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.Kruk, "Harry Potter in the Gulf", BJMES, May 2005: p.48 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 (siḥr) 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 (black) 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 ('Yet the disbelievers said, "Indeed, this ˹man˺ is clearly a magician!"').Q.10:2 quran.com Not all verses make negative references to supernatural powers or those that use them. Surah al-Isra suggests that the Quran itself bestows barakah (magical blessings) upon hearers and heals them.Sengers, G. (2003). "Chapter Five Koran Healing". In Women and Demons. Leiden, Niederlande: Brill. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004475984_008 p. 124 In An-Naml (Surah 27), Solomon is described as having the power to speak with animals and jinn, and command birds and devils.Cite Quran|27|19Tafsir Ibn Kathir for surah 21, verse 19
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.Knight, M. M. (2016). Magic in Islam. Tarcher, p.60-61.
Surah Al-Falaq (Surah 113) 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.Josef von Hammer-Purgstall Die Geisterlehre der Moslimen Staatsdruckerei, 1852 digit. 22. Juli 2010 p. 31 (German). Surahs Al-Fatiha (Surah 1) and An-Nas (Surah 114) are also thought to have the ability to generate barakah. There are also individual verses claimed to have power (such as the healing verses 9:15, 19:57, 16:69, 26:80, 41:44).
Talismanic magic
The use of symbols, letters, and numbers for magical purpose are deeply embedded in Islamic tradition.Savage-Smith, Magic and Divination in Early Islam, 2004: p.87 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 (or amulets), 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 (Muhammad, Ali, saints, etc.), 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 (wafq). 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 (ashar) 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."Savage-Smith, Magic and Divination in Early Islam, 2004: p.xii
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.Fahd, T., "Siḥr", in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Consulted online on 02 December 2021 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_7023> First published online: 2012. First print edition: , 1960-2007 According to Fahd, magic (siḥr) is part of ʿUlūm al-Ghayb, "the occult sciences"; Theurgy (ʿilm al-khawāṣṣ wa ṭ-ṭalāsim), which Radcliff Edmonds describes as the practice of rituals to invoke action or the divine presence, especially to achieve henosis (unity with the divine) and perfecting oneself); White or natural magic (ʿilm al-ḥiyal wa-ash-shaʾwadhah); and Black magic or sorcery (ʿilm as-siḥr).
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 (haram) 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 (Allah) creates Adam, God orders the angels to bow down before the new creature. Those of the followers of Iblis, 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 2:102 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![quran.com/2/102 Q.2:102] translation by Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear QuranThe description of black magic (siḥr) in the Quran as revealed by the fallen angels/devils suggests it is (in the words of Toufic Fahd), a "fragment of a celestial knowledge ..." and not forming a separate party among the Jahiliyyah (pagan Arabs). 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 (and all hadith dealing with witchcraft) 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(s) 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 (a knot) 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