Treatingsihr—thelawfulways,andthewaysthatareforbidden

Medical care comes first, alongside ruqyah. Whatever you suspect, symptoms live in a body, and the Prophet ﷺ commanded us to seek treatment. See your doctor, take your prescribed medicine, and let ruqyah and the lawful means below work alongside that care. Nothing on this page replaces a doctor, and several items on the classical list below should never be self-administered.

If we set out to write everything about treating sihr, pages upon pages would not suffice: the ways of treating it cannot be counted, because this is a field of medicine and medicine grows by experience. People’s tried remedies, old and new, are many: treatment by Quran, by the Prophet’s du‘ās, by charity, by hijamah (cupping), by expelling what was ingested, by herbs, and more.

The heart of all lawful treatment

1. The ruqyah verses. The general ruqyah, the verses recited over every affliction. You will find the full set in our self-ruqyah texts.
2. The sihr-specific ruqyah. The verses in which Allah relates the confrontation of sihr and its nullification; see the verse set on the “If you find a sihr object” page.
3. Ruqyah by du‘ā and every good, lawful word. The Prophet’s du‘ās, what is related from the salaf, and any du‘ā free of shirk: all of it is permitted and all of it tells on sihr. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Seek treatment, servants of Allah, but do not treat with the haram,” and: “There is no harm in ruqyah so long as it contains no shirk” (Muslim 2200).

The practitioners’ toolbox: 25 lawful means

Methods differ from one practitioner to another. The source lists the following as lawful means that raqis have used and found beneficial, by Allah’s permission. They are recorded here faithfully as its list; the badges and the cautions on them are ours.

• Seeking the location of the sihr by du‘āSafe as given

  Asking Allah persistently, as the Prophet ﷺ “called upon Allah and called again” until he was shown where his sihr lay.

• Searching for itSafe as given

  For example, going through the house.

• Identifying the type by du‘āSafe as given

  Praying for the nullifying of eaten, knotted, written sihr and so on, and watching which phrase the symptoms answer to; then treating accordingly.

• Ruqyah properSafe as given

  Reciting over yourself, or asking a raqi to teach you and set you a treatment programme.

  Read the page

• Hijamah (cupping)Caution

  By which the material of ingested sihr is drawn out.

  Only ever with a licensed, hygienic practitioner, and not against medical advice.

  Read the page

• Zamzam waterSafe as given

  Read the page

• Seven ‘ajwah dates of MadinahSafe as given

  In the morning.

• HoneySafe as given

  “In it is healing for people.”

  Read the page

• Black seedSafe as given

  “A cure for every disease except death.”

  Read the page

• SennaCaution

  With sannūt, “a cure for every disease.”

  A strong laxative; do not exceed food-grade use.

  Read the page

• Recited olive oilSafe as given

  Eaten and applied, “from a blessed tree.”

  Read the page

• Indian costus (qust)Safe as given

  “In it are seven cures.”

• Asafoetida (hiltit)Caution

  Our warning: do not take it internally except under medical advice.

• Rue (shadhab)Caution

  Our warning: rue is toxic in quantity, must never be used in pregnancy, and must never be given to children.

• The “Rumi mixture”Safe as given

  A herbal blend some raqis prepare.

  Read the page

• Induced vomitingNever

  To expel ingested sihr.

  Never self-administer emetics; this is recorded, not recommended.

• LaxativesCaution

  Same caution: a laxative is a real medicine, and habitual use is harmful.

• Fumigation with lawful herbsCaution

  Our warning: smoke inhalation carries real risks, and burning anything indoors is a fire risk. Recorded practice, not advice.

• Bathing in recited waterSafe as given

  Water over which Quran has been recited.

  Read the page

• Sprinkling recited waterSafe as given

  Around the home.

  Read the page

• Harmal (wild rue)Caution

  Toxic in quantity; do not ingest without qualified guidance.

• Herbal medicine generallySafe as given

  The lawful, tested kind.

• Cautery (kayy)Never

  A classical last-resort medical practice, mentioned here because the source lists it.

  It burns the body. Do not do this; if you ever encounter a “healer” offering burning, leave.

• Chinese medicineSafe as given

  The source includes lawful practices from it.

• Modern medicineSafe as given

  For us this is where you start, not item 25.

Forbidden treatment

The prohibition of treating with the haram is explicit, and the jurists agree that the forbidden and impure things named by the texts may not be used as medicine. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah has not placed the cure of my Ummah in what He has forbidden it.”

1. 1Shirk amulets
2. 2Going to sorcerers and fortune-tellers
3. 3Resorting to graves and shrines
4. 4Treating with forbidden substances
5. 5Incense burned to summon the devils
6. 6Kufr conjurations and forbidden dhikr

1. Shirk amulets

The tamimah in the language is the thread or beads the Arabs hung on their children against the evil eye, and Islam abolished it. Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad: “the tamimah is a necklace containing charms.” To the scholars it is whatever is hung on the neck of the sick or of children in fear of the eye or other harm; sometimes it even carries Quran stitched into leather. The difference between a tamimah and a ruqyah: the tamimah is a charm hung on the person; the ruqyah is words recited over him. The Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever hangs a tamimah, may Allah not complete his affair”; and: “Incantations (of shirk), amulets and love-charms are shirk”; and: “Whoever hangs a tamimah has committed shirk.”

2. Going to sorcerers and fortune-tellers

The Prophet ﷺ forbade going to sorcerers, soothsayers and fortune-tellers: “Whoever goes to a soothsayer and believes what he says has disbelieved in what was sent down upon Muhammad ﷺ” (Abu Dawud; and the Sunan compilers and al-Hakim, who graded it sahih); “Whoever goes to a fortune-teller and asks him about anything, no prayer is accepted from him for forty days” (Muslim); and from ‘Imran ibn Husayn: “He is not of us who reads omens or has them read, soothsays or has it done, or has sihr worked for him…” (al-Bazzar, good chain).

3. Resorting to graves and shrines

Some ignorant Muslims, when affliction strikes or a need presses, go to shrines, graves and domed tombs (which may belong to righteous people) and call upon their occupants instead of Allah, associating them with Allah in giving, withholding and vows. The source states it plainly: this is shirk that removes a person from the religion. The dead cannot cure you. Allah cures.

4. Treating with forbidden substances

“Seek treatment, servants of Allah, but do not treat with the haram.”

5. Incense burned to summon the devils

Among the forbidden treatments: perfumes and incense which the sorcerer takes, recites his kufr-conjuration over, and burns to summon his devils and curry their favour — sometimes ordering the patient to fumigate himself with that bewitched incense so the devils attend and carry out what was asked. This is devil-work, not medicine.

6. Kufr conjurations and forbidden dhikr

Every formula that calls upon other than Allah, vows or draws near to other than Him, involves contact with the devils, addresses devils by their names, uses du‘ās in unintelligible speech, or tricks people with obscure syllables claimed to be “Allah’s greatest names in another language”: all of it is forbidden.

The order

Doctor first, with ruqyah and the lawful means alongside. The core cure costs nothing and is in your own mouth: Quran, du‘ā and the adhkār. Anything that hurts the body, involves a sorcerer, or hangs your heart on other than Allah is not treatment.