Islam and magic
Belief and practice in magic in Islam is "widespread and pervasive" and a "vital element of everyday life and practice", both historically and currently in Islamic culture. Magic range from talisman inscribed with Divine names of God, Quranic verses, and Arabic letters, and divination, to the performance of miracles and sorcery. Most Muslims also believe in a form of divine blessing called barakah. Popular forms of talisman include the construction of Magic squares and Talismanic shirts, believed to invoke divine favor by inscribing God's names. While miracles, considered to be a gift from God, are approved, the practise of black magic '' is prohibited. Other forms of magic intersect with what might be perceived as science, such as the prediction of the course of the planets or weather.
Licit forms of magic call upon God, the angels, prophets, jinn, and saints, while illicit magic is believed to call upon evil jinn and demons. Magic, with the purpose to heal, is permissible and used by means of shielding against the evil eye, sickness, jinn, and demons. The prohibition of magic lies in its alleged effect to cause harm, such as bestowing curses, summoning evil spirits, and causing illnesses. In the past, some Muslim scholars have rejected that magic has any real impact. However, they disapproved of sorcery nonetheless, as it is a means of deceiving people. Despite the disapproval of magic, there has been no notable violence against people accused of practicing magic in the pre-modern period. However, in the modern period, various Islamic movements have shown a more hostile attitude to what is perceived as practise of magic.
Quran
Sixty-six Quranic verses reportedly relate to the subject of magic. Surah 2:102 and many other verses describe magic in a negative light. Its practices are secrets that the humans "ought not to have known"; devils/fallen angels teach it; its practitioners will end up in hell; other verses condemn it as a pagan practice. But the Quran does not forbid magic or prescribe punishment for its practice. In Verse Q.10:2 Muhammad is falsely accused of being a magician by his opponents.Not all verses make negative references to supernatural powers or those that use them. Surah al-Isra suggests that the Quran itself bestows barakah upon hearers and heals them. In An-Naml, Solomon is described as having the power to speak with animals and jinn, and command birds and devils.Aside from what the text of the Quran says about magic, it is thought to have supernatural properties and is used as a source of supernatural protection and healing.
Surah Al-Falaq is used as a prayer to God to ward off black magic, and according to hadith-literature, was revealed to Muhammad to protect him against Jann, the ancestor of the jinn. Surahs Al-Fatiha and An-Nas are also thought to have the ability to generate barakah. There are also individual verses claimed to have power.
Talismanic Magic
The use of symbols, letters, and numbers for magical purpose are deeply embedded in Islamic tradition. They are not only used for means of protection against the evil eye, misfortune, jinn, and demons, but also to bring good fortune, increase fertility, therapeutic means, and to preserve attractiveness. Talisman, inscribed with mystical symbols, often contain one of God's 99 names, the names of angels, or prophets. While virtually all Muslim scholars permit the use of talisman evoking God or one of His intercessors, it is prohibited to address jinn or demons. As such, talisman magic differs from European charms, which usually address minor deities or demons rather than God. Islamic talisman usually contain Quranic verses, pious phrases, or invocations, and function, as has been described, "a supercharged prayer".Until the ninth century, talisman often reflect pre-Islamic artistry. For still unknown reasons, beginning with the 12th century, pre-Islamic designs drop out in favor of other symbolic designs, such as a pentagram, the Seal of Solomon, zodiacal signs. However, most prominent at that time were magical squares. The earliest magical squares were 3x3 squares in which the numerals from 1 through 9 were arranged in a way that all numbers, horizontally, vertically, and diagonally, were arranged in a way that the sum equals 15. This square in particular gained great popularity and was often associated with the four Islamic archangels. 6x6 squares are attested as early as the late 10th century, however, they did not enter magical vocabulary until the 13th century. Magical symbols are also engraved in shirts, known as talismanic shirts, painted with symbols of the Quran. The only preserved today are from the 15th century.
Black Magic (''Siḥr'')
The word usually translated as "magic" in the Quran is siḥr. According to Adam Silverstein, the "Arabic word for 'magic' is siḥr,... in the Qur'an Siḥr means... 'black magic,' but in modern Arabic the same word is used for 'entertaining magic. The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic defines siḥr as "bewitchment, beguilement, enchantment, fascination"; and the plural form as "sorcery, witchcraft, magic". Emilie Savage-Smith gives a very broad definition including "anything wondrous, including elegant and subtle poetry,... sleight-of-hand tricks,... the healing properties of plants,... invocations to God for assistance,... invocations to jinn or demons or the spirits of the planets, and on occasion even to the divinatory art of astrology."Toufic Fahd in the Brill Encyclopedia of Islam usually uses "magic as the translation of sihr", but "occasionally uses sorcery or witchcraft". Fahd himself first defines sihr as that which leads its subject to "believe that what he sees is real when it is not", but also includes "everything that is known as 'white' or 'natural magic. According to Fahd, magic is part of ʿUlūm al-Ghayb, "the occult sciences"; Theurgy, which Radcliff Edmonds describes as the practice of rituals to invoke action or the divine presence, especially to achieve henosis ; White or natural magic ; and Black magic or sorcery.
Michael Dols note that siḥr is mostly referring to sorcery evoking demons, and thus forbidden. In his examination of about sihr in contemporary Islamic society is that it refers to prohibited magic. Remke Kruk defines the practice of siḥr as magic or sorcery, and translates material objects called siḥr as "charms".The Quran provides overall the following picture: When God creates Adam, God orders all the angels to bow down before the new creature. Those terriestrial angels, who opposed the creation of Adam, refused and whereupon became devils; tempters and testers for humanity in order to obstruct them from gaining Divine favor. According to 2:112 siḥr is then taught by the fallen angels Hārūt and Mārūt:
They ˹instead˺ followed the magic promoted by the devils during the reign of Solomon. Never did Solomon disbelieve, rather the devils disbelieved. They taught magic to the people, along with what had been revealed to the two angels, Hârût and Mârût, in Babylon. The two angels never taught anyone without saying, "We are only a test ˹for you˺, so do not abandon ˹your˺ faith." Yet people learned ˹magic˺ that caused a rift ˹even˺ between husband and wife; although their magic could not harm anyone except by Allah's Will. They learned what harmed them and did not benefit them—although they already knew that whoever buys into magic would have no share in the Hereafter. Miserable indeed was the price for which they sold their souls, if only they knew!The description of black magic in the Quran as revealed by the fallen angels/devils suggests it is, a "fragment of a celestial knowledge..." and not forming a separate party among the Jahiliyyah. Based on the verse, Irmeli Perho describes magic as "part of God's creation, like good deeds and bad deeds; like belief and unbelief". Since the magicians "evil actions will only take place if God allows it", magic is accommodated in the Islamic doctrine of "an omnipotent God".
In hadith, siḥr'' develops into a more hostile concept. In an examination of hadith on magic and witchcraft, Irmeli Perho writes that "magic is seen as a power distinct from God, whereas in the Qurʾān magic is a power that is ultimately subject to God's will". In prophetic biographies and hadith, where Muhammad becomes ill because of a magicical charm which is hidden "in a well"; the Prophet suffered from the magic but receives a dream or a visit from Gabriel to tell him how to be cured.
One scholar, Irmeli Perho, notes that all versions of the hadith signify Islamic belief in the power of magic to harm even so great a man as the Prophet of Islam, but the many different variants of the hadith include different solutions to the curse of the charm—in some God's power against the charm is so great Muhammad does not bother to take the magic object out of the well; in others he is asked if he took them out, if he burned them, if he made a counter spell against the charm. In many hadith he answers "God, He is powerful and great, has already cured me", but in one version that statement is absent and Muhammad is only cured after the charm is taken and disassembled—these variants representing to Perho how Muslims don't all believe magic has the same level of power. In the hadith where Muhammad says "God has already cured me", God's power is described as "sufficient to counter the power of magic" and only an outsider/enemy is involved in magic, whereas in the latter hadith "human action" was required to counter the magic. Believers in human action against harmful witchcraft will indicate support for use of "protective spells" and counter spells.
Religious permissibility
Classical period
According to Tobias Nünlist, rather than condemning magic and occultism as whole, Muslim writers on the subject usually distinguished between licit and illicit magical practises. According to Henrik Bogdan, Gordan Djurdjevic, contrary to Western esotericism and occultism, there is no clear conflict between orthodoxy and occultism in Islam. Traditionally, Islam distinguishes between magical miracles bestowed by God as a blessing, and demonic magic. Whether or not sorcery/magic is accessed by acts of piety or disobedience is often seen as an indicator whether sorcery/magic is licit or illicit.Hadith allows the usage of magic for the purpose of healing as long as they do not contain acts of shirk. Another hadith narrates about a practitioner of magic who sought to heal Muhammad from an alleged spirit-possession, but then he meets Muhammad, he learns that Muhammad is inspired by the Holy Spirit and converts to Islam. The story describes the general attitude of magic in Islam: magic is not evil, but inferior to Islam. Ahmad Ibn Hanbal "refrained from condemning" those who used magic to heal, to "the same class as sahirs". Tabasi offered a wide range of rituals to perform sorcery, but also agreed that only magic in accordance with sharia is permissible. Ibn al-Nadim -- a "bookish" pious Muslim, concedes the permissibility of white magic and but condemns the practice of black magic. He traces licit magic back to King Solomon and illicit to Iblis. The licit magicians included exorcists. They obeyed Islamic law and invoked God's name. Illicit magicians or sorcerers, controlled by or controlling demons by deeds or offerings that were displeasing to God. According to Ibn Khaldūn, Miracles , belong to licit magic and are considered gifts of God and distinct from illicit magic :
The difference between miracles and magic is this: a miracle is a divine power that arouses in the soul to exercise influence. The is supported in his activity by the spirit of God. The sorcerer, on the other hand, does his work by himself and with the help of his own psychic power, and, under certain conditions, with the support of devils. The difference between the two concerns the idea, reality, and essence of the matter.
Since the early stages of Islam, Muslim scholars from "multiple theological and legal schools" who disapproved of magic and sorcery did not necessarily considered magic to be evil or sinful, but rather nonsensical or deceptive. Rejection of sorcery by Classical scholars was not based on reason so much as Quranic exegesis. One example is the exegesis on Surah al-Falaq by early scholars, such as Zamakshari. Hanafi jurist Abu Bakr al-Jaṣṣās, argued that if magic was actually real, it's practitioners would be rich and powerful rather than impoverished hustlers of common people in the marketplace. Al-Jahiz's Kitāb al-Hayawān'' offers a variety of psychological explanations for alleged encounters with jinn and devils. The Mu'tazilite rationalists held that magic and sorcery is mere image-making without reality. Ibn Sina and Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, describe magic as merely a tool with the outcome of an act of magic determining whether it is legitimate or not. Al-Razi "includes under sorcery the use of the hidden properties of foodstuffs, medicines and unguents"; but traditional medicines are both widely practiced in the Islamic world and "never subject to religious censorship".