Is there any sorcery that is disbelief and any that is not?

Machine translationRead the Arabic original

Question:
The questioner says: It is narrated from Imam al-Shafi'i that he said, "The sorcerer is to be killed if he does in his sorcery what amounts to disbelief." The question is: Is there any sorcery that is disbelief, and any that is not?

Answer:
The origin of sorcery is disbelief, as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has made clear, as He the Exalted said:

But the two angels do not teach anyone unless they say, "We are a trial

وَمَا يُعَلِّمَانِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ فِتْنَةٌ

[Al-Baqarah 2:102]

So sorcery is done through the jinn and their worship. This is the sorcery that kills its practitioner. 'Umar used to write to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab to kill the sorcerers. As for when there are other acts that harm people, these are not called sorcery; their practitioner is punished with what he deserves. If there are acts that a person does that harm people, he must be punished with what he deserves. As for sorcery, it is the calling upon the worship of the jinn, as He (Mighty and Majestic) said:

And they followed [instead] what the devils had recited during the reign of Solomon. It was not Solomon who disbelieved, but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic

وَاتَّبَعُوا مَا تَتْلُو الشَّيَاطِينُ عَلَىٰ مُلْكِ سُلَيْمَانَ وَمَا كَفَرَ سُلَيْمَانُ وَلَٰكِنَّ الشَّيَاطِينَ كَفَرُوا يُعَلِّمُونَ النَّاسَ السِّحْرَ

[Al-Baqarah 2:102]

And He spoke of the two angels:

But the two angels do not teach anyone unless they say, "We are a trial, so do not disbelieve

وَمَا يُعَلِّمَانِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَا إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ فِتْنَةٌ فَلَا تَكْفُرْ

[Al-Baqarah 2:102]

So sorcery is calling upon the worship of the jinn, seeking their aid, and cooperating with them in evil. Yes.

Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ ابن باز Alsheikh Binbaz»، 123 هل من السحر ما هو كفر وما هو ليس بكفر؟ للإمام ابن باز — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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