Despite Islamic tradition taking a generally dim view of superstitious belief in supernatural causality for mundane events, various beliefs in supernatural phenomena have persisted in Muslim societies since the advent of Islam. In Muslim scholarship, the various Islamic schools and branches have contested and probed beliefs and practices that were assumed to be superstitious, but beliefs in Quranic charms, jinn, and the practice of visiting the tombs of religious remain.
Some beliefs, such as the belief in jinn and other aspects of Muslim occult culture, are rooted in the Quran and the culture of early Islamic cosmography. In the same way, shrine veneration and acceptance, and the promotion of saintly miracles, has intimate connections to structures of Islamic religious authority and piety in Islamic history. The study of superstitions in Muslim societies has raised difficult but important questions for Islamic revivalist projects, including by challenging the historical stability, coherence and distinctness of Islam as a religion.
Context, background and history According to Ali Rahnema, while superstitious ideas may have been equally common among Christians and Muslims until the 16th century AD, in comparison to the Muslim world, the prevalence and intensity among Christians dramatically declined after reformation movements in Europe.
Muslims facing illness or other crises found strength and reassurance in various religious objects and rituals. According to Travis Zadeh, in spite of talismanic use of the Quran in charms and amulets, tomb visitation evoked much censure in certain orthodox circles. Still in urban centers of the Muslim world, of the pre-modern era active culture of shrine visitation used to be too common. As such both orthodox and folk popular domains of Islamic religious performance build on the power of baraka (divine blessing or charisma) derived through sacred matter. So, various expressions of Quranic theurgy, from charms and amulets to inscriptions on bowls and garments are as much pervasive, converging with ancient attitudes toward divine language and sacred writing.
According to Christiane Gruber, Islamic tradition regards water as having healing properties and associates it with cleanliness and godliness. The Quran says water is the source of "every living thing". Since the seventh century, Muslim pilgrims have visited the Zamzam Well, believing its water to be curative, and using it in cleaning rituals and prayer. From the 11th century until around the 19th century, Muslim cultures used magic bowls, healing necklaces and other objects like amulets, talismanic shirt, and scrolls in hopes of warding off drought, famine, floods and even epidemic diseases. Anti-plague talismans known as the "Garden of Names", Quranic scrolls and amulets were worn around the neck or otherwise attached to the body, believing that physical contact with the object would unlock the enclosed blessings or life force, known as baraka in Arabic.
According to Zadeh, the same is true about magic in its various manifestations, which explains a good deal about how the bounds of the licit and the illicit have historically been defined and negotiated. In the modern period, Muslim societies, faced with varied discourses of demystification, the domains of the magical and the enchanted went through substantial reconfiguration in the expressions of Islamic piety, devotion, and learning. Zadeh says the process of modernization in Muslim world, with its grounding in European colonialism and post-Enlightenment thought, as well as in Islamic reformism, has contested and reconfigured many historical and traditional practices, often viewed them as being ignorance and superstitious. This can be observed, for example, rather notably in critiques or corrective advice literature propagated by a range of Muslim scholars toward such activities as exorcism, shrine devotion, and the preparation of amulets, most of such discourse is rooted in classical Islamic exegesis; but, they take on profoundly different expressions in the context of modern Islamic reform. In the competing views of normativity, magic, marvel, and miracle ultimately takes role of normative categories designed not only to understand the world but also to shape it.
Differences between superstitions At least one author, Ali Rahmena, distinguishes between "accidental or autonomous" superstition, and magic such as sorcery and witchcraft, black and white. While superstition is "accidental" (for example, no one intends for a black cat to cross their path, so it is accidental), with magic believers are convinced that the laws of nature can be altered by the sorcerer or witch through supernatural forces. A second distinction, according to Ali, is between superstition connected to religion and superstition that is not.
Occultism
Ulum al-ghariba ("occult sciences") or Ulum al-hafiya ("secret sciences") refers to occultism in Islam.Sebastian Günther, Dorothee Pielow Die Geheimnisse der oberen und der unteren Welt: Magie im Islam zwischen Glaube und Wissenschaft BRILL, 18.10.2018 p. 8 Occultism in Islam includes various practices like talismans and interpreting dreams.Tobias Nünlist Dämonenglaube im Islam Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015 p. 289 (German) Simiyya is a doctrine found commonly within Sufi-occult traditions that may be deduced upon the notion of "linking the superior natures with the inferior...", and broadly described as theurgy.Eric Geoffroy, Introduction to Sufism: The Inner Path of Islam, World Wisdom, 2010 p. 21
Sufism
According to Owen Davies Sufis have been criticized by both Wahhabi and modernist Muslims for some of their perceived superstitious practices. pp. 7-8 According to J.D.Kila along with other desecration and destruction of Sufi places of worship and cultural heritage, a sacred door of Sidi Yahya Mosque was forcefully destroyed because some people believed that door should not to be opened till end of the world.
Devils, Ghoul and Jinn
In Arabic folklore, the ghul is said to dwell in cemeteries and other uninhabited places. A male ghoul is referred to as ghul while the female is called ghulah. While analyzing beliefs in unseen and supernatural angels like Munkar and Nakir visits to tombs in Islamic eschatology, John MacDonald says that origination of such ideas is likely to be then contemporary folklore or superstition. When Islam spread outside of Arabia, belief in the jinn was assimilated with local belief about spirits and deities from Iran, Africa, Turkey and India.Juan Eduardo Campo Encyclopedia of Islam Infobase Publishing 2009 page 402
Since the jinn, unlike many spirits and demons in other religions, are thought to be physical beings, Muslims adhere to superstitious practices like uttering dastur before throwing hot water or urinating, warning jinn to leave the place so as to not feel offended by humans.MacDonald, D.B., Massé, H., Boratav, P.N., Nizami, K.A. and Voorhoeve, P., "Ḏj̲inn", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 15 November 2019 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0191 > First published online: 2012 First print edition: , 1960–2007
Due to their physical presence, Islamic scholars debated about legal issues of marriage between jinn and humans, leading to a far reaching belief in sexual union between supernatural creatures and humans. Shayāṭīn (devils), are another type of supernatural creature, deriving from Judeo-Christian demons. According to the Quran they frequently assault heaven but are warded off by angels throwing meteors on them, therefore some Muslims curse the shayatin when seeing a shooting star, believing it was thrown at a shaitan.Hughes, Thomas Patrick (1885). "Genii". Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies . London, UK: W.H.Allen. pp. 134–6. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
Exorcism
Exorcism in Islam is called ʿazaʿim.Gerda Sengers Women and Demons: Cultic Healing in Islamic Egypt BRILL, 2003 p. 50 Ruqya () on the other hand summons jinn and demons by invoking the names of God, and to command them to abandon their mischiefTravis Zadeh Commanding Demons and Jinn: The Sorcerer in Early Islamic Thought," in No Tapping around Philology: A Festschrift in Honor of Wheeler McIntosh Thackston Jr.'s 70th Birthday, ed. Alireza Korangy and Dan Sheffield (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014), 131–60 and is thought to repair damage believed caused by jinn possession, witchcraft (sihr) or the evil eye. Exorcisms today are part of a wider body of contemporary Islamic alternative medicine.
Morocco has many possession traditions, including exorcism rituals.Joseph P. Laycock Spirit Possession around the World: Possession, Communion, and Demon Expulsion across Cultures: Possession, Communion, and Demon Expulsion across Cultures ABC-CLIO 2015 page 243
Magic
Islam distinguishes between God-given gifts or good magic and black magic. Good supernatural powers are therefore a special gift from God, whereas black magic is achieved through help of jinn and shayatin. In the Quranic narrative, Sulayman had the power to speak with animals and command jinn, and he thanks God for this نعمة (i.e. gift, privilege, favour, bounty), which is only given to him with God's permission.Ibn Kathir Tafsir Ibn Kathir for Q27:19
Nazar (amulet) and taʿwīdh
The taʿwiz or taʿwīdh () is an amulet or locket usually containing verses from the Quran or other Islamic prayers and symbols pertaining to magic. The Tawiz is worn by some Muslims to protect them from evil."On the Permissibility of Writing Ta'widhat" Trns. Zameelur Rahman May 1, 2010. Prepared by Deoband
The amulet called nazar is supposed to protect against the evil eye, a superstition shared among several cultures including Muslim ones.
Natural phenomena While Solar eclipse and Lunar eclipses, Earthquakes, Thunder and lightning are just natural phenomena as per modern scientific explanations; and Islam avoids irrational connections of the same with other coincidences in human life, still some Muslim individuals and communities are seen singling out specific natural objects and events as signs of God and special sign prayers (salat al-Ayat) are observed on occasions like Solar eclipse and Lunar eclipses, Earthquakes, Thunder and lightning.
Karamat
Miracles in Islam play less of an evidentiary role. The Quran is considered the main miracle of the Prophet Muhammad, though the Quran mentions miracles like Jesus talking in infancy. In Sunni Islam, karamat* refers to supernatural wonders performed by Muslim saints. In the technical vocabulary of Islamic religious sciences, the singular form karama has a sense similar to charism, a favor or spiritual gift freely bestowed by God.Gardet, L., "Karāma", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. The marvels ascribed to Muslim walis have included supernatural physical actions, predictions of the future, and "interpretation of the secrets of hearts". A widespread belief holds that even ordinary humans can become walis and endowed by God with supernatural powers. Such wali played a significant role in missionary activities (dawah).
Contemporary traditions
Iran
It is claimed by some experts that first minerals, fruits, mountains and seas that accepted Islam, Prophet Mohammed and Shia Imam Ali Velayat include eggplant, gold, fresh water oceans, mount agate. Persian melon is said to not have accepted Velayat by prophet's quote according to Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi. After the death of Abbas the Great his burial place was not designated prior to avoid Talisman. Dogs are called Najis.