They Sold Themselves

Allah (swt) then says: and indeed they knew that the buyers of it, of magic, would have no share in the hereafter; and how bad indeed was that for which they sold their own selves — because the magician sells himself — if they but knew. And if they had believed and guarded themselves from evil and kept their duty to Allah, far better would have been the reward from their Lord, if they but knew.

So from these ayat, and also from the ahadith of the Messenger of Allah, the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) reached the conclusion that magic is kufrun mukhrijun min al-millah: it is an act that would take a person out of the folds of Islam. And that is why ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb sent out messages to the Islamic states, the governments, the wilāyāt, saying: uqtulū kulla sāḥir — kill every magician. And one of the Companions said: we found three magicians and we executed them. So the ʿulamāʾ say that this is the ḥadd of magic: it is execution — because if you know the stories of how magicians are, you would say that this is a little punishment for them. They have destroyed and broken up houses, and they have caused harm.

The amazing thing is that nowadays this particular type of knowledge — where is it most widespread? In the Muslim world. It does exist everywhere else — it does exist everywhere else — but it is quite widespread in the Muslim world. And obviously the reason is the work of Shayṭān; that is where he wants to break up families. Because we know from the hadith of the Messenger of Allah that Shayṭān sets his throne on water, and then the devils come and report to him, and everyone brings in a report, and Shayṭān tells him: sit down, sit down, sit down; and then eventually one would come and say: I have good news for you — I did not leave the husband and wife until I separated them. Come and sit next to me.

Breaking up families is ʿamal al-shayṭān, and that is why Shayṭān tries to cause all of these fitan among the Muslims in general. Allah (swt) says: wa qul li-ʿibādī yaqūlū allatī hiya aḥsan, inna al-shayṭāna yanzaghu baynahum — tell my servants, the Muslims, to say the good word. Why? Because Shayṭān tries to plant disunity among them. So one of the solutions to counter that is to say a good word — because our words are weapons in the hands of Shayṭān: he takes that word and he makes sūʾ al-ẓann in the heart of the other person, bad suspicion, and that is how problems start. Problems start because of what? Words. So Allah (swt) says: tell my servants to say the good word. If we would just monitor our words, believe me, all of these problems would cease to exist.