The Messenger and Magic (3/3)

A Supplication for Protection against Magic and Envy

"O Allah, You have given some of Your creatures the power to use magic and do evil, but You have reserved for Yourself the permission to harm. I seek refuge with You from the harm whose infliction You have reserved for Yourself, by Your words, 'They do not harm anyone by it, except with the permission of Allah.'"

If people ask how it is possible for magic to be ineffective, we reply that examples of this happen all the time in normal life. Let us suppose that a man wants to kill me. Allah may have enabled him to purchase the gun to kill me with and to learn how to shoot. He may even have put me together with him in a deserted place where there are no witnesses. However even with all these means at his disposal, does that give him the power to kill me? No, it does not. His hand might shake at the moment he shoots and the bullets miss me. I might move to the right or left by Allah's inspiring me, and the bullet miss. He might tum suddenly or suddenly jump, or a dog suddenly bark and frighten him. Any of these or a thousand other things might happen to prevent my death taking place.

There are many examples of this kind of thing happening. Do we not hear about murderers who go to kill someone and then err in the darkness and kill someone else by mistake? Or they try to strike a certain person and another person comes in between because of the quarrel between them, and the blow does not reach the one for whom it was intended at all.

From this we should understand quite clearly that the mere fact that the means for something to happen is in place does not necessarily mean that the thing will happen because above all causes is the will of the Causer. It is that and that alone which makes the thing occur or not occur, however comprehensive the means.

A ship might sink and the means be there for every passenger to drown, but Allah may will that one or two persons find a barrel which takes them to the shore. A house might collapse and kill everyone in it, but a beam of wood protects the life of a man sleeping under it. A house might collapse on a group of inhabitants and some rescue men arrive and bring out some of them alive and some of them dead although they all lived in the same house and they were exposed to the same circumstances.

Thousands of other examples attest to the fact that Allah is the Doer when the means are unseen.

Action Belongs to Allah Alone

A man might be in the furthest possible place from danger. Then a stray bullet comes from no one knows where and kills him. He might enter a place, such as a cave or basement, to protect himself from a possible danger such as someone attacking him and injuring him. In that place he finds a snake or a wild animal which kills him. Or perhaps the owner of the basement where he has taken refuge thinks he is a thief and therefore shoots him. So he sought refuge from a possible danger but came face to face with a real one.

A believer must always remember that his power is limited and that it is only the power of Allah which has no limits. He should not be subject to the illusion that any man or shay tan has the power to inflict harm on him or injure him apart from the power of Allah - glory be to Him and may He be Exalted!

Allah Almighty calls our attention to the fact that magic or lack of magic will not harm anyone except with the permission of Allah, saying:

"They have learned what will harm them and bring them no benefit. They know that anyone who deals in it will have no share in the Next World. How evil the thing that they have sold themselves/or, if they did but know!" (Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:102)

We have discussed the fact that magic harms both the magician and the bewitched. We made it clear how the magician is afflicted by disasters and dies humiliated, filled with bitterness, sorrow, alienation, poverty, and complete disappointment. The two angels who taught people magic told any who desired to learn from them,

"We are a trial, so do not disbelieve."

But unjust, ignorant man insisted on learning magic, thinking that he was getting something from which much wealth could be gained. He did not know that he had sold himself for an evil price and that he had taken on harm and lost this world and the Next.

Magic does not increase man's opportunities. Rather it leads to disbelief and leads to the loss of this world and the Next. That is why Allah - glory be to Him and may He be Exalted! - calls our attention to the fact that those who practise magic have purchased the vilest thing in this world and sold themselves in order to receive rejection, poverty and the punishment of the Next World.

We have discussed the example of sorcery to which the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was exposed and made it clear that Musa, peace be upon him, was also bewitched when he confronted Pharaoh's magicians and that Allah Almighty supported him; and that the question of our Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, being exposed to magic was part of the fullness of the challenge of this Deen in respect of the jinn. Allah showed His Messenger who had carried out the magic and the place where it was, and that this confirms the Messenger rather than disparaging him in any way.

We have made it clear that Allah Almighty has reserved the permission to harm by magic for Himself alone and therefore that no harm occurs from the magician to the bewitched except by the permission of Allah.

It remains for us to discuss one other unseen force which is hidden from us but about which Allah - glory be to Him and may He be Exalted! - has cautioned us: and that is envy.