From
Majmoo’ Fataawaa wa Maqaalaat Mutanawwi’ah li Samaahat al-Sheikh al-‘Allaamah ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (رحمه الله), pg. 65
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 Islaamic
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 سُبحانه وتعالى said concerning the magicians of
Pharaoh:
“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:
“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 سُبحانه وتعالى says:
“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
سُبحانه
وتعالى informs
us that they (the shayaateen) committed kufr by teaching men magic. Then He
says:
“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 سُبحانه وتعالى says:
“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 سُبحانه
وتعالى says:
“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 سُبحانه
وتعالى says:
“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 سُبحانه وتعالى says:
“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:
“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 سُبحانه
وتعالى:
“by
their magic, appeared to him as though they moved fast”
[Ta-Ha
20:66]
And
in Soorat al-A’raaf Allaah سُبحانه وتعالى says:
“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 سُبحانه
وتعالى describes
as “great” [i.e. serious, powerful] in Soorat al-A’raaf :
“…
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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