Identifying Sihr.
One way to trick people into engaging in Sihr (an umbrella name for sorcery, witchraft, magic and any other practice related to the occult) is to tell them it is just helping yourself, that Allāh encourages humans to strive to find solutions to their problems. Acceptable solutions to our problems are either physical or spiritual. Physical solutions are solutions that can be explained within human knolwedge, using Science, or experience or any means where direct association can be drawn between what is used as a solution, and how it brings about solution.
Illustration:
Paracetamol cures headache.
How? It blocks your body’s ability to feel pain (by inhibiting necessary enzymes that make you feel pain as a response to an injury or anomaly).
Do you need an incantation for Paracetamol to work? No!
Does Paracetamol contain any hidden component in its ingredients? No! It is there on the leaflet.
Is there anything beyond the physical about paracetamol? No! It is just a product of human ingenuity.
What of acceptable spiritual solutions? These are solutions with authentic basis in Islām. Use honey or black seed to cure so and so ailment because the Rasul had used same for such ailments. Since he receives revelation, we do not need any further proof, except perhaps proof that what is associated with him is truly from him and not a fabrication. Precision here is of utmost importance. Once you are moving outside what you can provide authentic evidence for, you have to fall back to verification through physical human processes. Like some will say the Rasul said black seed is a cure for all ailments except death. And we ask in what form and dose will we take it to cure Breast cancer for instance? If you say in powdered form, we ask how did you know that is the form that will work for that ailment. You either provide authentic evidence linking your claim to the Rasul or enter the Lab and perform experiments to provide physical evidence. Countries like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are already far ahead in Scientific research into Thymoquinone, the active ingredient in Black seed, while some persons somewhere are still stuck in the past.
Beyond these two; what is obvious and has physical/scientific explanation, and spiritual means authentically found in the sharee’ah, there is first fraud; the claim of solution that is nothing but deceit. How many have fallen for such fraudulent schemes either from quacks who claim to have a healing preparation or clerics who offer fraudulent spiritual solutions.
Then you have Sihr.
Sihr is any action characterised by secrecy, usually involving seeking help from supernatural entities, that has humanly inexplicable link to the outcome, typically done to deceive, harm, or alter a natural cause. Sihr will almost always contain one or all of the points mentioned above, especially the part about secrecy,from where it got its name.
Illustration.
If you are having problems with your husband or in your business, and someone says he/she will take you somewhere to find a solution to your problem. Here are pointers that you are about being introduced into Sihr:
- The location is a secret or the meeting is conducted in secrecy.
- The ‘solution’ you are given is shrouded in secrecy. Some of the content may be weird and unknown to most humans. You may be required to say certain words (incantations) for the ‘solution’ to work, or forbidden from certain normal actions.
- You may be asked for very weird items like your menstrual blood, your husband’s personal items (hair, clothings etc).
- You may be required to make sacrifices or offerings to idols and spirits.
- You may be given items the sharee’ah has expressly forbidden. Like amulets, talisman and the likes.
It was narrated from ‘Uqbah ibn ‘Aamir al-Juhani that a group came to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) [to swear their allegiance (bay’ah) to him]. He accepted the bay’ah of nine of them but not of one of them. They said, “O Messenger of Allaah, you accepted the bay’ah of nine but not of this one.” He said, “He is wearing an amulet.” The man put his hand (in his shirt) and took it off, then he (the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)) accepted his bay’ah. He said, ‘Whoever wears an amulet has committed shirk.”
Narrated by Imam Ahmad, - Your gut feeling should give you a hint there is something abnormal about it for sihr is always shrouded in a lot of ambiguity and weirdos.
To conclude this part I need to mention that the involvement of persons considered to be religious clerics in Sihr has further complicated matters, deceiving unsuspecting persons into thinking they were working according to Allāh’s dictates not knowing they were in the employ of Shaitān. You will recall, Sunday Igboho’s famed bullet proof vest of charms had Qur’anic verses inscribed on it. This doesn’t in anyway change the status of the vest from an item of Shirk, and the wearer a Mushrik as the vest satisfies most of what has already been mentioned above. So we need to be very careful who we call ‘Afas‘ and ‘Malams’ and seek help from. Some of them are agents of Shaitan in religious garbs.
TO BE CONTINUED
A. Haroun writes from Abuja, Nigeria.
