The Mus­lim Schol­ars Regard­ing the ​“Bewitch­ment” of the Prophet Muhammad

The Mus­lim schol­ars hold three views with regard to this incident :

The first view : The sor­cery whom the Prophet (peace be upon him) was exposed to is mere­ly a usu­al dis­ease and a tran­sient ill­ness, this is pos­si­ble in regard to the Prophets as is to any human being. It does not dis­prove prophet­hood or dis­turb the mes­sage or rev­e­la­tion. God the Exalt­ed pro­tect­ed His Prophet from what­ev­er inter­feres with the mis­sion of con­vey­ing the mes­sage and from being killed, not from tran­sient phys­i­cal diseases.

This is the view of Al-MaziriAl-Mu’lem be Fawa’id Mus­lim, vol. 3, p. 93, Ibn Al-Qayy­im, Al-‘AiniUmdat-ul-Qari, vol. 15, p. 98, As-Sin­diAs-Sindi’s foot­notes on Sunan At-Tirmithi vol. 7, p. 113 and Ibn BazzMaj­mu’ Fatawa Ibn BazCf. Fath-ul-Bari, vol. 10, p. 237 and Nail-ul-Awtar, vol. 17, p. 211.

Al-Qadi Iyyad explained it saying :

In regard to what was report­ed that he used to think that he did a thing while he did not, it does not inter­fere with his deliv­ery of the Mes­sage or the Law nor does it under­mine his truth­ful­ness due to the evi­dent proof and con­sen­sus of his pro­tec­tion from this. This was mere­ly a world­ly mat­ter that has noth­ing to do with his Mis­sion or rank, and he is exposed to it as any oth­er human being. So, it is not impos­si­ble for him to imag­ine unre­al things, then find out what they real­ly are. It is not report­ed regard­ing this event any­thing oth­er than what he said about doing some­thing that he real­ly did not. It was mere­ly imag­i­na­tion.Ash-Shi­fa bi Ta?rif Huqouq Al-Mustafa, vol. 2, p. 113

Ibn-ul-Qayy­im said :

Sor­cery that affect­ed the Prophet (peace be upon him) was a tran­sient dis­ease that Allah cured him from. There is noth­ing defec­tive about it for all Prophets are exposed to ill­ness as well as faint­ing ; he (peace be upon him) faint­ed dur­ing his ill­nessRelat­ed by Al-Bukhari in his Sahih, book of ?Azan?, hadith no. 687 and by Mus­lim in his Sahih, book of ​“Salat”, hadith no. 418, fell down when his leg loos­ened and was bruisedIt is relat­ed by Anas ibn Malik that he said : ​“The Prophet (peace be upon him) fell down from a horse, so his right side was bruised”. Relat­ed by Al-Bukhari in his Sahih, book of ?Salat?, hadith no. 378. and Mus­lim in his Sahih, book of ?Salat?, hadith no. 411. This is afflic­tion by which Prophets increase in rank and degree. Most afflict­ed peo­ple are the Prophets ; they were afflict­ed with killing, hurt, abuse and impris­on­ment, so it is not new for the Prophet (peace be upon him) to be afflict­ed with some sor­cery from his ene­mies as he was bruised when some­one stoned him and as ani­mal bow­els were thrown on him dur­ing his pros­tra­tionRelat­ed by Al-Bukhari in his Sahih, book of ?Wudu?, hadith n., 240. and Mus­lim in his Sahih, book of ?Jihad and Sayr?, hadith no. 1794 and oth­er inci­dents. There is noth­ing under­min­ing or dis­grace­ful about it, on the con­trary, it indi­cates their per­fec­tion and high rank before God. Bada’il-ul-Fawa’id, vol. 2, p. 192 ; cf. Zad-ul-Ma’ad, vol. 4. p. 124

The sec­ond view : Sor­cery mere­ly affect­ed his exter­nals and organs, not his heart, mind or intel­lect. The mean­ing of the verse is pro­tec­tion of heart and belief, not pro­tec­tion of the body from world­ly accidents.

This is the pref­er­ence of Al-Qadi IyyadAs-Shi­fa, vol. 2, p. 113 and Ibn Hajar al-Haytha­miAz-Zawa­jir, vol. 2, pp. 163 – 164.

The third view : What was report­ed — that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was charmed — is an unac­cept­able forgery. Rather, it was fab­ri­cat­ed by the disbelievers.

This is the posi­tion of the Mu’­taza­litesCf. Mafatih-ul-Ghaib, vol. 23, p. 172 ; Umdat-ul-Qari, vol. 21, p. 280.

It is the pref­er­ence of al-Jas­sas, the Sun­ni schol­ar, who said :

They alleged that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was charmed and sor­cery worked upon him — such reports are fab­ri­cat­ed by athe­ists to mock infe­ri­or peo­ple and to lead them to reject mir­a­cles of the Prophets and crit­i­cize them, and that there is no dif­fer­ence between mir­a­cles of Prophets and works of sor­cer­ers and that they are the same. It is indeed strange that some com­bine belief in Prophets (peace be upon them) and their mir­a­cles and belief in works of sor­cer­ers despite His say­ing, ​“And the magi­cian thrives not (no mat­ter) where he goes” (Holy Qur’an 20:69). So they believe the one whom God has belied and told about his forgery and inco­her­ence of his claims.

It is pos­si­ble that the Jew­ish woman did this — out of igno­rance — think­ing that it works upon bod­ies and tar­get­ed the Prophet (peace be upon him). So God informed His Prophet about her secret and exposed her igno­rance about what she believed and imag­ined in order for this to be one of proofs of his prophet­hood, not that it has hurt and con­fused him. Not all reporters said that he was con­fused ; it was mere­ly a base­less addi­tion.Al-Jas­sas, Ahkam-ul-Qur?an, vol. 1, pp. 58 – 59

Their evi­dence is that say­ing that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was charmed, neces­si­tates the following :

1. Degra­da­tion and crit­i­cism of mir­a­cles of Prophets (peace be upon them).
2. Con­fu­sion of mir­a­cles of Prophets (peace be upon them) with works of sorcerers.
3. Affir­ma­tion of the dis­be­liev­ers’ claim : ​“Ye fol­low none oth­er than a man bewitched” (Holy Qur’an 25:8). Peo­ple of Saleh said to him ​“Thou art only one of those bewitched” (Holy Qur’an 26:153) and peo­ple of Shu’aib said the same to him.
4. Prophets are not sus­cep­ti­ble to sor­cery because it con­tra­dicts God?s pro­tec­tion and immu­ni­ty of them.Cf. Al-Jas­sas, Ahkam-ul-Qur?an, vol. 1, p. 59 ; Mafatih-ul-Ghaib, 32, p. 172 ;Bada?i?-ul-Fawa?id, vol. 2, p. 191

They respond­ed to the hadith of ​“Aisha” in which it is men­tioned that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was charmed — that it is sole­ly report­ed by Hisham ibn ​‘UrwahHe is Hisham ibn ​‘Urwah ibn Az-Zubair Ibn Al-‘Awwam ibn Khuwalid ibn Asad ibn ?Abdul-?Uzza ibn Qusay ibn Kilab, the trust­wor­thy Imam, Sheikh-ul-Islam, Abul-Mun­zir al-Quraisi al-Asa­di Az-Zubairi al-Madani, Ibn Sa’ad said : ​“he was trust­wor­thy, reli­able, rich in Hadith and and author­i­ty”. Abu Hatem Ar-Razi said : ​“trust­wor­thy Imam in Hadith”.Yahya Ibn Ma?een and oth­ers said : ​“trust­wor­thy”. Died 146 A.H. cf. Syar A’lam-un-Nubala’, vol. 6, p. 34. on author­i­ty of his father from ​‘Aisha, and that he was con­fused about it.Cf. Bada’i-ul-Fawa’id, vol. 2, p. 191.

Our Objec­tions :

1. His Say­ing : ​“Ye fol­low none oth­er than a man bewitched” (Holy Qur’an 25:8) and ​“Thou art only one of those bewitched” (Holy Qur’an 26:153) is a ref­er­ence to the one who is bewitched till he becomes a lunatic and los­es his mind. The charmed one who is not to be fol­lowed is the one who has gone so crazy that he can­not real­ize what he says ; that is why they accused him and said ​“Tutored (by oth­ers), a man pos­sessed” (Holy Qur’an 44:14). As for the one who is bod­i­ly affect­ed with some sort of a dis­ease, fol­low­ing him is not pre­vent­ed. Ene­mies of Prophets did not accuse them of bod­i­ly ill­ness, rather of what pre­vents their fol­low­ers from fol­low­ing them : that they were so bewitched that they could not real­ize what they say, just like lunatics. This is why God, the Exalt­ed, says ​“See what sim­i­les they strike for thee : but they have gone astray, and nev­er can they find a way” (Holy Qur’an 17:48).

2. As for their say­ing that bewitch­ment of the Prophets con­tra­dicts their divine pro­tec­tion, we say that as God pro­tects, saves and keeps them, He also tests them with what­ev­er he likes of dis­be­liev­ers’ harm, for them to deserve the high­est ranks of nobil­i­ty and patience, and to be as exam­ples to their fol­low­ers and nations who are afflict­ed by peo­ple. So, when they see what hap­pened to Prophets, they become patient and accept­ing, and fol­low the exam­ple of their Prophets.Cf. Bada’i-ul-Fawa’id, vol. 2, pp. 192 – 193 ; Mafatih-ul-Ghaib, vol. 32, p. 172.

3. As for their say­ing that the hadith was sole­ly report­ed by Hisham Ibn ​‘Urwah, the answer is that their claim is reject­ed, for Hisham is one of the most trust­wor­thy and knowl­edge­able reporters and no Imam has ever crit­i­cized him to the degree that jus­ti­fies rejec­tion of his report. Com­pil­ers of both Sahihs agreed on authen­tic­i­ty of this hadith and none of Hadith schol­ars has ever uttered a word against it. The inci­dent is well known to schol­ars of Tafsir, Sunan and Hadith and to Jurists, these peo­ple are most ori­ent­ed with con­di­tions of God?s Mes­sen­ger (peace be upon him) than others.

More­over, the hadith was not sole­ly report­ed by Hisham ; it was also relat­ed by al-A’mash — from Yazid Ibn Hayyan from Zaid ibn Arqam — who said :

“A Jew­ish man charmed the Prophet (peace be upon him), he com­plained for some days. Gabriel (peace be upon him) came and said : a Jew­ish man has charmed you ; he made for you a knob in such-and-such well. God’s Mes­sen­ger (peace be upon him) some peo­ple to get it. Once they brought it to him, he got up active­ly. He (peace be upon him) nev­er men­tioned this to the Jew­ish man, nor expressed it”.Relat­ed by Ibn Abi Shai­ba in his Musan­naf, vol. 5, p. 40. and Imam Ahmad in his Mus­nad, vol. 4, p. 367. and An-Nisa’i in his Sunan, book of ​“Tahrim-ul-Damm”, hadith n., 4080. all on author­i­ty of al-A’mash and authen­ti­cat­ed by Al-Albani in Sahih Sunan An-Nisa’i, vol. 3, p. 98, hadith no. 4091.Cf. Bada’i-ul-Fawa’id, vol. 2, p. 191.

And only God knows best. 

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