Ruqyahforbabiesandsmallchildren

What the Sunnah shows

This is the commonest reason anybody arrives at the subject, and the case in which the manner matters far more than the method.

The Prophet ﷺ sought refuge for al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn with words seeking Allah’s protection from every devil, every poisonous creature and every harmful eye, and he said that Ibrāhīm used to seek protection with them for Ismā‘īl and Isḥāq.

That scene is a grandfather seeking refuge for two well children, not an emergency treatment of a sick one: ordinary, unremarkable, part of the texture of a household.

Taking that as the model removes almost every problem people have here. Ruqyah for children happens in the house the way the adhkār do, on ordinary days, when nobody is ill. A child who has had the Quran recited over them a hundred times while perfectly well does not find it frightening on the night they are unwell. A child whose first experience of it is a tense room, a raised voice and worried adults learns something quite different, and that is the thing they will remember.

How to do it

1. 1

   Short

   A minute or two. There is no virtue in exceeding a small child’s tolerance, and the three Quls with a wipe is a complete act.

2. 2

   In a normal voice

   At a normal volume, because loud or urgent recitation frightens children.

3. 3

   Woven into what already happens

   At bedtime, after the three Quls, with the light low; half asleep is fine and asleep is fine.

4. 4

   With touch, if they like it

   A hand on the head or the back, then the wipe, which most children find comforting, and the comfort is a large part of the benefit.

5. 5

   With one cheerful sentence of explanation, once

   That these are Allah’s words and you are asking Him to look after them. That is the whole explanation a seven-year-old needs.

The one thing never to do

Never tell a child there is something in them. Not as a theory or a suspicion, not to somebody else in front of them, and not in a lowered voice.

Children believe what the adults who love them say about them, and they build themselves around it. Tell a child they are afflicted and you have handed them an explanation for every bad night, every failed test and every unhappy feeling for years to come. It is a burden, and they will carry it long after whatever prompted it has gone.

Recite over your children. Do not tell them what is wrong with them; they do not need to know, and you do not know.

When a child is unwell

Three things come before the recitation, every time.

A doctor sees them quickly. Children deteriorate faster than adults and are worse at reporting it: not feeding, not drinking, floppy, breathing oddly, a rash that does not fade under pressure: same-day medical attention and nothing else.

Their behaviour is not evidence. Waking screaming, refusing food, sudden fearfulness, regression after a new baby or a house move: all of it appears on the symptom lists, and all of it is the ordinary vocabulary of childhood.