Readerquestions:longillness,hospitals,andwhereruqyahfits

About this page — and it matters more here than anywhere: these letters describe serious, diagnosed diseases. Two of the writers had drifted away from medical treatment. Whatever role 'ayn or sihr may or may not play in a life, kidney failure and multiple sclerosis are medical conditions that need doctors, and stopping treatment is dangerous. We publish the answers given — adapted from an experienced raqi's consultations — faithfully as a record, and we add plainly what the answers do not say: stay under medical care. Ruqyah is recited alongside the medicine, never instead of it.

"Ten years of illness, miscarriages and collapse — doctors and sheikhs have both given up."

A relative described a devout, well-mannered woman: two miscarriages after marriage, then kidney failure, then ten years of combined medical and Quranic treatment — slight improvement always followed by relapse — after several sheikhs agreed she carried sihr and 'ayn. For the last two weeks she has been completely bedridden: severe pain through her body, especially the right shoulder, chest and right leg; near-total absence from consciousness, and when she surfaces, fierce agitation and quarrelling; refusing everything — medicine, tests, x-rays, washing, and even the prayer she had always guarded. The doctors are baffled because her tests come back fine; the sheikhs have despaired; the family called the consultation page "a glimmer of Allah's mercy on the horizon".

The answer given: may Allah heal her and grant her wellbeing. She must listen to the ruqyah for sihr throughout the day, and to the verses of healing and tranquillity; bathe with the Rumi mixture repeatedly; and have her body oiled with recited olive oil three to seven times daily. If Allah wills, she will improve.

Our note: a patient refusing medicine, food and washing while drifting from consciousness is a medical emergency, whatever else is true — that state needs a hospital the same day. And note the detail in the letter itself: "her tests are fine" does not mean untreated kidney failure is fine. Families in this position should never face the choice as ruqyah or medicine; it is both, always.

"Twelve years of multiple sclerosis, treatment abandoned, strange bruises after a sidr bath — what does it all mean?"

A man with MS wrote at length: diagnosed twelve years ago and told there was no cure and no known cause; six or seven years on the standard treatment, then he stopped — worn out by it, as he saw other patients refuse it too — and travelled through Britain, Germany and China chasing herbal treatment, where he noticed fellow patients seeming to improve while he relapsed. He had begun, years earlier, with Quranic treatment and recited olive oil, showing no reactions then. Later an imam (recommended to him, ironically, by an "energy-medicine" doctor — the imam rejected energy healing and told him the Quran was better) gave him ground sidr to bathe with, "to reveal whether there is 'ayn". After bathing: vomiting, dizziness, heavy legs, and green bruises on his arms that darkened over days. Daily al-Baqarah for ten days changed nothing he could see; when he switched to Āl 'Imrān, patches of redness flared on his body and began lasting up to a day. His questions: what do the bruises mean? the flare-ups at Āl 'Imrān? the heaviness? and what should he do — the sheikh had told him he certainly carried a strong 'ayn.

The answer given: read Sūrat al-Baqarah daily; listen abundantly to the 'ayn-and-hasad ruqyah and the sihr ruqyah, with earphones; and bathe with the Rumi mixture, available from herbalists.

Our note, said with love: multiple sclerosis has effective disease-modifying treatments today, and the years matter. Whatever place recitation holds in this brother's life — and it holds a true one — walking away from neurology was the most dangerous line in his letter, and nothing in the answer should be read as approving it. If this is your story, go back to your neurologist this week, and keep your al-Baqarah too. Unexplained bruising is also, on its own, something to show a doctor.

"I treated my friend with verses washed into water, he improved — then we found sihr hidden in his car."

A man described helping a friend who had turned irritable at home and dreamt of black figures and black dogs after changing jobs. He wrote out ruqyah verses, verses for annulling sihr and verses of reconciliation, washed the writing into pure water for him to drink, and had him recite Yāsīn, al-Sāffāt and al-Mulk in the evenings. The friend felt great relief and began sleeping deeply — "the water makes him sleep," he reported. Reciting ruqyah in his presence brought tears to the friend's eyes, drowsiness, then involuntary trembling in his left arm. The friend then found a sihr bundle at the front lights of his car and destroyed it in recited salt water; after further dreams about the car, the writer himself retrieved a second bundle from behind the right tyre — a tied bag holding tissue-box papers with burn marks but no visible symbols. "How did I know my friend was afflicted? Is what we are doing right?"

The answer given: may Allah reward you for helping your friend. Continue as you are, and Allah will grant relief.

Our note: two things in this letter deserve care. Washing written verses into water (mahw) is a practice scholars differ over — see our separate piece on it — and finding strange objects should be handled exactly as these two did at their best: destroy the object with recited water, without fear and without taking it to any "specialist in undoing sihr", a favourite door for charlatans. The dreams, reliefs and reactions are reported as the writer told them.