n37 35 The Major Sins Series - MagicSorcery - Abu Usama 417

The Major Sins Series - Magic/Sorcery

Speaker: Abu Usama

Date: 4/17

Opening

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ، أَمَّا بَعْدُ

Introduction to the Third Major Sin

Imam Al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy upon him, says:

"The third major sin is magic (sorcery), because the magician must inevitably disbelieve."

He then brings evidence from the Quran:

"But the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic."

Imam Al-Dhahabi explains that the accursed shaytan has no purpose in teaching people magic except to cause them to fall into shirk with Allah.

He then brings another verse connected to this series of ayat:

"And they (Harut and Marut) do not teach anyone until they say: 'Indeed, we are a trial, so do not disbelieve.'"

The verse continues:

"And they learned from them that by which they cause separation between a man and his wife."

The Reality of Magic in Our Communities

Imam Al-Dhahabi mentions in Kitab Al-Kabair the third kabira, which is magic. As is his sunnah and minhaj, he

gives proof by first bringing the ayat of the Quran and then supporting that with authentic hadith of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him.

He brings those ayat from Surat Al-Baqarah in which Allah has established that sihr is kufr - magic is disbelief.

Allah says: "But the shayateen, they disbelieve. They taught the people magic." So Allah has established in this ayah that the shayateen taught the people magic, and in so doing they became kufr.

Imam Al-Dhahabi said: Because the shaytan who was cursed, his desire in teaching people magic and making them practitioners of magic, his desire behind that is so that they will fall into shirk.

Then he brought another ayah connected to those series of ayat in which he's speaking about Harut and Marut, two of the angels of Allah. Harut and Marut did not teach anyone this magic except that they said to the people before teaching them the magic: "Verily we are a trial for you, so do not disbelieve."

They learned from Harut and Marut at Babylon those things that would divide a man and his woman, those things which will make discord between a man and his wife.

The deal from that is that magic is disbelief, and as such it's a kabira from the kabair. Before Harut and Marut taught the people magic, they said to them: "We are a trial for you people, so do not disbelieve. Do not become disbelievers by learning magic and practicing magic."

Common Misunderstandings About Magic

After bringing these two ayat, Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi said: "Ikhwan, many of the people unfortunately are astray as it relates to the issue of magic because they see magic as being something that's only prohibited, but they don't recognize that magic is something that is kufr. It is disbelief. So they go into it and they learn it when it is a clear action of disbelief."

For example, those people who tie knots and cause a man to love his wife, or cause the wife to love the husband, or cause a man to hate his wife, or cause the wife to hate her husband. Most of the time when they are using these words of magic, they are simply words that are not clear and are ambiguous, and they entail and include shirk and falsehood.

Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi is not living in our community, and there may be some people in the audience who may even say: "Magic? Why would he mention magic as being the third thing, and there are issues bigger than magic?" When in fact there are people in our masjid right now who know other people who magic has been worked on them, or they know someone who he himself is a magician.

Unfortunately, many times when the mother of the husband has a problem with the wife, she'll put a magic potion on her daughter-in-law, or she'll put a magic potion on her son in order to cause the divorce.

Two Extreme Positions Regarding Magic

There are some people from the Muslims who don't believe in magic at all, and that's another example of Al-Ghulu in the deen and Al-Jahl. They don't believe in magic and they use their intellect to deny and to reject magic.

So you have those people who practice magic - and that's overboard because the person is exceeding the limits and he's falling into the hudud of Allah - and then you have the other extreme: those Muslims who use their intellect and they say "I don't believe in magic. We have to be an ummah that is advanced and caught up with technology. If we believe in magic, this is from the superstitions of the nations gone by."

Or they say: "If it is true that Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, was affected by magic (mashoor), if this is possible, then that means that the Quran - we don't know what's authentic in the Quran and what's not authentic, because maybe there was an ayah that was revealed when Rasulullah was under the influence of magic." So therefore they reject magic.

Or the clear ayahs that establish magic, like the issue with Harut and Marut, the issue with Sulaiman, they say: "No, how is it possible that Harut and Marut are from the Malaika and they came down and taught the people magic, and the Malaika do not fall into any sins, not to mention the kabair?" So they use their intellect in order to push away the evidences that are established in the Quran.

Dealing With Texts We Don't Understand

I want to say, brothers, as it relates to any text of the Quran or any hadith of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, if there is an issue or a problem that a Muslim has with understanding some aspect of Islam, he has to be wary and afraid. He has to take it as a serious issue to find it easy to push away and discard any hadith of Rasulullah if that hadith is authentic and he doesn't understand it.

He has to say: "I am going to criticize my own understanding before I criticize the ayat that's in the Quran."

The sister sees that Al-Islam has given the man or her husband many rights (huquq) over her, degrees (darajat) over her. So she's a revert to Al-Islam. She says: "I don't agree with how Al-Islam has made the man over the woman. So therefore those aspects of the man-woman relationship, I don't see that, I don't embrace it, I don't recognize it." That's kufr.

The Muslim is a person who finds a way to say: "It's my understanding, it's my imam's understanding." He never says: "Rasulullah didn't know what he was talking about," or "The meaning of this ayah means something else other than what it is being shown in the particular ayat."

Four Categories of People Who Reject Texts

For that reason, I want to share with you something that's very important that Sheikh Al-Islam Al-Thani, Al-Imam Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziya, may Allah have mercy upon him, mentioned when he talked about the categories of people. We have to be careful of being from any one of these four categories of people.

He said that the people are mutakabirun (arrogant) who reject the text of the Quran and the Sunnah because they don't understand it. Maybe Allah has not chosen this time for you to understand it, but under that ayah or under that hadith, there's a treasure of information that you didn't come to know about it yet. But with some studying, with some ijtihad, with some effort, being a student, Allah will make it apparent to you, manifest to you - maybe not now. So before saying "I do away with the hadith," say "Let me get more knowledge, let me research the issue."

First Category: People of Fiqh

He said the people are mutakabirun. The first mutakabir are those people who work with the fiqh of Al-Islam - those fuqaha, not just the ulama from the fuqaha, but just the regular people in their fiqh: Maliki, Hanbali, Shafi'i, Hanafi. He's a fiqhi on his own particular level. The text of the hadith goes against his madhab, goes against what his imam says, so he rejects the hadith even though it's authentic. And he says: "My imam must have known that hadith. Since my imam didn't take with it, I'm not taking with it."

So we can't be of the mutakabirun from the fuqaha who put their intellect, who put their desires before the text.

Second Category: People of Kalam (Rationalists)

The second group of people he said were the people from ahl al-kalam, the people who use their intellect. So when the text doesn't go with their intellect, they push the text away. They say, for example: "The Christian god Vishnu, or one of the gods that the Hindus believe in, they say that he's everywhere. The Hindus believe that he's everywhere, so therefore why don't we believe that Allah is everywhere? If they can do it, we can do it." That's putting his intellect before the text.

Third Category: People of Tasawwuf (Sufism)

The third group of people that Ibn Qayyim mentioned were the people of at-tasawwuf. The people of at-tasawwuf who decide things are correct or incorrect based upon how it feels to them - what they call al-dhawq (taste). If it tastes good or feels good, or something that they experience in their ahwal (states) and their halat, they say it's from Al-Islam. If it doesn't taste good, then they reject it.

We love Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, so they say: "We're going to go overboard in praising him. We're going to practice his birthday. We're going to go overboard in making a special dhikr." When you bring them the text, they say: "No, no, this doesn't go along with the dhawq, this doesn't go along with what we feel."

Fourth Category: People of Politics

The fourth and final group of people are the siyasiyoon, the people of politics. The people of politics can be the high level of politicians who, when the Quran and the Sunnah don't go against their desires, they push it away. Or the low level of politicians - the jamaat that busy themselves with politics. Their jamaat is a jamaat that calls for the khilafah, for example - everything is the khilafah, the khilafah, or everything is jihad, jihad. And it's political behind that. Everything is something about politics.

Whenever you come to them with a text - you have to do this or you can't do that, it's not permissible to mix, it's not permissible to do that - they say: "No, no, we can't follow that text, we can't follow that ayah, we can't follow that hadith because it doesn't go along with our desire or our purpose in the politics."

So those are the four people we don't want to be from - those four categories that Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziya, may Allah have mercy upon him, mentioned.

Evidence From the Sunnah

After giving those two ayat from the Quran, he brought the adillah (evidence) from the Sunnah of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, and the statements of the companions and the salaf as-salih.

The Ruling on the Magician

He said: The reward or the punishment for being a magician is that that individual is killed. And he's killed because that's what Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, ordered when he was the khalifah.

He wrote a letter to the Muslims, and in that letter, in the Islamic state, in the Islamic empire, he said: "Kill every single magician man and magician woman."

The narrator of this particular athar, may Allah have mercy upon him, said: Umar wrote a letter and he told them to kill every single magician man and magician woman.

Our mother Hafsa, may Allah be pleased with her, she had a jariya (female slave) who put magic on Hafsa. Hafsa, may Allah be pleased with her, had her murdered, had her killed in front of her. She didn't go to the hakim (judge), she didn't go to the khalifah. She had the lady killed in front of her.

The Story of Al-Walid ibn Uqba

In addition to that, there was a leader from the Muslims who was the brother of Uthman ibn Affan, may Allah be pleased with him. His name was Al-Walid ibn Uqba, may Allah be pleased with him. Al-Walid made some mistakes during his khilafah. He drank khamr (alcohol). He made the salat of al-fajr and he was drunk. Instead of making two rakahs, he made four rakahs.

The people who had a problem with the khilafah of Uthman criticized Uthman for what his brother was doing, and they made khuruj (rebellion) against Uthman because of his brother.

Al-Walid ibn Uqba, may Allah be pleased with him, was flogged for drinking khamr. But despite that, the companions still prayed behind him. Despite that, the companions still gave him advice, and they did not make khuruj against Al-Walid.

Al-Walid invited a magician, Ikhwan, to come and to do magic in front of the people and to entertain the people. This is an authentic athar in the Jami' of Al-Imam Al-Tirmidhi.

The man would take a sword and he would cut his neck with the sword that was sharp, and it wouldn't make any wound. And the people were enjoying the festivities.

Upon hearing that, the companion Jundab ibn Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him, he went, he took his sword, and he chopped the man's head off in front of Walid and in front of the people.

The people got up and they started running away. Jundab ibn Abdullah said: "I don't want to kill you people, I don't want to kill you people." But he read the ayat of the Quran. He said: "Do you people do magic while you're watching? Do you? You, the magician, are you doing magic while you people are watching?" That's an ayat of the Quran.

Salman Al-Farisi, may Allah be pleased with him, heard about the incident. Salman said: "It wasn't befitting for Walid to bring the people to watch the magician, because he's an imam and the leader who the people follow. And it wasn't befitting for Jundab ibn Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with them all, to come and take the sword out in the presence of the khalifa."

So those are clear proofs that show us that al-sihr - the one who is a practitioner of al-sihr - he is to be killed.

Question: How Can Hafsa and Jundab Execute Without Authority?

Someone may ask the question, ikhwan, and it would be an intelligent question: How is it possible that Hafsa, may Allah be pleased with her, can kill her jariya without raising the issue to the authority? And how is it possible that Jundab ibn Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him, can come and take a man's life without the authority? How is that possible?

Especially in light of the fact that we've mentioned from the minhaj as-sahih, from the Islam that is sahih, is that it is haram for any of us to go out and to take the affairs into our own hands. It is haram for someone to go out and to perform or execute an honor killing, even if the person we want to kill deserves to be killed because that person did something to his family or something to him that Al-Islam will give the ruling that he's killed.

It's not for any of us to execute the ahkam of the hudud, unless obviously someone comes into your home and you protect yourself, someone tries to harm you in the street and you protect yourself, and in the process you kill him - that's okay. But to go out and to look for the thief or the murderer, this is not permissible.

So how is it possible that Hafsa had the lady killed? Because people will take these examples, Ikhwan, and for our young brothers who want to practice Islam and spread the Sunnah, they'll show you this authentic hadith and then you think it's okay to go out and to assassinate someone who doesn't agree with you.

The Answer

The answer to that is simple. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, has allowed in Al-Islam, if a person has a slave, it is permissible for that person who owns a slave to establish the hadd on his slave. That's permissible, and it happened during the time of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, on a number of occasions. So the permissibility of it is restricted, it is constricted, it is tight.

He says, peace and blessings be upon him, in an authentic hadith that's been collected by Imam Al-Bukhari and Muslim:

(Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)

"If the female slave of any of you commits zina and her zina is apparent and proven, then flog her. And if she does it a second time, then flog her. And if she does it a third time, then sell her, even for the meager price of a piece of rope."

So he allowed that to happen.

Imam Al-Bukhari in his book Al-Adab Al-Mufrad brought the circumstance in which the blind companion who was in love with his jariya - he wasn't married to her, but she was his jariya, and he loved her because of the benefit that he received from her. But she used to curse Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him. And the man would warn her: "You better stop saying that." And the lady would continue to curse Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him.

He knocked her down on the ground and got on top of her and split her head open with an axe and killed her. They took the situation to Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, and told him the story. When he heard what she was doing - making insult and abuse of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, which is kufr - Rasulullah said: (أَلَا إِنَّ دَمَهَا هَدْرٌ - Verily her blood is halal. Her blood is free to flow.)

So this situation here: the people who killed the other people, they killed their slaves. They killed their slaves. In the issue of Hafsa, it was the jari of Hafsa. In the issue of Jundab ibn Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with them all, it was a jari, it was an abd (slave).

In addition to that, Al-Walid ibn Uqba is the khalifa, and he allowed it to be done, so he did it in front of the khalifa.

Again, I want to repeat and reiterate: Al-Islam is not a religion of confusion. It is not permissible for anyone to go out and to search for the one who has done wrong to him. So if you go to the book Usul As-Sunnah of Imam Ahmed - Usul As-Sunnah - when he starts dealing with the Khawarij and the thieves, he said:

"If the thief comes into your house, from the usul of the Sunnah is that you protect yourself, and if you kill him, you did what is permissible. If he kills you, you are a shaheed. He said, but if the thief, if the criminal, if the thief runs away, he said we do not follow him, we do not chase after him. You leave that for the people who are in charge."

Other than that, it is not permissible.

Hadith: Three Who Will Not Enter Jannah

Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi brought the hadith of Rasulullah and the authority of Abu Musa Al-Ash'ari, may Allah be pleased with him:

(Authentic hadith)

"Three people will not enter into Jannah: The first person is the one who is addicted to alcohol. He is addicted to narcotics (and alcohol also includes all kinds of drugs and narcotics). The second person is the person who breaks the tie of relationship - whoever that relationship may be. He breaks the tie of relationship, which is a kabira from the kabair. And finally, and this is the shahid (point of evidence): the person who believes in magic and the magician."

He goes to the magician, he goes to the kahin (soothsayer), and he believes in what that individual has said.

(Authentic hadith)

"Whoever has relationships with a woman while she is on her menses, and whoever has relationships with a woman in her anus, and anyone who goes to a soothsayer and then believes what they say, they have disbelieved in what was revealed on Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, from the Quran and the authentic Sunnah of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him."

So ikhwani, the magic and the practicing of magic is a kabira from the kabair because it is kufr. And the one who practices it is having the threat of being killed in the religion of Al-Islam.

Imam Al-Dhahabi's Important Guidance

Finally, Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi closes out the chapter, ikhwan, with what I believe is some words that should be translated word for word and should be passed out. It shows the benefit of this book. It is not just the book of al-

kabair, it is a book of hadith and the sciences of hadith, and most importantly, it is a book of aqidah and a book of minhaj.

Because he ends the chapter with some tremendously important words that we are not going to read all of, but we are going to share with you some of it.

He said: Listen to this statement and compare Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi to some of the people who are calling to Al- Islam today, and to some of the people who claim as-salafiyah, and the way they are practicing Al-Islam and calling to as-salafiyah.

And I remind you that Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Qayyim was the student of Ibn Taymiyyah. Ibn Taymiyyah, when he came and he started his dawah, may Allah have mercy upon him, he had a lot of enemies because he was inviting the ummah to come back to the Quran and the Sunnah and the understanding of the salaf of the ummah from the companions, may Allah be pleased with them.

And whenever you do that, you are going to have enemies because of the four categories that were mentioned: the people of kalam (rationalism/intellect), the people of the turuq as-sufiyah (Sufi orders), the people who want to have the fiqh according to what the madhab and the imam said.

And the imam, Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, called the people back to the unadulterated Quran and Sunnah. So everybody was against him. But he used to not deal with the people the way they dealt with him. They used to lie against him, and he didn't lie against them.

The Example of Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta - everyone knows Ibn Battuta Al-Khurafi. He was an Arab man who traveled all over the world, and his trips are recorded in books. Ibn Battuta got on the minbar and he hated Ibn Taymiyyah so much because he established the aqidah sahihah.

He said: "Ibn Taymiyyah was a person who believed that Allah comes down in the third part of the night the way I come down off of the minbar." So he got off of the minbar and he came down. He said: "I heard Ibn Taymiyyah do that and I saw him do it."

And when he said that, Ibn Taymiyyah at that particular time was in prison. He wasn't even there. Ibn Taymiyyah wasn't able to give a khutbah anywhere. So the people who were his enemies used to lie against him.

Ibn Al-Qayyim's Mercy and Balance

Ibn Taymiyyah was the direct teacher and sheikh of Ibn Al-Qayyim. And you see Ibn Taymiyyah's teachings rubbing off on Ibn Al-Qayyim.

Ibn Al-Qayyim said here in closing out this chapter, showing the rahmah (mercy) that they used to have for this ummah - because ahl as-sunnah are the most knowledgeable people about the truth and the most merciful people upon the creation - he said:

"You should know that the kabair as an issue, and the majority of the kabair, most of the Muslims of this ummah, they don't even know about the impermissibility of many of the kabair, and it has not reached them the seriousness of the issue because they don't read, they don't know."

He went on to say: "So as it relates to the Muslims, there is some detail that needs to be known when we look at them, when we judge them. You can't judge everyone the same way. He said there's some tafsil (distinctions) that you have to know when passing judgment."

He said: "Therefore it is necessary for the scholar and the one who knows not to rush when he's dealing with the ignorant person from the Muslims. He has to have mercy upon him. He has to be easy with him. And he has to teach him from what Allah has taught him, especially as it relates to those people who are new to Al-Islam and they've just recently left Al-Jahiliyyah."

A person who grew up in the country where there's kufr in his place - it is not the country in the city of Al-Islam he was captured as a slave and forcefully taken to the Islamic lands. He was purchased by an Amir who was Turkish. Or he himself is a non-Arab, so he's brought and he doesn't know the Arabic language, and as a result of that, he has no knowledge whatsoever about his religion.

"So this is the way we are to deal with the Muslims."

The Example of the Woman Leading Prayer

Even that lady in America, two, three weeks ago, who insisted on praying the Salat of Al-Jumu'ah with the Muslims the way she did - wallahi ikhwan, we say when she did what she did, that's a kabira from the kabair. But we know people like that are from the most ignorant people in the dunya before passing the ruling of at- takfir on her, before saying that the lady is from the CIA or the FBI.

We have to establish the argument against her and every other Muslim before saying a person is a kafir, because the companions of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him - wallahi they did worse than that. There are examples where they did worse than the lady leading the salat in the Jumu'ah prayer, and yet they didn't disbelieve.

The Example of Muadh ibn Jabal

Muadh ibn Jabal was sent by Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, to Yemen to give dawah to Allah. He went to Yemen and he called the people to Al-Islam for a number of years. And then he heard that Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, is going to make Hajj this year. Yemen is close to Mecca, closer to Mecca than Al-Medina where he was.

So he traveled to meet Rasulullah in Mecca. When he saw Rasulullah - his beloved, the one who he loved more than anything else in the world - he couldn't help himself except that he wanted to respect him. So he fell down and made sajdah to Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him.

Everyone knows that a sajdah is for Allah and Allah alone. Everyone knows that Muadh ibn Jabal - from his special characteristics - on Yawm Al-Qiyamah, Muadh will come and he'll carry the flag and he'll be in front of all of the ulama because he's an alim from this ummah.

And yet Muadh made sajdah to Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him. Rasulullah was surprised and shocked. He said: "Ya Muadh, Muadh, what are you doing?"

Muadh said: "Ya Rasulullah, in Yemen those people, whenever they meet and greet the respected from amongst them, they make sajdah to them. So I'm using qiyas (analogy). You are better than those people they make sajdah to. Since they make sajdah to them and you're better than them, I shall make sajdah to you."

Everyone knows this story. The Prophet said: "If I was going to order someone to make sajdah to someone else, I would have ordered the woman to make sajdah to her husband."

That's kufr and that's shirk, but Muadh did not go outside of Islam.

The Example of Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a

Allah has mentioned in the Quran in so many ayahs: "Don't take the Jews and the Christians as helpers. Muslims, they are helpers one to another, and whoever takes them as a helper, he's from them."

The companion of Rasulullah, Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a, wrote a letter to the kuffar preparing them to fight Rasulullah. He helped them directly to kill Rasulullah, to fight, to prepare, to get ready.

Umar said: "Ya Rasulullah, he's a munafiq. Let me chop his head off."

Rasulullah did not say: "Ya Umar, he's not a munafiq." That was an action of the munafiqeen. No one can say anything or do something that's haram in his presence except that he has to put the best construction to it.

Umar said: "He's a munafiq, let me kill him."

He didn't say he's not a munafiq. He asked him: "Why did you do that?"

He told him: "Ya Rasulullah, you know, in Mecca I have my family, I have my money. No one is there to protect them. I wrote the letter to them hoping that they will give me a break, they will help me, they'll leave my money and my family alone."

So the Prophet said: "He's from the people of Badr. Maybe Allah looked over the deeds of the people of Badr and told them: 'Do whatever you want to do."

So ikhwani, what Hatib ibn Abi Balta'a did is helping the kuffar, not over the Muslims only, but over Rasulullah. But he had a reason that he did it. And even though it was still a crime and it was wrong, nonetheless, he was ma'dhur (excused). He had an excuse, and there are too many examples of that.

The Example of Aisha

Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, went to visit the people in the Baqir to visit the dead people. After coming into the home of Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, he lay down in bed, took his clothes off, took his shoes off. He lay there until he thought that Aisha fell asleep.

When he thought she slept, he got up, took his clothes, took his shoes, closed the door very quietly, and he went. She followed him. She said in the hadith: "I put on my khimar and I put on my niqab and I tightened my waistband." Another clear dalil that the niqab was wajib upon the wives of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him.

She said: "I followed him to the Baqir. I saw him raise his hands three times. And then when he turned, I turned. When he ran, I ran. When he came and he got in the bed, I was breathing hard."

So he said: "Ya Aisha, why are you breathing like that?"

She said: "Nothing, nothing is wrong with me."

He said: "If you don't tell me, Allah is going to tell me."

And then she told him the story: "I thought you were going to go to one of your wives' home."

She was asked by Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him: أَظَنَنْتِ أَنْ يَحِيفَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ بِكِ يَا عَائِشَةُ؟ - "Ya Aisha, did you think that Allah and His messenger would oppress you and not deal justly with you?"

Before, when Aisha told him, he said: "If you don't tell me, Allah is going to tell me."

Aisha said: "Ya Rasulullah, do you mean to tell me Allah knows what's in the hearts of the people?"

Aisha didn't know that Allah knows everything. She thought maybe Rasulullah would be unjust, unfair. That's kufr, that's not permissible. But yet she didn't go outside of the religion of Al-Islam.

The Balanced Approach

The point, ikhwan: the companions used to fall into a lot of issues. And Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi here is teaching us in the book of al-kabair: when the Muslims fall into the kabair, like the kabira of as-sihr, it was something that was prevalent during his time, and it's prevalent now. People go into the soothsaying. Other than that, it would be going over the board, exceeding the limits for us to pronounce takfir on people without the tafsil (distinction), without making distinctions between who's doing what and why they are doing it.

Does that mean, ikhwani, that every individual who does something that's kufr, he is excused in the religion? It doesn't mean that. So we have to be balanced.

There are certain things that if people do them, they are not excused. Iblis - Allah said in the Quran in the issue with Adam:

"He said: 'I am better than him. You created me from fire and You created him from clay."

He made ta'weel (interpretation), but that wasn't an excuse from him. None of the knowledge had to be brought to him. There are certain things that people say and do that's not permissible.

If someone takes this Quran and he uses the Quran for toilet tissue or as toilet paper, there's no excuse for a person in something like that. That's kufr. Who in his right mind with the correct fitrah is going to take the Quran and throw it inside of the toilet? No one except the person who has found his way into his heart.

But in general, the Muslims, we have to establish the argument upon them.

"And We never punish until We send a messenger."

"And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers."

Until we send to the people a warner.

Conclusion

There's some more words, but we're going to stop here because we want to stop exactly at 9 o'clock, insha'Allah ta'ala, today. So we're going to stop here with this kabira of the sihr, and next week, insha'Allah, is the kabira of leaving the salat in Al-Islam.

Questions and Answers

Question: How do we deal with sihr if we think that someone has performed sihr against us or our family and has caused discord between a husband and his wife?

You do what the Prophet did, peace and blessings be upon him, and that is: read the mu'awwidhatain - the two surahs that were read for surat al-maghrib today: Surat Al-Falaq and Surat An-Nas.

When the magic was worked on him by the Jew Labid ibn al-A'sam, that particular man Rasulullah didn't kill him, peace and blessings be upon him. So some people dispute that the magician should be killed because Rasulullah did not kill the man who made magic on him.

But he didn't kill the man for a number of reasons, weighing the benefits and the harms. Had he killed the man, it could have been a problem, so he didn't kill the man. Just as he didn't kill the Jewish lady who poisoned him - she tried to kill Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, tried to take another life that was haram for her to take, the life of a nabi. But it was some weighing of the good and the evil. So that is not a proof.

When that man put magic on Rasulullah and the lady who was a magician from the Jews put magic on Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him - the blowing on knots - Allah sent two angels to him and revealed those two ayahs.

So reading the Quran, especially the last two surahs of the Quran, reading also the other parts of the Quran.

Ajwa Dates

Those of you who go to Umrah and to Mecca for Hajj: there is a type of date that will protect you from as-sihr, which is called al-ajwa. So instead of spending all of your time in the marketplace, purchase the ajwa date.

Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

Hadith Reference: Authentic hadith - "Whoever wakes up in the morning and he eats seven dates of al-ajwa that are from Medina, he eats seven dates of al-ajwa every morning - he won't be hit, he won't be afflicted by magic or poison. Magic or poison."

Someone might say: "What does a date have to do with magic? I don't take that, I don't believe that." Maybe there is some knowledge in there, a treasure that you don't know about yet.

Du'a for Protection

From the protections of as-sihr, obviously, are du'a, especially for the children. The du'a that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, used to make upon his children or his grandchildren.

Question: Is card tricks and similar tricks magic? Should we refrain from them?

Yes, we should refrain from them. But the ulama have differences. In their sleight of hand, there are those ulama who say that it's magic and you should be killed, and it's a kabira from the kabair. Others say this is not the

magic that is haram where you are killed - it's haram because it's lying, it's iftira (falsehood), it's playing games. But the trickery of the eye is not considered to be the sihr that the Quran is talking about in the issue that we dealt with today.

The magic of Fir'awn's magicians - the magicians of Fir'awn - as Allah said in the Quran:

"Those magicians, they put magic on the eyes of the people and made the people afraid, and they came with a great example of magic."

They made the snake look like it was moving, but it was just from the imagination, from what appeared like that, but it wasn't real.

People can do their finger some way and make it look like they took their finger off. They elevate themselves off of the ground. Those are optical illusions and trickery. That's not the magic that a person is killed for, with the majority of the ulama of Al-Islam. But it should be avoided in either case.

Question: How can Harut and Marut teach people what's haram and they are angels?

It's known, ikhwani, that the angels, as Allah described them in the Quran:

"So this ayah explains the angels who are over the hellfire and other than them: They do not disobey Allah, and they do what they are ordered to do."

They don't disobey Allah. They don't have the propensity and the ability to disobey Allah. There's no sin with them, and they do what they are ordered to do.

So Allah ordered them to go and teach the people magic as a fitna, as an trial, as a test. And before teaching them, they said, as the ayah said: "We are a trial to you, so don't disbelieve." That's the first answer, and what seems to be the strongest position: they do what Allah ordered them to do.

Making sajda to anyone and anything is shirk and haram. But when Allah said:

"And when We said to the angels: 'Prostrate to Adam,' they prostrated except Iblis."

They made sajda when Allah ordered them to make sajda. Sajda is haram unless Allah orders you. Killing is haram unless Allah orders you. So we are like the angels in that issue. We just follow, we hear and we obey.

Alternative Understanding

The second issue - and this is important as well - is that some of the ulama don't believe that Harut and Marut taught magic. They believe that Harut and Marut taught the people tawhid and iman, and that magic was haram by the text of the ayat itself. And it goes to show the importance of the Arabic language.

Some of the ulama understand the ayat like that:

Quran 2:102 - "The shayateen were reading during the time of Sulaiman. Sulaiman didn't disbelieve, but the shayateen disbelieved. They taught the people magic. And nothing of magic was revealed on Harut and Marut."

So some of the ulama understand the ayat like that. But the first position seems to be the strongest position: that they did what Allah ordered them to do.

Question: What is the general advice for our children reading books and stories of magic, as is the case of many children's books?

They're books that we purchased for them, ikhwani. We shouldn't purchase them for them, and we should teach them that it's not permissible. Some of the most famous books contain magic in them.

Jack and the Beanstalk is a book of magic and a book of lies, as we mentioned before. Jack and the Beanstalk - the beans that Jack purchased were magic beans that made the thing grow up, and it went all the way up into the sky where the giant lived up there. And the goose was laying the golden eggs that Jack went up to steal from the goose. And then he ran down and chopped the tree, and then when the giant came down, he fell, and Jack murdered the giant.

So obviously, ikhwani, this is stretching the situation - this is stretching it - but that's the story. So instead of preoccupying and busying our children with the stories of superstitions and lies and magic, we sit them down and we explain to them why magic is haram and what is magic.

We explain to them that Adam, our father, used to be a giant, and that the people of Thamud used to be giants, and they used to do this and so forth and so on. We teach them the religion: killing is haram, stealing is haram. Why did Jack try to turn a corner? But we make sure that we teach them these stories are not true, they're from superstitions, and Al-Islam is better.

Will we take what is worse? Will we change what's better for what is worse, as the Jews wanted to do so many times in the Quran?

Question: The story I have heard that Imam Al-Dhahabi warned against and spoke against Imam Ibn Taymiyyah - is this true?

This is a lie that was presented by a number of the people who were enemies to Ibn Taymiyyah, recently and in the past. One famous imam who was a scholar of this deen from the Shafi'i madhab, who used to get Ibn Taymiyyah arrested a lot, he was the main judge in the area: Al-Imam Al-Subki, who wrote the famous book Tabaqat Ash-Shafi'i.

Tremendous scholar in Al-Islam, bonafide scholar in Al-Islam. But he had some issues, he had personal problems with Al-Imam Ibn Taymiyyah. So if they can have problems, why can't people today have problems from the ulama? They have problems between themselves, and it's not permissible for you and I to make loyalty and disavowal based on the problems that are clearly personal between scholars.

So Al-Imam Al-Subki - Al-Imam Ibn Taymiyyah, when he said that the three divorces - "your divorce, your divorce, your divorce" in one setting - he said: "No, if someone divorces his wife like that, it only counts as one, as it used to be during the time of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, and then during the time of Abu Bakr. And then during the time of Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, the people who did it a lot, so Umar, being the khalifa, he said: 'If you people do this, it's going to count as three,' because the people became lackadaisical and they became too easy with this."

When Al-Imam Al-Subki heard this fatwa of Ibn Taymiyyah, he arrested him, had him arrested and put him in prison. He got out of the prison.

So the troublemakers asked Ibn Taymiyyah some more questions: "Is it permissible for a person to leave Britain, to ride his horse, to ride a plane, and to go to Bayt Al-Maqdis? Go to Bayt Al-Maqdis to visit the grave of Al-Khalil Ibrahim, Khalilullah? Or to go to the grave of Rasulullah, and his niyyah is to visit the grave?"

He said: "It's not permissible. You can't travel to any grave. You only can travel to the three masajid." Put him in prison, locked him up again.

So Al-Imam Al-Subki, may Allah have mercy upon him and pardon us and him - he was the one who wrote this thing and attributed that Al-Imam Ibn Qayyim had a problem with his sheikh Ibn Taymiyyah.

But that doesn't mean, ikhwani, that Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziya, may Allah have mercy upon him, did not refute Ibn Taymiyyah. He would refute his sheikh, and he had a famous statement that we should memorize and we should say. And he said:

"Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah is our beloved, we love him. But the truth, or the truth itself, is more beloved to us than he is."

And then he would go and make his point and refute the point of his sheikh, may Allah have mercy upon him. And that was the tarbiyah (upbringing) of Ibn Taymiyyah to all of his students. And then after Ibn Qayyim, his students dealt with him like that. Al-Dhahabi dealt with him like that, and everyone dealt with him like that.

So as it relates to this issue of Al-Imam Al-Dhahabi and Al-Imam Ibn Taymiyyah criticizing each other and making these statements, it is not true.

Final Question

The last thing that I want to make about this point - I don't know if it was in this masjid, but it seems to be quite recent. Could have been in London over the weekend. Someone said the question was asked in London in the Masjid Al-Huda in Whitechapel, our Somalian community. Someone wrote a question and said: "Is it true that Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy upon him, established body parts to Allah - everything except the private part? Because I heard that that's what people are saying: that he had Allah - Ibn Taymiyyah believed that Allah was everything that a human being is except the private part."

Well, if he's going to establish all of that, now why not establish the private part as well? It's a lie. A lie that's made up by people who, subhanAllah, they don't like the pure tawhid and the pure aqidah, so they're against his people.

This is the last question, inshallah.

Question: The blue eye? Some people put the blue eye of a blue stone in their cars, in their windows, in their homes to protect from the evil eye.

We don't know anything that is authentic from the Sunnah that has this type of instruction being given to us. The evil eye is true, as the Prophet told us, peace and blessings be upon him. The evil eye is true.

But the way we ward off the evil eye is holding on to our deen. And if someone is afflicted with it, he goes and asks that individual to take a shower, and he takes from that water, and he bathes in the water that the person who he thinks or believes gave him the evil eye.

Important Clarification

Another point, ikhwan, is: we reject the statement that some of the people say that have good intentions when they want to encourage us to hold on to our religion. They say magic can only affect the individual who has weak iman - he doesn't pray, he doesn't fast, he doesn't wear the hijab, not holding on to the religion.

No, that is not a true statement. It's not true just like that. If anyone can be affected, it's definitely the one who is weak in his iman, for sure. But magic and the evil eye can afflict the person who is the imam of the muttaqeen, like it happened with our Prophet and our Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him.

But the stronger the person's iman is, and the stronger his tawakkul is, and the stronger his yaqeen in Allah is, then obviously the less he's going to open the door for shaytan to preoccupy him.

Wisdom Behind the Prophet Being Affected

So what is the hikmah (wisdom) that Allah allowed Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, to be hit and afflicted with as-sihr?

One of the clear wisdoms is so that we'll know what to do if it happens to us.

Another of the clear wisdoms is to prove, ikhwani: Rasulullah is not from the light of Allah. Rasulullah is a human being (bashar). Can Allah become affected by magic? Can Allah have magic worked on Him? This is from the clearest proofs for us to hold on to worshiping Allah and using Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, as the vehicle that showed us how to worship Allah. The light of Allah cannot become affected by magic.

And also from the wisdom of that is that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him - the more trials you have in this dunya, the higher your place is going to be. So his trial was severe, to the point that when he was affected by magic, when he had the magic worked on him, he would prepare to make a ghusl.

And our mother Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, would say: "Where are you going, Rasulullah?"

He said: "I'm going to make ghusl because we have relationships."

She said: "We didn't have relationships."

He thought he had relationships, and he didn't have relationships. It was to that level and that degree.

Final Advice on Magic

The last thing about magic, ikhwani: every nosebleed doesn't mean you have magic on you. Every headache doesn't mean you have magic on you. That's how some of us are. We have mental problems. We have those who make wudu - waswas (whispers) - he keeps making wudu. Then we have the people who are paranoid: "He's giving me the evil eye. She put the magic on me. No, I'm not going to visit them and I'll break the ties of relations because they put the magic. The child died, they put the magic on me."

Now this is not from the religion of Al-Islam. There are ways to know that people have put magic on you, and there are ways to know that you are not a person who has magic but instead you have a chemical imbalance and you need some medical treatment. You need to go see professional people. So you have to determine when and how that is, and there are people who know how to do that, ikhwan.

Warning Against Superstitious Practices

Stay away from the Pir who has superstitions. The Pir who has superstitions - you want to go and he writes you a potion and he burns it and you drink it. You go and she says: "I have headaches, I have bad headaches," so the

Pir tells the people: "Paint the room all red, get a red blanket on the bed, make the carpet red, paint the door red, the pillow red, and then it's going to go away."

What is that, ikhwan? The same people who tell us: "I don't believe that people can go to the moon. If they did go to the moon, let them go to the moon on the first day when the moon is small - they can't step on the moon, they'll fall off." That's how people are.

Don't take your religion from those people, ikhwan.

So we're going to stop here, inshallah.

End of Lecture