Fakehealers:theredflags

Most people who go to a magician do not know that is what they are doing. They went to "a sheikh". He had a beard, a Quran on the table, a room full of people waiting. He said Bismillah. He recited something. Then he asked one question that a real raqi would never ask, and the whole thing changed without anyone noticing.

This article is a checklist so that you notice. It is written for the person who is frightened, in pain, and being told by relatives that "this man really works". You deserve to know what to look for.

The clear signs

Scholars who have dealt with this for decades, among them Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymeen, list a set of behaviours that mark a practitioner as a magician or fortune-teller rather than a raqi. If you see any of the following, leave.

• He asks for your mother's name. Or your name and your mother's name together. This is the standard way jinn are asked to identify a person. Ruqyah does not need it. Nobody in the Sunnah ever asked for it.
• He asks for something from your body or clothes. Hair, nails, a piece of worn clothing, a photograph, something with your sweat on it. These are the ingredients of sihr, not its cure.
• He writes things you cannot read. Squares of numbers, letters separated by dots, symbols, "Quran" written backwards or in scattered letters. Sometimes a real ayah is written above and the rest is unintelligible below.
• He gives you something to wear, bury or hang. A folded paper, a leather pouch, a string with knots, a metal charm, an "Islamic" amulet. Even if he tells you it contains Quran.
• He mutters words that are not Arabic and not any language you know. Or Arabic-sounding words that no one, including him, can explain.
• He tells you to slaughter an animal in a specific way. Especially: without saying Bismillah, or of a specific colour, or at a specific place, or to smear its blood on you or your house, or to bury it. Slaughter for other than Allah is major shirk.
• He tells you things about yourself he could not know. The name of the person who did it. Your dead grandmother's illness. What happened in your bedroom last Tuesday. This is not the Quran speaking. It is a jinn.
• He asks you to do something impure. Sit in the graveyard at night, avoid touching water for a set number of days, keep something under your pillow, avoid prayer for a while, write with blood or with certain inks.
• He needs to be alone with you. Particularly a man who wants a woman on her own, or wants her to remove her hijab or clothing "so the recitation reaches", or wants to touch her body.
• He claims a special lineage or gift. "This power has been in our family for seven generations." "I have a servant from among the jinn who helps me." "I was given this in a dream."
• He looks at your palm, a cup, a bowl of water, or asks you your birth date and star.

Any single one of these is enough. You do not need three or four to be sure.

The quieter signs

Some behaviours are not proof of magic on their own but should raise your guard.

• Large sums demanded up front, or fees that rise as the "case" becomes more "difficult".
• A diagnosis before you have said anything, or a diagnosis that is always sihr and always requires more sessions.
• Guarantees. "I will finish it in three sittings." No raqi can guarantee anything; the cure is with Allah.
• Frightening you: "if you do not come back within a week it will kill you."
• Refusing to explain what he is reciting or what is in the thing he gave you.
• Telling you not to tell anyone what he did.
• Discouraging you from doing ruqyah yourself, or from seeing a doctor.

A sincere raqi has nothing to hide. He recites clearly, tells you what he is reciting, teaches you to do it at home, and is happy for you to never need him again.

"But it worked"

This is the hardest part, and it needs to be said gently. Yes, sometimes it does work, in a sense. The magician commands his jinn to stop harming you, or to move the harm elsewhere, or he lifts one sihr and puts another in its place. The symptoms ease. Then, weeks or months later, they return, or something new begins, and you go back, and pay again.

The Prophet ﷺ said that whoever goes to a soothsayer and asks him about anything, his prayer is not accepted for forty nights (Sahih Muslim). And in another narration, whoever goes to one and believes what he says has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad ﷺ (Ahmad, Abu Dawud). Scholars have discussed the exact meaning of these words. None of them read them as anything less than a very grave matter.

وَأَنَّهُ كَانَ رِجَالٌ مِّنَ الْإِنسِ يَعُوذُونَ بِرِجَالٍ مِّنَ الْجِنِّ فَزَادُوهُمْ رَهَقًا

Wa annahū kāna rijālun mina l-insi ya‘ūdhūna bi-rijālin mina l-jinni fazādūhum rahaqā

And there were men from mankind who sought refuge in men from the jinn, so they [only] increased them in burden.

Relief bought this way is not relief. It is a loan at a rate you cannot afford.

If you have already been

Do not despair, and do not let shame stop you from acting.

1. Repent to Allah sincerely. He forgives, and turning back to Him is the beginning of the cure.
2. Get rid of anything the man gave you. Amulets, papers, strings, water he "read" over. If it contains Quran, unpick or dissolve it respectfully; do not keep it "just in case".
3. Stop any instructions he gave you that have no basis in the Sunnah.
4. Begin ruqyah shar‘iyyah yourself, today, using the Quran and the Prophetic supplications. This site will show you how.
5. See a doctor for anything physical. Ruqyah and medicine sit side by side.

A short rule to carry with you

Ruqyah shar‘iyyah is the Quran, and du‘a to Allah alone, in words you understand, with the belief that Allah heals. If a practitioner adds anything to that list, or takes anything from you that is not needed to recite over you, he has stepped outside it. You do not owe him politeness at the cost of your religion. Thank him, leave, and go home to your Quran.