What is the ruling on nullifying sorcery with sorcery? And what is the ruling if a fortune-teller informs about some of the relative unseen, such as the location of some stolen items?
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The questioner : Your Eminence! What is the ruling on nullifying sorcery with sorcery? And what is the ruling if a fortune-teller informs about the relative unseen, for example: something was stolen and the fortune-teller informed about it.
The Shaykh : Stolen.
The questioner : Something was stolen, some people know and some people do not know?
The Shaykh : As for the first, which is nullifying sorcery with sorcery, it is not permissible, because this leads to the spread of sorcery. The person who nullifies sorcery with sorcery must be given a reward and a lot of money, which leads to people learning sorcery in order to nullify it. This is a great harm. That is to say, if the person under the spell dies, the harm here is individual, but the proliferation of sorcerers is a great harm to the Muslim community. Therefore, it is not permissible to nullify sorcery with sorcery. However, some scholars said: if there is a dire necessity such that we study each case individually, a dispensation may be granted for it. They justified this by saying that sorcery is a harm, and removing a harm is not a problem.
For this reason, Ibn al-Musayyib (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about a man who is unable to have intercourse with his wife due to sorcery: should he be treated or stimulated? He said: There is no harm, for they only seek thereby to make a repair. The Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted this in the book of Tawhid. But we do not issue a fatwa to that effect, because as I told you, the harm in this is great. Perhaps the sorcerers would conspire, and one of them would cast the spell while the other says, "I will nullify it," and the condition between them is...
The questioner : The fortune-teller.
The Shaykh : Yes, the fortune-teller, as I told you a moment ago, did you hear what we said?
The student: ...
The Shaykh : No.
The student: The unseen matters of the future.
The Shaykh : About the unseen matters of the future, this is the fortune-teller. As for the one who informs about something that happened but is absent from him, this is called a diviner. But one must look at the cause: did he know the location of the stolen item, or that so-and-so stole it, and what is the cause? For example, he says: he has a jinn that informs him. What is his relationship with the jinn? Is it like the relationship of this man whom the jinn informed? One looks: if his relationship is a good one, meaning that this jinn is righteous and the human being has, for example, treated him well with knowledge or advice, or he pleased him.
The Shaykh : Stolen.
The questioner : Something was stolen, some people know and some people do not know?
The Shaykh : As for the first, which is nullifying sorcery with sorcery, it is not permissible, because this leads to the spread of sorcery. The person who nullifies sorcery with sorcery must be given a reward and a lot of money, which leads to people learning sorcery in order to nullify it. This is a great harm. That is to say, if the person under the spell dies, the harm here is individual, but the proliferation of sorcerers is a great harm to the Muslim community. Therefore, it is not permissible to nullify sorcery with sorcery. However, some scholars said: if there is a dire necessity such that we study each case individually, a dispensation may be granted for it. They justified this by saying that sorcery is a harm, and removing a harm is not a problem.
For this reason, Ibn al-Musayyib (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about a man who is unable to have intercourse with his wife due to sorcery: should he be treated or stimulated? He said: There is no harm, for they only seek thereby to make a repair. The Shaykh Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted this in the book of Tawhid. But we do not issue a fatwa to that effect, because as I told you, the harm in this is great. Perhaps the sorcerers would conspire, and one of them would cast the spell while the other says, "I will nullify it," and the condition between them is...
The questioner : The fortune-teller.
The Shaykh : Yes, the fortune-teller, as I told you a moment ago, did you hear what we said?
The student: ...
The Shaykh : No.
The student: The unseen matters of the future.
The Shaykh : About the unseen matters of the future, this is the fortune-teller. As for the one who informs about something that happened but is absent from him, this is called a diviner. But one must look at the cause: did he know the location of the stolen item, or that so-and-so stole it, and what is the cause? For example, he says: he has a jinn that informs him. What is his relationship with the jinn? Is it like the relationship of this man whom the jinn informed? One looks: if his relationship is a good one, meaning that this jinn is righteous and the human being has, for example, treated him well with knowledge or advice, or he pleased him.