Home
Discover Islam
Quran Recitations
Lectures
Fatwa
Articles
Fiqh
E-Books
Women
Boys & Girls 
Enter Question
View By Subject
Fatwa Of The Week
Selected Fatwa
Fatwa CenterBelieving in charms
Question
What is the ruling for the following:1) Believing that charm is the cause which brings good luck and averts bad luck.2) Believing that Allah is the beneficiary for good but the charms are the causes of it.
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
1) As for believing in charms, we state that it is known among Muslims that causing harm or producing good is in the Hand of Allah, The Exalted, alone. Good is in Allah's Hand and evil is not to be traced to Him. Everything/every movement in this universe is under His control and Will.
Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {And with Him are the keys of the Ghaib (all that is hidden), none knows them but He. And He knows whatever there is in (or on) the earth and in the sea; not a leaf falls, but he knows it. There is not a grain in the darkness of the earth nor anything fresh or dry, but is written in a Clear Record.} [6: 59].
Believing that illegal charms or magic may produce good or cause harm or are a means to bring down good contradicts the Islamic creed.
In the Prophetic Hadith: "There are three people who will not enter Paradise: an alcoholic, one who breaks relations with his kith and kin (blood relatives) and one who believes in magic" [ Ahmad ].
Another Hadith reads: "A person who goes to a soothsayer or magician or diviner and asks him (about something) and believes his sayings, he disbelieves in what has been revealed to Muhammad (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam), i.e. the Message of Islam" [ al-Baihaqi and Ibn Hajar said: 'This Hadith has a good chain of narrators].
A third Hadith reads: "Whoever sees an evil omen in something or this practice is done on his behalf or predicts or a prediction is made for him or practises magic or magic is done for him is not of us (i.e. Muslims)" [ al-Bazzar with a good chain of narrators].
In this context, Sheikh al-Islam Ismael al-Sabooni in "al-Salaf creed", said: 'Whoever practises and uses magic believing that it causes harm or good without Allah's might, is a disbeliever in Allah, The Exalted. And if one believes and says that magic is not Haram, he should be killed, since he made as Halal what the Muslim scholars are agreed upon as illegal' .
Imam al-Sa'di in al-Qawlal-Sadid, said: 'Allah, The Exalted, He Who Knows the unseen. So, Whoever claims that he knows something of the unseen by using prediction and so on, or believes in those who claim such things, he makes a partner to Allah in His Single Attributes and accuses Allah and His Messenger of lying' .
2) As for using al-Ruqaa (supplications from he Qur'an and Sunnah) as means to produce good, this is lawful as long as such Ruqaa do not include what violates monotheism.
The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: "There is no harm to use al-Ruqaa as long as they do not include any form of polytheism" [Reported by Imam Muslim ].
Jabir reported that Allah's Messenger (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) forbade al-Ruqaa. Then, the family of 'Amr Ibn Hazm said: "O Allah's Messenger! We have a Ruqia (sing. of al-Ruqaa) to cure the sting of scorpion (by Allah's favor) and you forbade al-Ruqaa. They offered their Ruqia to the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) and he said: 'I do not see anything wrong in such a Ruqia'. Whoever can render benefit to his brother, should do so" .
This means that it is lawful to use al-Ruqaa from the Qur'an, Hadith and the Names and Attribute of Allah.
Sheikh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah's Mercy be upon him) said: 'As for treating the epileptic with al-Ruqaa, there are two kinds: (1) If the meanings and words of al-Ruqaa are lawful and understandable as one's praying to Allah and addressing His creatures and so on, then this is legal. But, (2) if there are Haram words such as including some form of polytheism or unknown words that might be disbelief, then no one is permitted to resort to such things, even if Jinn may be expelled from the epileptic. In fact, Allah and His messenger forbade such action due to its great harm' .
Imam al-Suyouti said: 'There is agreement among scholars of Islam that the lawful Ruqaa should meet the following three conditions:
1) al-Ruqaa should be from the Qur'an or by Allah's Names and Attributes.
2) al-Ruqaa should be in an understandable Arabic language.
3) One should believe that al-Ruqaa have no effect in themselves, but by Allah's might and favor' .
Allah knows best.
Search Fatwa
Fatwa Subject
