What is the ruling on reciting over a person suffering from epilepsy

The questioner : The first question: It saysThe questioner : It is well known that reciting over a person suffering from epilepsy is permissible. However, it has become widespread among us for some young men to sit and take on this role, even though they recite over everyone who comes to them claiming to be sick, without verifying the matter. This has continued to increase among the youth until waswas (whispers of doubt) spread among many people. Some young men have even started holding special sessions in specific places for ruqyah (healing by Qur'anic recitation) for those who come to them. They blow into water and oil and sell it for more than they paid for it. People flock to them, including those with waswas, those seeking blessing, and those who are truly sick. They recite over everyone who claims to be sick. What is your opinion?The Shaykh

The Shaykh : The question was raised recently, and we mentioned its types. We stated that what we know in this matter is reciting some of the Qur'an over a person suffering from epilepsy. As for anything else, we do not know any basis for it in the Sunnah. As for oil, blowing into it, and seeking blessing from it, this is also something for which we do not know any basis, and we cannot approve of such a matter. First, we have not found any basis for it in the Book or the Sunnah. Second, we have not known this from the practice of our righteous predecessors (Salaf). As for whether some people do this or not, as I mentioned recently, the responsibility lies with the one who reports it. We do not know anything about this at all. As for the issue of recitation over a person suffering from epilepsy, it is a well-known matter throughout Islamic history, but only the recitation. As for anything else, we have no knowledge of it and do not approve of it, as previously explained.

The questioner : Does this include being shocked by electricity?

The Shaykh : I do not know. If it is being shocked by electricity, we know that among doctors, there are matters related to experimentation. This last question draws my attention to say something: there are matters related to experimentation and not to religion. Being shocked by electricity, I think you know, is a well-known matter among materialist doctors. When some patients with a type of epilepsy come to them, they use all the conventional treatments they have, and then they resort to these electric currents on the principle that "the last resort is the extreme." We cannot say, "What is the ruling on using these electric currents on some patients suffering from epilepsy or otherwise?" because the matter does not relate to religion first, but to medicine, and I am not a doctor. As for religion, it has not addressed this, neither negatively nor positively. By the way, it is good to mention to you that one of our brothers in Damascus was afflicted with a type of epilepsy that sometimes intensified to the point where nothing in the house could withstand him, as he would break and smash it thoroughly. He was treated in hospitals that treat this type of disease until he went to Beirut to the American University and was treated there by this method, i.e., electric shocks. He returned to Damascus and was not cured; he remained in that state, but in episodes, not always epileptic. After that, I proposed to him something called, in modern terms, "treatment by fasting." The fasting intended here is, of course, not the religious fast, but let us call it "treatment by starvation." This treatment by starvation has no relation to the Shari'ah, so we do not say it is a bid'ah (religious innovation) nor do we say it is a Sunnah. If this method succeeds in treating some diseases, it is good; if it does not succeed, there is no harm in it at all. Personally, some of you know that I tried this type of treatment by starvation. I fasted for forty days. This fasting means that the fasting person eats nothing at all and drinks nothing at all except water for forty days. After all these days, he gradually begins to train himself on the food he is accustomed to, and he finds the effect of healing in much of what he complained of regarding diseases. I tried this myself and will not lengthen the explanation. The point is that this person who was treated with electric shocks and spent large sums of money in many hospitals in Syria and Lebanon was not cured except by this fasting. He fasted the first time for six days, then increased it more and more until he reached fasting for thirty-four days, and then he saw no trace of the disease. Such a treatment, which was not previously known, and although some preachers today encourage it by saying, as they claim, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Fast and you will be healthy," there is no doubt that the religious fast has all the benefits. But this hadith, with this wording, is not authentic, as we explained in the series of weak hadiths. However, this medical fasting, in which the fasting person is permitted to drink as much water as he wishes and whenever he wishes, yielded many and very great benefits in my case and in the case of that brother of ours there, and in many others.The student : And in many others. As a final example, with a bit of humor and a joke: this person who was cured by this type of fasting found that whenever a person came to him complaining of an illness that baffled the doctors, he would tell him, "You must fast." A handsome young man came to him complaining about his mother, who was an old woman and had become bedridden, unable to move to relieve herself. Although she had two daughters who were nurses in some hospitals, they had both left their service to their old mother because, as you can imagine, she had become in a state of filth such that even the boys would be disgusted by these matters. When the son of this old woman complained, he ordered him to make her fast. He explained to him what he meant by fasting, i.e., to deprive her of all food. He placed a pitcher of water and a glass on the table in front of her, and whenever she wished, she could drink. My brother said, "This one is screaming, and this is an old woman, and she is screaming, and she might die, etc." He said jokingly, "You are not going to believe that the old woman will die and you and your sisters will be relieved of her. Make her fast." The man seemed to be convinced and actually placed the water for the old woman and deprived her of all forms of food and all types of drink. She was screaming, and they did not respond to her. "Food? No one is responding to her." She would try to drink water when she felt the need. Her son, who had taken this prescription from our friend, said that after about six days, he came to announce to our friend that his mother had gotten up from her bed and began to serve herself. And so she remained, after seeing the effect of this fasting, that she began to deprive herself of food until Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, cured her. I want to say from this that whether the materialist doctors use electric shocks or these modern people you are asking about, we are not allowed to rush to deny this method except in the case where its bad effects appear in those in whom this modern method is used. Therefore, we should not mix what is a material means that does not enter into religious innovations. In other words, we must distinguish between mursal maslaha (unrestricted public interest) and religious bid'ah. Mursal maslaha are modern means that occur and it becomes clear to Muslims that they need them, so there is no objection to using them as long as they do not contradict a Shari'ah text. As for it being a new matter, that is nothing. Now, we live with many new things, but they are not new things in religion. And you all know, if Allah wills, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Whoever introduces into our matter, i.e., our religion, what is not from it, it is rejected." So we must distinguish between this and other means that enter into religion under the name of blessing and seeking blessing, etc. As long as it has not been transmitted, we do not approve of it. But that type, like electric shocks, we do not deny it as long as it is a means of treatment. And this is all I have.

The questioner : They do not limit themselves to reciting with the intention of expelling the jinn; rather, they shock them with electricity to harm the jinn and expel it, unlike the use by medical professionals. May Allah reward you.

The Shaykh : My answer does not differ from that, because the matter is based on experience. You see, the materialist doctors, when their experiments reached the use of this method, they arrived at this method through experimentation without knowing the secret: whether there is a jinn affected by such a method or not. But they knew, as it was said about some of the Bedouins, when asked how he knew his Lord, he said, "The effect indicates the cause." So they deduced from this usage, after this experience, that this experience is beneficial. But for example, are there germs that they kill by means of this method, which is electric shock? They cannot treat [them], but they found that these shocks are beneficial shocks for a type of... These are the ones you are reporting, and we in the Levant do not know anything of that. They attribute that the jinn that possesses that human is affected by these electric shocks. It is possible that the matter is so, and it is possible that it is not. But the important thing is that we want to look at the effects of these shocks: did they benefit or not? Like the beating that is also reported from some of the aggressors today or from the old ones. This beating, as we know, is harmful for ordinary living people. But they say, by experience, that this possessed person, no matter how much you beat him with thick sticks, for example, such that if he were not possessed it would have hurt him and perhaps broken him, whereas in this case he is not affected, but rather the possessor from the jinn is affected, if that expression is correct. So we cannot say that their attribution is correct, but the important thing is to look at the effect. If the harm is beneficial for the possessed, then it is fine, as long as this method, first, does not contradict the Shari'ah, and second, does not harm the possessed. This is all I have, and Allah knows best.

The questioner : All right, O Shaykh, and is it permissible for everyone to...

The Shaykh : No, it is not for everyone. Like medicine, is it permissible for everyone to practice medicine? One who practices medicine without being a doctor is liable, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said. This is sufficient for us; we cannot enter into the details.

The questioner : A matter that is spreading among many of the young people.

The Shaykh : No problem, my brother, what we have mentioned is sufficient, because the details are difficult for us to state. We do not say it is permissible for any person, just like knowledge. Is it permissible for a student of knowledge to issue a fatwa when he has not yet finished the second degree or the secondary school, as they say today? It is not permissible. Is it permissible for him to grade hadiths as authentic or weak, as some young students do today, and they are still at the beginning of the path? Of course, it is not permissible. It is not permissible to practice medicine except for the people of knowledge in medicine. And so, yes.