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Protection from the
'EVIL'
Over the years since the beginning of
mankind till the present day, humans have discovered many new
sciences and have gradually become more and more equipped with
various different skills of surviving. The art of warfare,
harvesting, building, language, medicine, magic, and
mathematics etc had already reached high peaks before the dawn
of Islam and the revelation of the ultimate guidance. Some were
taught by Prophets such as making armour, writing, some through
experience could experiment such as medicine, and some taught
by Jinn's such as magic, fortune telling etc. The Qur'an is a
manual and guide to how to use these arts and science, and
outlines what is beneficial and what is harmful, both
spiritually and physically.
Medicine was common amongst the Sahabas.
They and the Prophet (SAW) both used it. Before Islam, they
used unlawful elements and believed that the actual medicine
does the cure. However, Islam did not forbid it totally but
instead put restrictions on it.
Narrated in Muslim by Jaabir (RA) that
the Prophet (SAW) said: "For every illness there is a cure.
When the cure of the illness is found then he is cured with the
order of Allah)." i.e. Allah is the one who cures.
In a narration of Abu Dawood, the
Prophet (SAW) said: "Cure yourself and don't cure with Haram
things."
Similarly doing charms was common and an
effective method of curing illnesses in the time of the
Sahabah. It used to work also. Words have a very strong
spiritual and mental impact on people. A harsh word makes a
person explode with anger. Similarly, illnesses are also a
natural living thing and Allah has placed different cures for
different illnesses in different ways as part of the natural
law. Therefore, some words do affect some illnesses as they
affect humans. Prophet (SAW) put some restrictions on medicine;
he also put restrictions on practising charms but left it
permissible generally. This is because in the days of
ignorance, people used to depend on it and they used satanic
words. The Prophet (SAW) forbade it.
In Abu Dawood, ibn Mas'ood (RA) narrates
that the Prophet (SAW) saying: "Indeed, Charms and talisman (a
lucky charm) are shirk."
Afterwards, when the Imaan of the
Sahabas became stable and they were able to clearly
differentiate from the words of Kufr, the Prophet (SAW) gave
them permission to do practise Charms as a cure for medicine.
Therefore, the first Hadith of prohibition is Mansooq due to
the Hadith of Jaabir Radhiallaho Anho which is related in
Muslim.
The Prophet (SAW) prohibited Ruqa, then
Imran bin Hazm came and said, "We used to do Ruqa from
scorpions." The Prophet (SAW) heard it and said, "I do not see
any problem with it, whoever amongst you can benefit his
brother should do so."
The Hadith in which the Prophet (SAW)
said that whoever does branding i.e. (Burning the cut) or does
Charms has indeed gone out of Tawwakul is based on the teaching
of complete Tawwakul. If this Hadith was to be used for the
prohibition of Charms, then it would mean that Branding should
be prohibited as well, whereas it is agreed upon that is
permissible for medical reasons, as it is reported in Muslim
Shareef. The Prophet (SAW) branded Ubay (RA). If branding is
permissible then Charms is permissible also. To back this up,
there is an even stronger Hadith in Tirmizi Shareef that the
Prophet (SAW) used to take protection from Jinn's and the Evil
eye.
Now another issue arises about Taweez.
Some people take just the apparent meaning of the Hadith that
Charms and Talisman and Taweez is Shirk, and do not analyse it
by considering the other Hadith. The other group of people use
the same argument as Ruqa and say that the only difference
between them is that one is done orally and the other on paper.
They take the Hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar (RA) that he used to
teach his mature children the Masnoon Ta-awuz and write it for
the immature ones and tie it on their necks. It is narrated in
Abu Dawood.
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