Howstrongtheeyecanbe—andtheareasoflifeitcantouch

A power no one can measure

The classical sources speak of the eye and hasad as forces whose strength cannot be captured on any scale. The Prophet ﷺ said:

Sheikh Ibn Baz, may Allah have mercy on him, related a story on a recorded tape — and he was careful to say it came to him from someone he did not doubt. It is presented here exactly as a narrated report, not as verified fact. A man in one of the Gulf countries passed by a house, looked into a yard full of sheep, spoke some words over them — and the whole flock fell down dead. When the owner came home and was told who had passed by, he went and found the man up on a building he was constructing. He said to him: "You passed by my sheep and did what you did. Choose — you, or the building." The man said, "Let me come down." He came down, and the building collapsed. Ibn Baz concluded: "This is something enormous. The gaze can carry vile things — we ask Allah for safety."

What the sources attribute to it

The source material holds that the eye can, by Allah's decree, be involved in deaths — through accidents, suicide, strokes and the like — and in seizures, paralysis and loss of sanity.

A word before you read on: these are the classical and practitioner claims, kept as the source states them. On this site the rule is always medical first, alongside ruqyah. Strokes, seizures, paralysis and thoughts of self-harm are medical emergencies: see a doctor first and without delay. Ruqyah is sought alongside medical care, never instead of it.

Features of its strength

• It can spread. An affliction may run through a whole family, and may pass to newborns in the form of illness. One raqi of long experience relates that he once treated a child whose affliction had its origin in the mother: when the mother was read over, both mother and child recovered.
• It can be fast — and distant. The hadith describes the eye as the fastest thing after the decree itself. It is related from practice that two people can speak by telephone, one in the east and one in the west, and one is struck at that very moment by something that delighted or enraged the other, despite the distance.
• It can last. An affliction may cling to a person or a thing for many years. The same raqi relates that he personally saw a woman whose affliction stayed with her from the age of two months until she was thirty, when she was finally cured — and all praise is for Allah.

The areas of life it can affect

The source material summarises the domains in which the eye and hasad can show their effect — religious and worldly, physical and inward:

Domain	Examples
The mind	Intelligence, memorisation, concentration, comprehension, studies
Provision (rizq)	Money, avenues of earning, job and position
Beauty	Hair, face, complexion and skin, the body
Religion	Quran, acts of worship, khushū' (presence of heart), steadfastness
Character	Modesty, honesty, good manners, humility, kindness
Marriage and family	The family's happiness, estrangement between spouses, pregnancy, miscarriage, raising of children
Lifespan	Length of life, how age shows on a person — the sources even say it can kill
The body	Strength, energy, health, skills — even cooking
Animals	Sickness and death in livestock; "it puts the camel in the cooking pot and brings the bird down from the sky"
Plants	Crops and trees that wither, burn or die
Objects	Cars, devices and appliances, jewellery and adornments

The breadth of this list is not meant to make you read the eye into every setback. Its purpose is the opposite of superstition: to show that whatever is touched, the remedy is one — turning to Allah with the protection and ruqyah He prescribed, while taking every ordinary means, medical and practical, that He has placed in your hands.