Whatruqyahis,andwhatitisnot

The word ruqyah means words that are recited over a person seeking healing or protection. In pre-Islamic Arabia those words could be anything: chants, names of jinn, appeals to stars. Islam did not abolish the practice. It cleaned it, put limits on it, and kept what was pure.

That is why the Prophet ﷺ, when the Companions brought him the ruqyahs they had used before Islam, did not say yes or no. He said, in the hadith reported by ‘Awf ibn Mālik in Sahih Muslim: show me your ruqyah; there is no harm in ruqyah so long as it contains no shirk.

That one sentence is the whole subject: ruqyah is permitted, and ruqyah that contains shirk is not.

A working definition

Ruqyah shar‘iyyah (ruqyah according to the Sharī‘ah) is: reciting the Quran, or supplications taught by the Prophet ﷺ, or any words that call on Allah alone by His names and attributes, over yourself or another person, seeking healing and protection from Allah.

You do not need to be a scholar to do it. You do not need permission or a licence. The Prophet ﷺ recited over himself, over his family, over the sick who came to him, and he taught ordinary people to do the same. Jibril recited over him. ‘A’ishah recited over him in his final illness. A Companion recited al-Fātiḥah over a man stung by a scorpion, having never done it before, and the man recovered.

The three conditions

Ibn Hajar, in Fath al-Bari, records that scholars agreed on the permissibility of ruqyah when three conditions are met. Later scholars, including Ibn Bāz and Ibn ‘Uthaymīn, repeat the same three.

A lawful ruqyahIbn Hajar records that the scholars agreed on three conditions. All three, together.

• The words of AllahHis names and attributes, the Quran, the du‘ās of the Prophet ﷺ. Nothing addressed to anything besides Him.
• A language you understandArabic, or any tongue whose meaning is known. Not a string of syllables nobody can read.
• No effect of its ownThe words are a means. Allah is the Healer. If the belief slips here, everything else is undone.

1. It is done with the words of Allah, or His names and attributes. The Quran, the du‘ās of the Prophet ﷺ, and any supplication that turns to Allah alone. Nothing addressed to a jinn, a saint, a star, an “energy”, or a spirit. Nothing that swears by other than Allah.

2. It is in Arabic, or in a language whose meaning is understood. The point is that you know what is being said over you. A ruqyah in English or Bengali or Somali is fine if its meaning is sound. A string of Arabic-sounding syllables that no Arab can understand is not fine, even though it “sounds Islamic”. Unknown words are the classic hiding place for shirk.

3. It is believed that the ruqyah has no effect by itself; the effect is only by Allah’s decree. The words are a means. Allah is the healer. If someone believes the recitation, the raqi, or the water works on its own, the belief itself has slipped.

وَإِذَا مَرِضْتُ فَهُوَ يَشْفِينِ

Wa idhā mariḍtu fahuwa yashfīn

And when I am ill, it is He who cures me.

Ibn ‘Uthaymīn adds a practical fourth point that is really a consequence of the third: the ruqyah must not be done in a way the Sharī‘ah forbids, such as in a state of impurity in a graveyard, or with the client uncovered, or with a man alone with a woman who is not his mahram.

Ruqyah is

• The words of Allah, or His names and attributes
• In a language whose meaning you understand
• Believed to work only by Allah’s decree
• Something you can do for yourself, tonight, for nothing

Ruqyah is not

• A ritual with a fixed number of repetitions
• Addressed to a jinn
• A talisman — written, folded, worn or buried
• Diagnosis by unseen means
• A replacement for medicine

Where those three came from

Set out as a list they can look arbitrary. They are audit criteria, and the audit has a date.

The Arabs were performing ruqyah before the Prophet ﷺ was sent. It was an established practice, and as the sources describe it, it was thick with shirk, with incantation and with appeals to other than Allah. Which left the Companions who had practised it with a question, and ‘Awf ibn Mālik al-Ashja‘ī reports how they put it: they used to perform ruqyah in the Jāhiliyyah; what did he think of that?

Show me your ruqyahs. There is no harm in ruqyah so long as it contains no shirk.

He did not abolish the practice, though he could have. He did not endorse it either: there is no carry on in the answer. He asked to see it: bring the thing you are doing, and it will be inspected item by item.

The three conditions are what was left after that inspection, which is why each one is phrased in terms of what was being removed: the unknown words, the unintelligible formulas, the belief that the words themselves do the work.

It also explains why the modern problem takes the shape it does. Had ruqyah been invented from nothing, anything resembling it would be foreign and easy to spot. It was not invented; it was cleaned. So the forbidden version and the permitted version look alike, share a vocabulary, and sit next to one another, and Show me your ruqyahs is not a historical curiosity but the method for telling them apart.

What ruqyah is not

Because the definition is simple, it is easy to see what falls outside it.

• Ruqyah is not a ritual with a fixed number. “Recite this 313 times over seven nights with a candle” is not from the Sunnah. Numbers, times and objects that have no basis in the texts are innovations at best.
• Ruqyah is not addressed to the jinn. Speaking to a jinn during a session may happen; commanding it to leave by Allah’s name is something the Prophet ﷺ did. But calling on jinn, negotiating with them, asking them favours, or “employing good jinn” is the trade of sorcerers, not ruqyah.
• Ruqyah is not a talisman. Writing verses on paper to hang around the neck, fold into a pillow or bury under a doorstep is not ruqyah. Ruqyah is recited. The ruling on written amulets is covered in its own article.
• Ruqyah is not diagnosis by unseen means. A raqi who tells you the name of the person who “did it”, or what your neighbour is thinking, is claiming knowledge of the unseen. That is a warning sign.
• Ruqyah is not a replacement for medicine. The Prophet ﷺ used ruqyah and also used medicine, and told us that Allah did not send down a disease without sending down its cure. The two sit side by side.

Why the limits matter

The reason scholars guarded these limits so carefully is that ruqyah is a door to Allah, and doors to Allah are where Shayṭān waits. A person in pain will accept almost anything that promises relief. Sorcerers know this. They dress their work in Quran, in beards and prayer beads, and slip in one unknown word, one request for a mother’s name, one item of clothing. The person leaves feeling better for a while, and has just paid to have shirk performed on their behalf.

Ruqyah shar‘iyyah protects you from that. It asks nothing of you but to turn to Allah with His own words. It costs nothing to do yourself. And it carries no risk, because the worst outcome of reciting Quran over yourself sincerely is that you have recited Quran sincerely.

Where to start

If you are new to this, begin with what the Prophet ﷺ himself used: al-Fātiḥah, Āyat al-Kursī, the last two verses of al-Baqarah, Surah al-Ikhlāṣ, al-Falaq and al-Nās, and the morning and evening supplications. Recite with understanding, place your hand where it hurts, and ask Allah. That is the whole of it. The rest of this site exists to help you do it well and to steer you away from those who would sell you something else.