What are the forms of magic and how should a Muslim understand them?
2026-09-21
F30 · Selected fatwas
Shaykh Ibn Bāz
الشيخ عبد العزيز بن باز
Original Q&A · Full displayed answer
Complete displayed transcript, with the official transcript’s gaps and unfinished wording preserved. The audio has not been independently transcribed.
النص العربي
السؤال الأصلي
سحر التخييل، الآن يستعمل..؟
الجواب
السحر سحران: سحر بالعمل، وسحر بالتخييل، سحر أصحاب فرعون بالتخييل يخيل إليه من سحرهم أنها تسعى [طه:66] جابوا عصيا وجابوا حبالا وفعلوا أشياء..... على الناس أن العصي تمشي، وأن الحبال تمشي، وأنها حيات، صار تخييلا، وهذا يقع كثيرا من الناس، يدخل على الناس في دكاكينهم وغيرهم ويغيرون عليهم ويأخذون أموالهم، وهذا سحر خبيث.
والسحر الثاني: بأعمال الشياطين من أدوية ونفث في العقد وغير ذلك مما يفعلون مع الشياطين؛ حتى يؤثروا في الإنسان بإذن الله وما هم بضارين به من أحد إلا بإذن الله [البقرة:102] إذن الله الكوني القدري، فيكون من نفث العقد، ويكون بأدوية يسقونها الرجل أو ينشقونها إياها حتى تؤثر في رأسه، أو تخييل يعملونه مع أشياء يتخيل حتى يرى زوجته في غير الصورة التي كانت عليها حتى يبغضها، أو يخيلون للمرأة في زوجها حتى ترى زوجها في غير الصورة التي تعرفه كأنه يعني دابة أو كأنه حنش أو كأنه يعني..؛ حتى تبغضه، أو بصورة دميمة حتى يحصل البغضاء بينهما، وهذه هي التولة، وهي الصرف، هي عمل النساء، نسأل الله العافية.
English translation
English translation prepared for SalafAlSalih.com from the cited complete published Arabic transcript; not an official translation.
Original question
Is magic that produces illusions being used nowadays…?
Answer
Magic is of two kinds: magic through practices and magic through illusion. The magic of Pharaoh’s people was illusion: ‘Through their magic it appeared to him that they were moving’ [Ta Ha 20:66]. They brought sticks and ropes and did things… [gap in the published transcript] people were made to see the sticks and ropes moving, as though they were snakes. It was an illusion. This happens frequently: people enter others’ shops and other places, distort what they perceive and take their money. This is evil magic.
The second kind involves the practices of devils: substances, blowing into knots and other things they do with devils in order to affect a person, by Allah’s permission. ‘They do not harm anyone through it except by Allah’s permission’ [al-Baqarah 2:102]—Allah’s permission in His creation and decree. It may involve blowing into knots or substances which they make a man drink or inhale so that they affect his head; or an illusion they produce with things, so that he imagines and sees his wife in a form different from her former appearance and comes to hate her. Or they create an illusion for a woman concerning her husband, so that she sees him in a form different from the one she knows: as though he were an animal, or a snake, or as though he were… [unfinished wording in the published transcript], so that she hates him; or in an ugly form, so that hatred arises between them. This is al-tiwalah, and it is al-sarf; it is the work of women. We ask Allah for well-being.
Source and editorial notes
Official Ibn Bāz website fatwa 22138
الموقع الرسمي للشيخ عبد العزيز بن باز
Official website of Shaykh ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Bāz
Complete published question and answer restored from the official Arabic source. Arabic diacritics removed for display; honorific glyphs expanded. Source transcript gaps are retained where present. English checked clause by clause against the Arabic; editorial and hadith notes remain separate.