How does a person protect himself from these two serious matters: shirk (associating partners with Allah) and sihr (sorcery)?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good. How does a person protect himself from these two serious matters, shirk and sihr?
The Shaykh:
We protect ourselves from them by knowing tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and the correct creed.
The presenter:
We seek help from Allah.
The Shaykh:
And by learning beneficial knowledge, asking the people of knowledge, and not following the ignorant, the reckless, or corrupt customs and traditions. Rather, one holds fast to his religion and creed, learns the matters of his religion, especially the matter of creed, and asks about what is difficult for him. Thus, a person is protected, by the permission of Allah, because if he knows the reality of shirk and its danger, he avoids it. But if he is ignorant of it, he is likely to fall into it, or he imitates people in what they do without distinguishing between the correct and the defective in their deeds and their creeds. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good. Also, how do people protect themselves from sihr, Shaykh Salih?
The Shaykh:
People protect themselves from it by eliminating the sorcerers and killing them, and by being cautious of them. And by the students of knowledge, the callers to Allah, and the preachers and exhorters clarifying the ruling on sihr and its danger. They should clarify this, especially if this deadly disease has spread in their society, or if they fear it will sneak in upon them. It is obligatory for the scholars to clarify, to warn, and to advise. And if they know of the existence of a sorcerer in their society, it is obligatory for them to hasten to inform the authority to kill him and take him into custody. Yes.
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good. How does a person protect himself from these two serious matters, shirk and sihr?
The Shaykh:
We protect ourselves from them by knowing tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and the correct creed.
The presenter:
We seek help from Allah.
The Shaykh:
And by learning beneficial knowledge, asking the people of knowledge, and not following the ignorant, the reckless, or corrupt customs and traditions. Rather, one holds fast to his religion and creed, learns the matters of his religion, especially the matter of creed, and asks about what is difficult for him. Thus, a person is protected, by the permission of Allah, because if he knows the reality of shirk and its danger, he avoids it. But if he is ignorant of it, he is likely to fall into it, or he imitates people in what they do without distinguishing between the correct and the defective in their deeds and their creeds. Yes.
The questioner:
May Allah reward you with good, and may He do you good. Also, how do people protect themselves from sihr, Shaykh Salih?
The Shaykh:
People protect themselves from it by eliminating the sorcerers and killing them, and by being cautious of them. And by the students of knowledge, the callers to Allah, and the preachers and exhorters clarifying the ruling on sihr and its danger. They should clarify this, especially if this deadly disease has spread in their society, or if they fear it will sneak in upon them. It is obligatory for the scholars to clarify, to warn, and to advise. And if they know of the existence of a sorcerer in their society, it is obligatory for them to hasten to inform the authority to kill him and take him into custody. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، كيف يسلم الإنسان من هذين الأمرين الخطيرين: الشرك، والسحر؟ الشيخ صالح بن فوزان الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.