magic which Allaah describes as “great”
[i.e. serious, powerful] in Soorat
al-A’raaf (interpretation of the meaning):
“…
So when they threw, they bewitched the eyes of the people, and struck
terror into them, and they displayed a great magic” [al-A’raaf
7:116]
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