Islam and magic
[11][12] The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines siḥr as "bewitchment, beguilement, enchantment, fascination"; and the plural form (ashar) as "sorcery, witchcraft, magic".
Divination (i.e. "prediction of future events or gaining information about things unseen"[22] by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual), has been called "a branch of magic" by "Muslim encyclopedists, such as al-Afkānī, Tāshköprüzade, and Ḥājjī Khalīfah".
It is sometimes seems to be used in place of "magic" (Pew Research Center survey on Muslim beliefs),[23] sometimes excluded from use (Toufic Fahd),[18] sometimes avoided in favor of "sorcery" because it (witchcraft) "evokes the wrong associations" (Remke Kruk)[14]—i.e.
[31]: 90 The description in Q.2:102 of magic as revealed by supernatural creatures (Fallen angels (Hārūt and Mārūt) suggests it is, (in the words of Toufic Fahd), a "fragment of a celestial knowledge ...".
[35] In An-Naml (Surah 27), Solomon is described as having the power to speak with animals and jinn, and command birds and devils, (which according to Islam, he only possesses with God's permission).
Miniature reproductions of the Quran with print too small to read, are used to convey good luck, sometimes dangling from rear view mirrors of motor vehicles or worn as amulets; the ink from their pages sometimes dissolved with water and drunk as a cure for illness.
(His writing indicates that the sorcery he was speaking of was that which produced "injury to the body, mind, or spirit" of the victim -- such as illness, death, discord between husband and wife.
According to Dawn Perlmutter, writing in 2013, "an entire industry of professional exorcists" has arisen in "the Middle East and among Western Muslims", performing Qur'anic healing, posting on YouTube and advertising on Facebook and Twitter.
[6] In the early and classical Islamic world divination (gaining information about future events or things unseen by occult methods)[22] encompassed a range of techniques, "grouped roughly" into those "largely intuitive" (for example, water diviners observed the behaviour of animals, such as the hoopoe, to discover "the presence of underground water")[53] and those employing "numerical or mechanical methods".
[55] In modern times in the Middle East, "fortunetelling", according to Dawn Perlmutter, focuses more on spiritual protection and family counseling than prediction and prophecy.
In addition to reading cards, dice, palms, and coffee grounds, activities include selling amulets to ward off evil spirits and providing advice for marital problems.
In Afghanistan, fortunetellers operate out of small shops or outside of mosques and shrines across the country but are rarely consulted to portend the future; most often their clients are women or the elderly seeking guidance for problems affecting their families.
[56] In Islamic history, Astrology (ʿilm al-nujūm, "the science of the stars"), was "by far" the most popular of the "numerous practices attempting to foretell future events or discern hidden things", according to Savage-Smith.
[58] While casting lots was "considered legitimate" in Islam, according to Savage-Smith, two practices involving chance are prohibited by the Quran: Using the "numerical values of letters" to form a word (ʿilm al-ḥurūf) has been used as divination.
Treatises on divination maintained that "the victor and vanquished" of some battle or event could be determined by "calculating the numerical value of the names of the contenders, dividing each by nine, and finding the remainders on the chart".
An "even more" complicated form involved creating an "intricate circular chart ... concentric circles, letters of the alphabet, elements of astrology, and poetry" and calculating "the degree of the ecliptic on the eastern horizon".
[59] Magic or traditional healing without any dispute and approved by orthodox scholars includes Miracles (karāmāt) are considered gifts of God and distinct from siḥr.
[64][65](p38) A collection of late 14th- or early 15th-century magico-medical manuscripts from Ocaña, Spain describes a different set of 72 jinn (termed "Tayaliq") again under Fuqtus (here named "Fayqayțūš" or Fiqitush), blaming them for various ailments.
[23] A study by Boris Gershman based on surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center (PRC) between 2008 and 2017 of 95 countries (predominantly in the Muslim world, Europe and the Western Hemisphere) found that more than half of Muslims believed in witchcraft (a higher rate than Christians and even higher than religiously unaffiliated respondents), and that the more religious the person surveyed was the more likely they were to believe in witchcraft.
[78] Scholar Remke Kruk found books on magic and sorcery "extremely well represented" in "street stalls and bookshops" in the Muslim world from Marrakesh to Cairo to Yemen circa 2005.
[79] G. Hussein Rassool states that Throughout the Muslim world, there are sorcerers, fortune tellers and traditional healers; many are in violation of interpretations of the Shari’ah (Islamic law).
[2] On the one hand, practices approved by strict Islamic conservatives (called "orthodox" by Kruk) and revivalists to counteract magic include things like the use of water "over which the Quran has been recited" or to which have been added "salt, rose essence, oil of black caraway, or the leaves of the lote tree".
On the other, in traditionally practised "magic and sorcery" now under attack from those strict conservatives, recitation of the 99 names of God and verses of the Quran play "a major part".
Kruk points out how fine the differences between approved and disapproved practices can be—it is acceptable to get in touch with jinn "in exorcisms" to threaten them, but it is shirk to ask their help in a healing;[80][81] dissolving Quranic texts written on paper in water is forbidden, but "writing in bowls with ink that is washed off by the water poured into the bowl", is recommended by the well known conservative, Wahabbi-oriented cleric Wahid 'Abd al-Salam Bali.
In Saudi Arabia (prior to the reign of Muhammad bin Salman), Harry Potter books were "forbidden" and men and women who tend to be drawn from expatriate communities have been beheaded on charges of sorcery.
[83] In 2008, police went to the trouble of luring a well-known Lebanese television psychic, Ali Hussain Sibat, into a sting operation while he was in Saudi on hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
[83] (The power of the Committee for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue that oversees the anti-witchcraft unit has been sharply curtailed under the reign of crown prince Muhammad bin Salman.)
In Iran in 2011, 25 advisers and aides of the then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei were arrested on charges of practising sorcery and black magic.
[6] In Gaza, exorcism is not illegal but treated with considerable suspicion by the Islamist ruling Hamas party, which claimed to have "exposed thirty cases of fraud" in one year, 2010.
[89] In Syria in January 2015 ISIS beheaded a male street performer ("known for entertaining locals with ... magic tricks like making coins and cell phones disappear") in a public square.
