Iblisinanewgarment:twelvewaysfraudulent"raqis"deceive—withcasestoriesfrompractice

“I am a clear warner to you”

The source opens this sequel to its essay on ruqyah’s enemies with two narrations from the introduction of Sahih Muslim. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr said: “In the sea are devils imprisoned, bound by Sulayman; soon they will emerge and recite Quran to the people.” And ‘Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud said: “Shayṭān takes the form of a man and comes to people and tells them lies, and they disperse, and one of them says: I heard a man whose face I recognise, though I do not know his name, narrating…” Both are Companions’ reports on unseen matters, and so carry the ruling of the raised (marfū'): devils will come wrapped in Quran.

Then the hadith “the religion is sincere counsel”: out of duty to patients and fear for the reputation of treatment by the Quran, the source warns against men whose fame is built on falsehood dressed as truth.

The trigger, it says, was the spread of raqis wearing the garment of the Book and the Sunnah while walking the path of sorcerers, soothsayers and liars. The sick person longs to hear the detail of his illness and the evils surrounding him, and this class of criminal learned to feed that longing. Their methods:

The twelve marks of the fraud

1. Some are themselves possessed: patients who never recovered, who now “treat” others with the help of the mass that is in them.
2. Some use the so-called “Muslim jinn” (plentiful, the source says, in its author’s own city of Jeddah), hiding it and appearing to recite Quran only; some even carry recommendations from shaykhs. They have plunged patients into ruin.
3. They lie to society that they are the most knowledgeable of people in ruqyah and treatment.
4. They award themselves titles (“consultant in the science of jinn and medicine”) before an audience that has no idea who they were a few years earlier.
5. They diagnose by falsehood: with jinn-fetched “news” or plain lies under oath (“So-and-so is afflicted by ‘ayn”, “this is sihr”, “this is only psychological”), and often the reverse is true.
6. Some open luxury clinics: finest dress, plush premises in the best districts, and the appearance itself becomes the deception.
7. They diagnose without reciting. One of them, patients report, never reads more than a single verse (sometimes not even to its end) before pronouncing on ‘ayn and sihr from a symptom checklist.
8. One chokes nearly every patient. He seizes the patient, who blacks out for seconds; on waking, the fraud announces that the knots are undone, the sihr annulled, the jinnī killed or burned — some are even told to prostrate in thanks for a cure that never happened. The source notes in passing that pressure of this kind has been said to have effect in some cases, but not like this, it says. Our note: no choking, no force, ever. It appears in classical discussion and we mention it only to warn.
9. The “herb expert”. One claims to have discovered herbs no one before him knew, mixtures “guaranteed to kill the jinn and annul the sihr on the first dose”. Analysis of his greens revealed crushed croton seeds (habb al-mulūk) disguised in the blend, a violent purgative. He orders patients to take it for three weeks; most cannot bear ten days of the gripping pain, and the after-effects are ruinous. Our note: croton seed is toxic. Never take unlabelled mixtures from anyone.
10. They prey on women, in the source’s own city. Every week, it says, patients bring stories that shake the body, of men who appear pious and upright and have entangled unsuspecting women: some fell, some escaped when the “shaykh’s” demands or false marriage promises exposed him.
11. The seclusion trick. Challenged on how he could seclude himself with a woman with no mahram, one of them answered: “There is no seclusion — we are three: me, her, and the jinnī inside her.” The man who said this, the source notes bitterly, was no ignorant layman but an imam and khatib — “but it is fitnah”.
12. The protected one. One operates above every rule because of his connections (“the letter wāw: wāsitah”), ignoring regulations, untouched by complaints, “even if a patient died at his hands”.

The missing oversight

The source recalls when the religious-affairs committees followed up on raqis, and laments that firm measures have stopped while these men go on deceiving. Real oversight, it says, must fall on the connected and unconnected alike; and the frauds must be exposed with clear proof. It takes comfort that many patients themselves recoil: their fitrah refuses to continue with such men.

Three stories of one man: “the shaykh who chokes 99% of his patients”

• 0%of his patients choked, by the source’s reckoning
• 0 minthe whole of one woman’s session, start to finish
• 0 versesrecited before the choke, in the third case

The source’s own account of one practitioner, as related in the cases below.

All these stories, the source says, concern a single practitioner, and were it not for the Prophet’s way of saying “what is wrong with people who do such-and-such” without naming, it would have published the man’s name and address.

What to take from this

What a real raqi does

• He recitesA real raqi recites at length, clearly, from the Quran, and never needs theatrics, blackouts or announcements of instant cure.
• You refuse what you cannot readRefuse unlabelled herbal mixtures outright.

What disqualifies him

• Force, seclusion, touchingAny physical force is disqualifying. So is any seclusion with a woman, any touching, any “the jinnī makes it allowed” excuse.
• Titles and premisesGrand titles, luxury clinics and celebrity prove nothing. Ask patients who have recovered, and ask the raqis known for their integrity.