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 are beyond counting, 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‘as, 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‘a and every good, lawful word. The Prophet’s du‘as, what is related from the salaf, and any du‘a 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 — twenty-five 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 starred comments are ours.

1. Seeking the location of the sihr by du‘a — asking Allah persistently, as the Prophet ﷺ “called upon Allah and called again” until he was shown where his sihr lay.
2. Searching for it — for example, going through the house.
3. Identifying the type by du‘a — praying for the nullifying of eaten, knotted, written sihr and so on, and watching which phrase the symptoms answer to; then treating accordingly.
4. Ruqyah proper — reciting over yourself, or asking a raqi to teach you and set you a treatment programme.
5. Hijamah (cupping) — by which the material of ingested sihr is drawn out. *Only ever with a licensed, hygienic practitioner, and not against medical advice.
6. Zamzam water.
7. Seven ‘ajwah dates of Madinah in the morning.
8. Honey — “in it is healing for people.”
9. Black seed — “a cure for every disease except death.”
10. Senna — with sannut, “a cure for every disease.” *A strong laxative; do not exceed food-grade use.
11. Recited olive oil — eaten and applied, “from a blessed tree.”
12. Indian costus (qust) — “in it are seven cures.”
13. Asafoetida (hiltit).
14. Rue (shadhab).
15. The “Rumi mixture” — a herbal blend some raqis prepare.
16. Induced vomiting — to expel ingested sihr. *Never self-administer emetics; this is recorded, not recommended.
17. Laxatives. *Same caution.
18. Fumigation with lawful herbs.
19. Bathing in recited water — water over which Quran has been recited.
20. Sprinkling recited water around the home.
21. Harmal (wild rue). *Toxic in quantity; do not ingest without qualified guidance.
22. Herbal medicine generally — the lawful, tested kind.
23. Cautery (kayy). *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.
24. Chinese medicine — the source includes lawful practices from it.
25. Modern medicine. *For us this is not item twenty-five — it is where you start.

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. 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 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 genuinely 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; the One who cures is the One who created you.

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. However innocent the smoke looks, 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‘as in unintelligible speech, or tricks people with obscure syllables claimed to be “Allah’s greatest names in another language” — all of it is forbidden, whatever robe of piety it wears.

Keep the order straight

• Doctor first; ruqyah and the lawful means alongside — never a swap.
• The core cure is free and in your own mouth: Quran, du‘a, and the adhkār.
• Anything that hurts the body, involves a sorcerer, or hangs your heart on other than Allah is not treatment. It is the disease wearing a white coat.