The Ruling on Hanging Amulets and Believing in Their Benefit

The first message in this episode is one that reached us from Libya. The sender is one of the sisters from there, named Layla Ali Abdulaziz. I ask the Shaykh’s permission to read our sister’s message in full, perhaps it will give us a picture of her personality and her conduct. She says:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, with abundant praise, and blessings and peace upon the noblest of the messengers, our master and our beloved Muhammad, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who followed his guidance until the Day of Resurrection. As for what follows:
Peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.
First: May Allah reward you with all good for us and for all Muslims, for the great benefit you provide to Islam and Muslims. May our Lord grant you success for more good and righteousness.
Second: My problem is as follows—she describes herself: I am a woman who wears the hijab, praise be to Allah, and I am diligent in performing the prayers at their times. I fear Allah , and I believe that lifespans are in the hand of Allah. When I gave birth to a child who died, some people advised me to do something that is customary here in Libya. This thing is: to collect a coin from every house where there is a person named after our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), meaning that the person is named Muhammad, whether this person is a child, a boy, or a man. The coins are collected and a bracelet is bought with their price, which the woman who gives birth to a child who dies places on her wrist. The bracelet is usually made of iron. I actually did this, and Allah willed that the children I gave birth to after that lived. When my sister saw the bracelet and knew why I had put it on, and also knew the story of the bracelet, she said to me: Take it off your hand immediately, for this is clear shirk (associating partners with Allah) with Allah . If Allah were to take your life while you are wearing it, believing that it benefits you and harms you, you would die while being a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah). Is this correct? That is, is wearing it on this basis considered shirk with Allah or not? And if it is shirk, how do I atone for this great sin of mine? And did my previous prayers, fasting, and good deeds go to waste or not?
Third: If Allah enables you to broadcast my message, I hope the answer will be clear and detailed, so that I may benefit and those who hear it may benefit. May Allah reward you with good.
Answer: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, and may Allah send blessings and peace upon His Messenger, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who followed his guidance.
As for what follows: What you did, O questioner, and what some people advised you to do in the hope that the child would live, is something that has no basis or foundation. Rather, it is an abomination and a bid'ah (religious innovation), and there is no evidence for it. Such a thing is called a tamimah (amulet). The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited amulets and ordered them to be cut off. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . And he (peace and blessings be upon him) sent someone during one of his expeditions to cut off the necklaces that were hung on animals out of fear of the evil eye, which are the strings. And he said: . These are the ruqyah (healing incantations) that do not conform to the Shari'ah. Amulets are what is hung on a person out of fear of the evil eye or out of fear of the jinn. Al-Tawilah is a type of deflection, and al-'Atf is a type of sorcery. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) made it clear that all of these are shirk. In al-Musnad, the Musnad of Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him), with a good chain of narration, from Imran ibn al-Husayn (may Allah be pleased with them both): . This is a great warning regarding making this ring, which he claims he did for the sake of al-Wahinah, an illness that affects the hand and is called al-Wahinah.
And it was narrated from Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) : أنه دخل على رجل قد علق خيطًا في يده فسأله، فقال: من أجل الحمى، فقطعه حذيفة وتلا قوله تعالى: وَمَا يُؤْمِنُ أَكْثَرُهُمْ بِاللَّهِ إِلَّا وَهُمْ مُشْرِكُونَ [يوسف:106] He entered upon a man who had tied a string on his hand and asked him about it. He said, “It is for the fever.” Hudhayfah cut it and recited the words of Allah the Exalted: “And most of them do not believe in Allah except while they are associating partners with Allah” [Surat Yusuf: 106]..
And it was narrated from Ibrahim al-Nakha'i that he said: "The Companions of Ibn Mas'ud disliked all amulets, whether from the Qur'an or not from the Qur'an." Meaning: they considered them forbidden.
And Sa'id ibn Jubayr, the noble Tabi'i (may Allah have mercy on him), said: Whoever cuts an amulet from a person is like freeing a slave; it is as if he freed a slave, because he freed him from the bondage of shirk.
And by this you know, O questioner, that this action of which you were told—collecting coins from every house with the name Muhammad in it, then buying a need such as a bracelet with them and hanging it so that the child may live—is something that has no basis. And this is batil (invalid), and you must repent to Allah from it and return to Allah . And whoever repents, Allah accepts his repentance. And what Allah made easy for you, namely that the children lived after that, is from the grace of Allah. It coincided with a decree, not because of this bracelet. Rather, it coincided with Allah's past decree that your children would live after the child who died previously, or the children who died previously. It is not because of the bracelet, but it is Allah's past command in His prior decree. Indeed, Allah has decreed what will happen regarding children, barrenness, the death of a child, and the life of a child, and so on. All of it is decreed. As in the authentic hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . It was narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sahih.
In the two authentic collections, from the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) , from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): So matters are in the hand of Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He). It has already preceded in the knowledge of Allah and His prior decree that your children will live after those who died. It is not because of the bracelet, but it is a trial and test that has befallen you. So you must repent to Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He), return to Him, and feel remorse for what has passed. This is minor shirk; hanging amulets is from minor shirk. It does not invalidate your prayer, your fasting, or your previous worship. Your previous good deeds done for Allah are not invalidated by this, because this is minor shirk which does not invalidate deeds. However, if you intended by this bracelet and aimed that it benefits and harms other than Allah, then this is major shirk. But a Muslim does not intend this, nor think this, nor believe this. Rather, he believes that they are causes, just as one is cured of illness, and just as one takes medicines, pills, and injections, all of which are causes. So likewise is hanging the bracelet, which we believe you thought was a cause, that it is from the causes.
So in any case, you must repent from it. And if you believe in it that it benefits and harms, you must repent from that as well, and return to Him with sincere repentance. Perhaps your ignorance of it will be an intercessor for the safety of your righteous deeds. And whenever a servant repents to Allah and turns away from his shirk and falsehood, his righteous deeds remain for him and are not invalidated, except if he dies upon disbelief in Allah . For this reason, when Hakim ibn Hizam embraced Islam and mentioned that he had previously freed slaves in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance and given charity in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him: . And Allah said regarding the disbelievers that their deeds are only invalidated if they die upon disbelief: [al-Baqarah: 161], the verse. And He said: [al-Baqarah: 217]. And He qualified that with His saying: . So this indicates that whoever does not die a disbeliever, but dies upon Islam, his righteous deeds remain for him and do not be lost from him. And praise be to Allah.
The presenter: May Allah reward you with good, Shaykh Abdulaziz! Allah may test a servant to test his faith and examine him. If something like this happens—and we expect good—what do you advise our sister? May Allah reward you with good?
The Shaykh: As mentioned before, we advise her to fear Allah, Exalted and Majestic, and to take the causes that Allah has permitted, such as presenting the child to a doctor, or the sick child, and taking permissible medicines, and reciting over the sick person and blowing on him, and cauterization if the need calls for it, and the like of these beneficial medicines and permissible causes.
As for the thing that Allah has forbidden, such as hanging amulets, or calling upon other than Allah, or seeking aid from the jinn, or visiting fortune-tellers and soothsayers, all of this is batil (invalid) and not permissible. Rather, it is only permissible for the believer to take permissible causes and permissible means. And Allah has made a cure for every disease, as in the authentic hadith: . And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: .
So when a believer is afflicted with something, he presents it to the experts among doctors or others among the people of knowledge and insight. If there is a doctor who knows this disease, he treats it. And if it needs recitation, some of his Muslim brothers recite over him and they treat him with recitation and supplication. This is what is prescribed. As for hanging an iron, a plate, a piece of wood, or something on which a recitation is written on a piece of paper and hung, all of this is not permissible, even if it is from the Qur'an, according to the correct opinion. And although some of the Salaf differed in this, the correct opinion, which the researchers are upon, is that hanging amulets is not permissible, even if it is from the Qur'an, to block the means to harm, and acting upon the generality that came in the hadiths in which there is a prohibition of amulets and a warning against them, and the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not specify. And Allah is the One to be asked for help. Yes.
The presenter: Allah is the Helper. May Allah reward you with good.