What is the ruling on ruqyah (healing by Qur'anic recitation) by reciting verses from the Qur'an written on a piece of paper and then burning it?

The questioner : I treat magical matters and...

The Shaykh : What matters?

The questioner : Magical matters.

The Shaykh : Magical matters.

The questioner : Yes, and epilepsy, in the Shari'ah manner that came in the hadiths.

Another questioner : Yes.

The questioner : Some of the jinn, I mean, some of the jinn come out of the human and then return again. So I use a strict approach with him, and I bring a strip of paper on which I write some verses from Surat al-Buruj and the first ten verses of Surat al-Saffat and Ayat al-Kursi, and I burn this strip while I am reciting the verses. From experience, the Shaytan does not return to the patient after that. And in the same way, I use a glass of water or oil, recite over it, and give it to the patient to drink without naming, meaning without naming during the presence of the Shaytan or the jinn that has possessed the person, meaning during the drinking, the jinn is present, meaning it is not the person himself who is drinking, the jinn is present. So what is the ruling on that, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : There is no doubt that the ruling in this situation you described is among the matters that fall under the generality of the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): It is observed in this time, a time of the multiplication and diversification of trials, that among these trials is the spread of claims of the dominance of the jinn over humans, on one hand, and the claim of the existence of people who are also called by names other than their own, as shaykhs who treat these people afflicted by the jinn. We do not deny, of course, by the texts of the Book and the Sunnah and the Salaf al-Salih, the dominance of the jinn over humans, by what is called, for example, something resembling epilepsy, and it may not be accompanied by apparent epilepsy; this is a reality we do not deny, because it is established in the Sunnah that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) treated some of those who were afflicted by the touch of the jinn. But we deny every means that occurs in these centuries or in this last century, such as what you described of verses that are written and then burned, and the like. And I advise every Muslim who adopts with us the return, the obligation of returning, to the Book and the Sunnah, and who adopts with us the best of guidance, the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and who adopts with us the saying of his noble Companions: We advise every Muslim who shares with us in faith in these foundations and these Islamic principles not to increase in treating the problems of the possession of the jinn by humans except by reciting the Qur'an, nothing more than that, absolutely. And it is not permissible to converse with the Shaytan possessing the human, nor to question him and inquire from him about the sorcery with which this sorcerer was bewitched, for example, and where this sorcery is, because this falls under seeking the aid of the jinn. And there is no doubt that seeking the aid of the jinn is worse than seeking the aid of the disbelievers, which has occurred in this time. That is because Allah the Exalted says, in explaining one of the causes, one of the causes of the misguidance of the polytheists to whom the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was sent, He said: So seeking the aid of the jinn is seeking their help, seeking knowledge from them, seeking treatment from them. So it is not permissible. Many of the youth are afflicted with this, and among them are people we know who are holding on to their Islam, but I have seen them holding on to their Islam like that woman who restricts herself to the khimar without the jilbab, or restricts herself to the jilbab without the khimar, and does not combine both matters. And therefore, we advise these Muslim youth who are with us on the line we mentioned, with some of its principles and rules just now, not to increase in treating the epileptic or the one afflicted by the touch of the jinn with more than reciting verses from the Noble Qur'an. This is all I have as an answer to this question.