Is sihr (magic, witchcraft) real? Does it have any effect? What are its types?

 

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. 

Refuting Those Who Say the Shi'aa are Our Brothers

 

Question: Some of the Du’at (Callers to Islaam) and students of knowledge say that the Shi'aa and the Raafidhah are our brothers. Is it permissible for us to say this and what is required [of us] in this regard?

Answer by Sheikh Saalih al-Fawzaan حفظه الله: We absolve and clear ourselves to Allaah of them and this speech. They are NOT our brothers. [Swearing by Allaah] They are not our brothers. Rather they are the brothers of Shaitaan because they blaspheme and slander the Mother of the Believers Aa’isha رضي الله عنها, the wife of the Prophet صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم.

Allaah chose her for His Prophet صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم. As-Siddiqah Bint As-Siddiq. The truthful, daughter of the truthful (her father, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq). They also declare Abu Bakr and Umar to be disbelievers and curse them both. They declare the Sahaba in their entirety to be disbelievers except Ahlul Bayt, [one of whom is] Ali Ibn Abi Talib (رضي اللّه عنـه).

Nevertheless, they are enemies of Ali Ibn Abi Talib رضي اللّه عنـه. He is innocent of and free from them. Ali رضي اللّه عنـه is our Imaam and not theirs. He is an Imaam of Ahlus-Sunnah and not of the malevolent (spiteful, mean) and wicked Raafidhah. So we free ourselves to Allaah from them and they are not our brothers.

How does Shaytaan find his way into someone’s heart ?

Question: Through what avenues does the Shaytaan find a way to make suggestions to man?

Answer: There are many avenue:

He might try to incite someone to fornicate, for example. He first incites his victim to be alone with women, then to look at them, then to talk to them, then perhaps to listen to them sing, and so on until he achieves his end: when his victim fornicates.

Shaytaan may attack a person through his stomach, by tempting him into eating what is unlawful, into drinking alcohol, or even into taking drugs.

Is the Prophet صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم alive in his grave or not?

Fatwa of Sheikh ‘Abdul-‘Aziz bin Baaz (2/386/388)

Question: Is the Prophetصلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم  alive in his grave or not? And does he know what is happening in the Dunya?

Answer: Many of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnah have explained that the Prophet صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم  is alive in his grave in the sense of the life of Barzakiyyah, or the life that exists in the grave, we don’t know how this is and this knowledge is with Allaah سُبحانه وتعالى. It is not like the life of the Dunya, rather it is a form of life in which that the Prophet صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم  lives in pleasure in which he hears the Salaam/ Salutations of the Muslims, at which point his soul is restored periodically by Allaah, the Most High, so that he may respond. All of this has been narrated in narrations, such as the one narrated by Abu Dawud with an Isnad which is Hasan:

On the authority of Abu Hurairahرضي اللّه عنـه  that the Messenger of Allaah صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم said:

 “There is no one who sends salutations/Salaam upon me but Allaah will restore my soul so that I may return his salutations/Salaam.”

                [Classed as Sahih in Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud by Shaykh al-Albani (1795)]

Perform Ruqya over a patient by reciting Al-Mu’awwidhat

Narrated ‘Aaisha (رضي الله عنها) :

"Whenever Allaah’s Messenger (صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم) became sick, he would recite Mu’awwidhat (Soorat Al-Falaq and Surat An-Nas) and then blow his breath over his body. When he became seriously ill, I used to recite (these two Surahs) and rub his hands over his body hoping for its blessings."

[Saheeh Al-Bukhaari, Hadeeth No.535, Vol.6]

Source : The Book of As-Salaam (Greetings): Chapter 20 – To perform Ruqya over a patient by reciting Al-Mu’awwidhat [Soorat Al-Falaq (113), and Soorat An-Nas (114) and blowing one’s breath and saliva over the patient while reciting these Verses. Al-Lulu Wal-Marjan

Compiled by: Fuwad Abdul-Baqi, Translated by: Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan

The Poem that made Imaam Ahmad (رحمه الله) Cry

إذا ما قال لي ربي ..... أما استحييت تعصيني                               
وتخفي الذنب عن خلقي .. وبالعصيان تأتيني                                                                       

If my Lord asks me
“Have you no shame in disobeying Me?
You hide your faults from My creation
yet full of sin you come to Me.”

فكيف أجيب يا ويحي .. ومن ذا سوف يحميني

So what will I answer? O’ Woe to me,
and who shall protect me do you see?

أسلي النفس بالآمال .. من حين إلى حين

I keep forestalling my soul
with thoughts of hope from time to time

وأنسى ما وراء الموت .. ماذا بعد تكفيني

And forgetting what is to come after death,
and after I am warped in the sheets of the dead

What are the prescribed means of warding off sihr (witchcraft) before it happens?

{Majmoo’ Fataawa wa Maqaalaat al-Sheikh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (رحمه الله), 
vol. 8}

Praise be to Allaah.

Among the most important means of warding off the danger of sihr before it happens is seeking protection through the adhkaar (dhikr) prescribed in Islam, making du’aa’ and reciting prayers seeking refuge that were narrated from the Prophet صلّى اللَّهُ عليه وسلّم. These include: 

1 – Reciting Aayat al-Kursiy [al-Baqarah 2:255] after every prescribed prayer, after reciting the adhkaar which are prescribed after the salaam. 

2 – Reciting Aayat al-Kursiy when going to sleep. This is the greatest aayah in the Qur’aan, in which Allaah سُبحانه وتعالى says: 

“Allaah! Laa ilaaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He), Al-Hayyul-Qayyum (the Ever Living, the One Who sustains & protects all that exists). Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes Him. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens & whatever is on the earth. Who is he that can intercede with Him except with His Permission? He knows what happens to them (His creatures) in this world, & what will happen to them in the Hereafter. And they will never compass anything of His Knowledge except that which He wills. His Kursiy extends over the heavens & the earth, and He feels no fatigue in guarding & preserving them. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.”

[al-Baqarah 2:255]

3 – Reciting “Qul huwa Allaahu ahad”, “Qul a’oodhu bi Rabb il-Falaq” and “Qul a’oodhu bi Rabb il-Naas” [i.e., the last three soorahs of the Qur’aan] following every prescribed prayer, and reciting these three soorahs (three times) at the beginning of the day after Fajr prayer, and at the beginning of the night after Maghrib prayer.