Muslims believe that magic is one of the major sins that doom a person to Hell. While scholars generally agree that the Quranic term siḥr, (usually defined as magic) is forbidden in Islam, there is less agreement on how siḥr is defined.[1] Magic encompasses a wide-range of non-physical beliefs; including sorcery (which seeks to alter the course of events usually by calling on a supernatural force), divination (attempts "to predict future events or gain information about things unseen"),[2] precognition via dreams,[3] or occultism. Magic further includes protection from other forms of magic, such as black magic, the evil eye, demons, and evil jinn,[4] which are thought to bring "illness, poverty, and everyday misfortunes";[4] or alternately seeking to bring "good fortune, health, increased status, honor, and power".[4] Techniques include evocation, casting lots, the production of amulets and other magical equipment.[5]
At least some of the dispute over what is permissible may be explained by how magic, or forbidden magic, is defined;[6] whether natural, or sympathetic magic—which "makes use of the hidden properties (in Arabic: khawass) of natural substances"—is included as forbidden magic.[7] As of 2005, this division was on display in bookstalls in market places across the Muslim Middle East and North Africa, where handbooks for practitioners of the occult were found alongside books full of warnings and condemnations of those handbooks' contents.[8]
- ^ Knight, M. M. (2016). Magic in Islam. Tarcher, p.52.
- ^ Savage-Smith, Magic and Divination in Early Islam, 2004: p.xiii
- ^ Knight, M. M. (2016). Magic in Islam. Penguin.
- ^ a b c Perlmutter, Dawn (Spring 2013). "The Politics of Muslim Magic". Middle East Quarterly. 20 (2). Retrieved 14 December 2021.
- ^ Savage-Smith, Magic and Divination in Early Islam, 2004: p.xiii-li
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
RKHPitG2005:53-4was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Kruk, "Harry Potter in the Gulf", BJMES, May 2005: p.52
- ^ Kruk, "Harry Potter in the Gulf", BJMES, May 2005: p.49