The Messenger and Magic (1/3)

In discussing the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and magic, it must be stated, before we look at any hadith on the subject, that all the Messengers of Allah were human and that all human beings are subject to the laws which govern humanity. That is why when Allah - glory be to Him and may He be Exalted! - wanted to manifest the incapacity of His creatures in the face of His Strength and Power, He gave them power over one of His Messengers and then made them powerless to touch him.

An example of this is when the people of Ibrahim, peace be upon him, decided to bum him in the fire. This was an attempt on their part to bum one of the Messengers of Allah. It would have been possible for Allah to save Ibrahim by any number of ways. He could have concealed him from the eyes of the unbelievers so that they did not see him. He could have shown him a safe place to conceal himself where they would not find him or where it would it not have occurred to them to look. Or the unbelievers could have brought him to the fire and then Allah could have made the rain pour down and put the fire out and have saved Ibrahim in that way. But Allah Almighty allowed the unbelievers to find Ibrahim, seize him, and throw him into the fire, and He also let the fire bum and did not send down any rain to extinguish it. Then the miracle was accomplished. Allah Almighty says:

"We said, 'O Fire, be coolness and peace for lbrahim!'" (Surah Al-Anbiya', 21:69)

This happened so that the people - all people - would know that Ibrahim, peace be upon him, had been placed by the unbelievers in the fire and that the fire did not burn him. Ibrahim was a mortal, subject to the laws of humanity. When he was thrown in the fire, it should have burned him. If, for instance, Ibrahim had been an angel, it would have been possible for the fire not to burn him. The guardians of Jahannam are angels. Allah Almighty says:

"...continually scorching the flesh. Over it there are nineteen. We have designated none but angels to be masters of the Fire." (Surah Al-Muddathir, 74:29-31)

We know from this that angels are not burned by fire. That is why if Ibrahim had been an angel, it would not have been a miracle for him to be thrown into the fire and not be burned.

Musa, peace be upon him, was the Prophet of Allah and him to whom Allah spoke directly. Allah wanted him to face the test of the magicians. So He prepared him for what would happen. Allah taught him about miracles and magic. The miracle was that his staff turned into a real snake, its nature truly changing from wood to snake. That is why Allah Almighty asked him to throw down his staff:

“We said, 'Throw it down, Musa.' He threw it down and there it was, a slithering snake." (Surah Ta-Ha, 20:19-20)

This was training for the miracle to show him that his staff would be transformed into a real snake when Musa cast it down in front of the magicians. Allah - glory be to Him and may He be Exalted! - wanted Musa not to be startled by that and not to be alarmed or afraid. He was instructing him about what was going to happen. Then Allah also instructed him about the magic which the magicians would confront him with:

"'Throw down your staff!' Then when he saw it slithering like a snake, he turned his back and did not turn round again." (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:31)

The important thing to look at here is the expression of Allah Almighty, "like a snake". This time the staff did not in fact turn into a snake, but Musa, peace be upon him, saw it as if it was a snake. This was instruction about the magic of the magicians who … would make Musa see their ropes appear as snakes.

Musa and Magic

In this way Allah - glory be to Him and may He be Exalted! instructed Musa in a practical way before he met the magicians about what would happen to him: both about the miracle of the transformation of the staff into a real snake and also about the magic which would be shown to him when he met Pharaoh's magicians. But what happened when Musa confronted Pharaoh's magicians? The Almighty says:

"He said, 'No, you throw!' And suddenly their ropes and staffs appeared to him by their magic, to be slithering about." (Surah Ta-Ha, 20:66)

Here we must note the words of Allah Almighty, "appeared to him," referring to Musa, peace be upon him. It appeared to him that the staffs and ropes which Pharaoh's magicians threw had been transformed into snakes. In other words the magicians had bewitched Musa's eyes so that he saw the ropes and staffs, which they had thrown in the form of snakes. He did not see them as the ropes and staffs that they actually were. This is corroborated by the words of Allah Almighty:

 "Musa felt in himself a feeling of alarm." (Surah Ta-Ha, 20:68)

In other words Musa himself felt afraid. This is an indication that his eyes had been bewitched. If he had seen the ropes and staffs of Pharaoh's magicians as the ropes and staffs that they really were, he would not have felt alarmed. Why should he feel fear when he saw staffs and ropes cast down in front of him and they remained as they were without their nature changing? He must, therefore, have seen them in the form in which the magicians of Pharaoh wanted them to appear to him. No transformation did in fact take place but Musa imagined that the ropes and staffs had been changed into snakes. The sorcerers of Pharaoh had bewitched his eyes. Because he was the Messenger of Allah, Allah Almighty sustained him:

"We said, 'Have no fear. You will have the upper hand. Throw down what is in your right hand. It will swallow up what they have done. They have only done a magician's trick. Magicians do not prosper wherever they go?" (Surah Ta-Ha, 20:68-69)

Thus although the eyes of Musa were bewitched, Allah - glory be to Him and may He be Exalted! - braced him with revelation and told him not to fear, but to cast his staff so that the miracle would take place. That still happened despite the fact that Allah had instructed Musa about what would happen with the magicians, both in respect of the miracle of the transformation of the staff into a snake and the illusion which would occur. This is not in any sense a shortcoming. Musa was a mortal Messenger, and he was subject to the laws of his humanness -but he was also supported and sustained by Allah Almighty.

The Hadith of Magic

Now we come to the Messenger of Allah Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. AI-Bukhari relates in his Sahih collection (10: 192) and Muslim in his Sahih collection (4:1719) from A’isha, may Allah be pleased with her, who said;

"The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was bewitched by one of the Jews of Banu Zurayq called Labid ibn al-A'sam. So the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, began to imagine that he had done something when he had not. One day -or night -the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, made supplication for a long period and then said, 'O 'A'isha, are you aware that Allah has informed me about the matter I asked him about? Two men came to me. One of them sat at my head and the other at my feet. The one who was at my head asked the one who was at my feet (or vice versa), "What is wrong with the man?" The other man said, "He is under the effect of magic." He asked, "Who has bewitched him?" He said, "Labid ibn al-A'sam." He said, "What was it done with?" He replied, "With a comb and the hair stuck to it and the skin of the pollen of a male date-palm." He said, "Where is it?" He said, "In the well of Dhi Arwan."

"The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, went to that well with some of his Companions. Then he said, 'O 'A'isha, by Allah, its water was red like an infusion of henna and its date-palms were like the heads of shaytans.' 'Messenger of Allah, did you burn it?' He replied, 'No. Allah has cured me and I disliked to let evil spread among the people, so I ordered that the well be filled in.’”

So ends the hadith which is related in al-Bukhari and Muslim about what happened to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. This hadith has provoked much debate among scholars.

What is important is the documentation of the hadith. As for the fact that magic was worked on the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, there is nothing particularly significant in that. It is in fact a response to the Challenge issued by Allah in His Book. Allah Almighty challenges men and jinn in the Noble Qur'an when He says:

"Say: 'If both men and jinn had banded together in order to produce the like of this Qur'an, they could never have produced its like, even if they backed each other up.'" (Surah Al-Isra', 17:88)

And the Almighty also says:

"Or do they say, 'He has fabricated it'? Say: 'Then produce a surah like it and call on anyone you can apart from Allah if you are being truthful.'" (Surah Yunus, 10:38)

(Continued)