Is it permissible to learn sorcery? And is it permissible for a Muslim to go to a sorcerer after having undergone the prescribed ruqyah, in case he finds a cure with him?

The questioner : We ask the honorable shaykh to shed light on sorcery, and to clarify the ruling of the Shari'ah regarding one who learns it and practices it. Is it permissible for a Muslim to go to a sorcerer or a Dajjal if he is not cured of the sorcery after using ruqyah, or is it not?

The Shaykh : Go to what?

The questioner : To the sorcerer or the Dajjal.

The Shaykh : May Allah bless you. Start from there on your right. This, if Allah wills, will be a lesson for you. Start with this brother of ours. Easy, easy. This is your right.
What is the last sentence?

The questioner : Is it permissible for a Muslim.

The Shaykh : No, no, I say: the last sentence.

The questioner : The last sentence.

The Shaykh : Let me listen to the tape, that is best. The question at the end of the tape.
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The summary of the question is confined to two points: Is it permissible to learn sorcery? And is it permissible to go to the sorcerer after having undergone the prescribed ruqyah, in case he finds a cure with him?
The answer regarding both parts of the question is: It is not permissible. It is not permissible for a Muslim to learn sorcery, just as it is not permissible for him to go to the sorcerer. In fact, the answer to the second question is a branch of the first answer; because if it is established for us that it is not permissible for a Muslim to learn sorcery, then it is self-evident that it is not permissible for him to go to the sorcerer, because he would be supporting him in his misguidance, his open sinfulness, and his lewdness. As for the fact that it is not permissible for a Muslim to learn sorcery, in my opinion, this is a clear matter; because sorcery is either based on seeking help from the devils of the jinn, let alone seeking help from the devils of mankind, or the human sorcerer does not resort to seeking help from anyone, neither from mankind nor from the jinn, but he engages in acts involving sleight of hand and speed, such that he is able to make people imagine things that have no reality as if they were real. If the sorcery is of the first type, which is seeking help from the jinn specifically, that is known by the text of the Qur'an; namely His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He, in the story of Sulayman (peace be upon him), in his time people were learning sorcery, so He, the Exalted, clarified the reality of this learning and where it came from, saying, Mighty and Majestic: . So in this verse there is an explicit statement that the prophets, and specifically Sulayman (peace be upon him), whom our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, purified, did not descend upon him sorcery or that he taught people sorcery, so He, the Exalted, said: .
And then?

Another questioner : .

The Shaykh. So here there is a very strong indication that learning sorcery is disbelief. And therefore Sulayman (peace be upon him) was purified from being a disbeliever. Then it was established that the opposite of that is that the devils disbelieved; why? , . So in this verse, teaching sorcery is from the devils; they are the ones who were teaching people sorcery. As for Sulayman (peace be upon him), he is innocent of that. So whoever imitates Sulayman did not learn sorcery, and whoever imitates the devils of mankind who were learning sorcery from the devils of the jinn is included with them. So in this verse there is a clear and strong explicit statement that it is not permissible for a Muslim to learn sorcery because it harms and does not benefit, and because he seeks help thereby or therein from the devils of the jinn.
And it came in the Qur'an, as you all know: . The worst of seeking help is for the human to learn from the jinni the sorcery that he uses to harm people and mislead them. For that reason, Islam went to the extent of warning against engaging in sorcery, until he, peace and blessings be upon him, said: . So much so that this ruling includes one who may engage in the sleight of hand and agility that we used to see in some countries with our own eyes, things that are real, meaning they call for attention and make the matter beyond the known capacity of humans. So it is either direct seeking of help from the jinn as we mentioned, or it is training in engaging in things that are very, very hidden, like those whom you know in your countries who, for example, form some circles in the public squares, and people gather around him; for example, he takes paper currency, whatever its conventional value, and burns it in front of people, so it catches fire and burns, then he returns it to its original state. This is sorcery without a doubt. As for what its nature is, whether it is agility and sleight of hand or is seeking help from the jinn? It is possible that both matters are reality. Likewise, for example, one of them holds the ring in his palm, and then it moves to another palm, so this is sorcery. So whether it is of this type or of that type, the ruling is as you heard in the hadith: .
And it came in some of the Sunan in the books of hadith, I do not remember now if the story is established in its chain, but it contains an explanation of the occasion of the Companion narrating this hadith: . It was said to 'Imran ibn al-Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) that there is a man who cuts a person in half and then returns him alive, so he entered his house and took his sword and then ran; until he saw him doing it, so he cut off his head. And he narrated this hadith: . If we know this reality first, and add to that that who are the ones who engage in sorcery? They are the Jews who bewitched the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) after they failed to kill him and eliminate him in many attempts. You must remember at least some of them. The most authentic of them is what came in "Sahih al-Bukhari" that a Jewish woman presented a gift to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), a sheep's leg, so he, peace be upon him, ate or tried to eat, but before he swallowed the bite he spat it out. As for some of the Companions who had swallowed the bite, they died. And as for the Messenger (peace be upon him), he was saved from dying as some of his companions died, but he said in the last of his illness, peace be upon him: "I am still finding in, I am still in, or as he said, peace be upon him, the effect of the poison that he ate, peace and blessings be upon him."
So the Jews tried to kill him, peace and blessings be upon him, by various means, including poison, but they did not succeed. And their last attempt was to eliminate him by the way of sorcery by Labyd ibn al-'A'sam for him. And he, peace and blessings be upon him, became severely ill for about six months. Then he, peace be upon him, said one day: . Jibril (peace be upon him) descended upon him with an angel from the angels, so one of them stood at his head and the other at his feet. So one of them said to the other: What is the matter with the man? They meant the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. He said: He is bewitched. He said: Who bewitched him? He said: Labyd the Jew. Then they mentioned to him, and he was lying down, peace be upon him, hearing the dialogue between them, that there is a comb and a combing tool thrown in an abandoned well. So he, peace and blessings be upon him, sent 'Ali to the well and he brought the tied sorcery, so he untied the knots, and there descended upon him, peace be upon him, from his Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, the two chapters of the Mu'awwidhatayn: , . When he, peace be upon him, recited them and the knots were untied, it was as if he had been released from a rope.
So who is the one who bewitches? It is the Jew or the disbeliever, and his limit is that he is killed with a strike of the sword. So it is not permissible to learn sorcery because it is a harmful matter, and its learning returns to seeking help from the devils of the jinn, let alone the devils of mankind. As for what is spread and we are often asked about, unfortunately, is this correct: "Learn sorcery but do not practice it"? We say: This is not a hadith, but rather it is poetry. And today I was asked this question by phone; because the poet says:
"Learn sorcery but do not practice it *** Knowledge of the thing and ignorance of it"
The Messenger is not a poet, of course, nor does he excel in poetry, even though praise is a type of poetry. Therefore, it is not permissible to learn sorcery; this is clear. Since the matter is thus, is it permissible to visit a sorcerer, who deserves a strike with the sword? Of course, I said: this is understood from the first answer; it is never permissible to visit sorcerers. Especially since the question mentions that he used ruqyah (healing by Qur'anic recitation); if the ruqyah did not benefit him, will the sorcerer benefit him? This is a matter of extreme abomination. Therefore, it is not permissible for a Muslim to seek help in treating some of his illnesses with any type of sorcery. Rather, he must turn to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and use the lawful ruqyah from Qur'anic verses or authentic Prophetic supplications.
Other than that?
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