Q. Here in North America there is a lot of business in selling charms, taweez, wazeefa, naqsh, loh incantations, amulets and talismans. Press and TV advertisements assure people that these can be made to fulfil every wish and purpose, from making money, to curing chronic diseases, to bringing back lost love, etc. Guarantees of efficacy are made in such advertisements. This sort of business is very popular with some sections of the Muslim community. Could you please clarify whether such articles can be sanctioned from the Islamic point of view? Conversely, do they represent deviation from Islam? How acceptable or unacceptable are they?
Ali Q. Abbas, New Jersey
A. If the claims of people who sell such articles have any element of truth in them, one wonders why would they need to sell them? Why do they go to the trouble of placing advertisements that could cost them a lot of money? Would it not be easier for them to make for themselves such articles that bring in all the money they need. They could then invest such money in a way that brings them regular income, and make this income greater than all they may need, so that it could always grow. Or is it that they have so much love for other people that they want to help them get their wishes? Therefore, they advertise their services only to help other people get their dearest wishes! I suppose it is a very strange sort of love that makes such people try to defraud their beloved ones of their money by selling them useless objects.
All these articles, and similar ones, are forbidden in Islam. They are forbidden to make, wear, sell or give as a gift. Indeed the prohibition is very serious. Uqbah ibn Amir reports that he was a member of a 10-man delegation who came to the Prophet.
He accepted the pledges of nine of them and refused one. They inquired what was the matter with him. The Prophet said: “He wears a charm, or taweez, on his arm.” The man tore it off, and the Prophet accepted his pledge. The Prophet then said: “Whoever wears such a thing is guilty of associating partners with God.” (Related by Ahmad and Al-Hakim).
In another authentic Hadith, the Prophet prays that God may not accomplish the purpose for which such an article is worn. This Hadith is difficult to translate, because the Prophet uses the words that signify such articles in a different sense. The nearest we can do to translate it would be: “May God never give anyone who wears a tameemah, i.e. a charm, the charming effect he seeks. May He never give anyone who wears a wada’ah, i.e. an amulet, anything he wants.” (Related by Ahmad, Al-Hakim and Abu Ya’la).
Another Hadith mentions that the Prophet saw a man wearing a copper bracelet on his upper arm, and asked him what was that. The man said: “I wear it because of the debilitating one.” (He meant that it helps to relieve the effects of a debilitating illness). The Prophet said: “It only gives you increased debility. Throw it away, because if you die wearing it, you will never achieve success.” (Related by Ahmad, Ibn Hibban and Ibn Majah). Needless to say, the Prophet is referring here to success on the Day of Judgment. Thus, his words mean that the man would never be admitted into heaven, should he die wearing it.
All these Hadiths and many others confirm that any such article is forbidden in Islam. It is not difficult to see why it is so. When a person wears such an article, believing that it does him good, he is actually attributing to it an effect that could only be brought about by God. Hence, he is guilty of making it a partner of God. Nothing is more serious, or more anti-Islamic than that.
