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About the words of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), “Recite your ruqyahs to me. There is nothing wrong with a ruqyah that does not involve shirk”

15-10-2020

Question 209745

The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Recite your ruqyahs to me. There is nothing wrong with a ruqyah that does not involve shirk.”

Is there any shirk, or anything else that is not allowed according to Islamic teachings, in the following ruqyah?

“To control the qareen (jinn companion) who is causing physical exhaustion, preventing marriage, causing failure at work and changing the image of a person:

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Recite Soorat Muhammad 14 times or listen to it for three consecutive days after Maghrib, then after that recite this prayer for protection twice:

‘By means of prayers for protection, I ward off every schemer and stubborn one, and the noise of every disturbance; I push it away from the owner of this body. I adjure anyone who stands up or sits down, by virtue of “Say, He is Allah , [who is] One, Allah , the Eternal Refuge, He neither begets nor is born, Nor is there to Him any equivalent”; I adjure you with the supplications that ward off bad luck, and I cut you off from your senses and faculties, by virtue of “Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind, The Sovereign of mankind, The God of mankind, From the evil of the retreating whisperer, Who whispers [evil] into the breasts of mankind, From among the jinn and mankind”’

If you would like to repeat it, there is nothing wrong with that.”

Answer

Praise be to Allah.

Firstly:

Muslim narrated in his Saheeh (2200) that ‘Awf ibn Maalik al-Ashja‘i said: We used to recite ruqyahs during the jaahiliyyah, and we said: O Messenger of Allah, what do you think about that? He said: “Recite your ruqyahs to me. There is nothing wrong with a ruqyah that does not involve shirk.”

This hadith indicates that it is permissible to recite ruqyah so long as it does not include any shirk or anything that may lead to shirk.

The scholars stipulated that in order for a ruqyah to be permissible, it is must meet three conditions, which they derived from the texts of the prophetic hadiths. It says in Fath al-Baari by Ibn Hajar (10/195): The scholars are unanimously agreed that it is permissible to recite any ruqyah if three conditions are met: that it consists of the words of Allah, may He be exalted, or His names and attributes; that it be in Arabic or another language of which the meaning is clear; and that it is not believed that the ruqyah has any impact in and of itself, rather any impact is by Allah’s leave. They differed as to whether the last of these is a condition or not, but what is most likely to be the case is that consideration should be paid to all conditions mentioned. End quote.

The conditions of ruqyah as prescribed in Islamic teachings have been discussed previously, in the answer to question no. 13792.

Secondly:

With regard to the ruqyah that you asked about in the question, it is not permissible for several reasons, including the following:

1. It includes bid‘ah (innovation). Reciting Soorat Muhammad fourteen times, or listening to it for three consecutive days after Maghrib, for the purpose of healing, or making it easy to get married, or to control the qareen (jinn companion), is regarded as an innovation. The scholars have stated that singling out a specific time to recite a specific dhikr, or reciting a specific dhikr a specific number of times, or reciting it in a specific manner that is not narrated in the Islamic texts, is regarded as bid‘ah idaafiyyah (innovation in the sense of adding to something that was originally prescribed). This has been discussed previously in the answers to questions no. 148174 and 87915.

2. This ruqyah includes some phrases of which the meaning is not known, such as “prayers for protection (al-muhassanaat al-hujubiyyah) and “prayers to ward off bad luck (ad‘iyat al-anhaas) [the Arabic phrases are very odd and unknown in Islamic texts]. We have noted above that one of the conditions of ruqyah being permissible is that it should not contain any phrases of which the meaning is unknown.

Please see the answer to question no. 11290 for a discussion on treating sihr (witchcraft) in the ways prescribed in Islamic teaching.

And Allah knows best.

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