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The Problems With Jinn Catching‏

Version: 24th December 2022.

Bismillahi Walhamdulilah wa salatu wa salam ala Rasulilah.

INTRODUCTION

Some people asked me about my view regarding jinn catching and what I thought about it. I don’t think my opinion is very important and others have already spoken about it even if they were brief. But since I have been asked by my patients and I will probably be asked about it again in the near future, then I must publically say what I believe and actually write and publish something on it because if I were to remain silent and not answer those patients who asked me or if I didn’t publish an article then it would be as if I found nothing wrong with it and that may be interpreted as a tacit approval.

The only reason I wrote this article is because I couldn’t find anything appropriate in the English language to help my own patients understand the problems with jinn catching and why they shouldn’t use it. Yes, walhamdulilah, some raqis have spoken about it and this is sufficient for some patients, as I mentioned earlier, but others may not feel satisfied with how those who have already spoken it, dealt with it and that is because they didn’t go into it deeply enough to expose the issues and problems with jinn catching.

I AM NOT FORCING ANYONE TO FOLLOW MY OPINION ON JINN CATCHING BUT PATIENTS MUST CAREFULLY LOOK AT THE REALITY OF WHAT JINN CATCHING IS BEFORE EMBARKING ON THIS METHOD OF TREATMENT. ASK ALLAH TO GUIDE YOU AND COMPARE THE EVIDENCE OF THOSE WHO SAY IT IS ALLOWED WITH THE EVIDENCE OF THOSE OF US WHO DISAGREE WITH JINN CATCHING.

I, myself, was a patient of jinn possession and sihr and therefore, I can understand the feeling of desperation that can result from searching for a cure. However, this feeling must not let us overlook the reality of certain methods to cure jinn possession. We, as patients, must always stay focused and make sure, with the guidance of Allah, that any treatment we undertake is accepted in Islam.

It is ONLY by the mercy of Allah that I did not get involved in jinn catching or any other method that uses the help of the jinn. I actually remember watching a reputed raqi use the help of the speaking jinn in one patient, to remove sihr from another patient in the same room. In a different case, I remember listening to a well known Sheikh saying that it is acceptable to ask the jinn about where the taweez is. I know about another Sheikh who asked a speaking jinnee in a patient, if he himself was possessed. After seeing such things, I thought that it was very important to learn how to speak to jinn and to learn how to interrogate them and use them. However, after guidance from Allah, I realised that using the help of the jinn is actually shirk and what those Sheikhs actually did was totally wrong and haram, may Allah forgive them.

What I have learnt from my experience is that I will NEVER be too harsh or over criticise someone who does mistakes in ruqya. If I am NOT going to be harsh with those Sheikhs, then it is a must that I am not harsh with my brothers and sisters who do jinn catching and who are less than those Sheikhs in terms of knowledge.
There have been many times where I have thought that something was permissible in ruqya or I saw someone doing something in ruqya that I thought was permissible but then later on, I found out that such practises were not allowed and, in fact, haram to do. I was so close at doing some of these things. It was ONLY by mercy of Allah that he guided me away from those things. What I learnt from it, is to NEVER be arrogant and look down at Muslims, who do these strange practises like “jinn catching”, and NEVER think that I am better than them because I was very close to doing similar things.
Every time I see some Muslim doing something strange in ruqya then I make dua that Allah guides them and I say thanks to Allah from saving me from the same predicament. Sadly, it is NOT easy to get the correct Islamic knowledge regarding ruqya. Not much has been written in the English language and there are not many people who are teaching ruqya according to the Quran, Sunnah and the way of Salaf. Hence, there is a lot of bidah out there SO BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHO YOU ASK YOUR RUQYA QUESTIONS TO!

I believe the majority of those people who practice jinn catching are just trying to help their muslim brothers and sisters, and they want the best possible treatment for them. However, sincerity does not always lead you to the correct Islamic method of dealing with illnesses. How many people get involved in ruqya sincerely but then end up falling into fitna with money and women or they do strange practices that make the patient’s situation worse than what it was!

I call on those raqis who do jinn catching to ponder on the following reasons why I myself do not practice jinn catching and I pray to Allah that he opens their hearts and that he makes them understand what I am saying.


BACKGROUND INFORMATION: AN IMPORTANT DEFINITION

Before we look at the reasons, we need to first define what ‘seeking help from the jinn’ or ‘help of the jinn’ is, because I will be using this phrase or term throughout the discussion below.

This below definition of what seeking the help of the jinn is, is taken from the understanding of the following two ayahs from the Quran: Al-Jinn 72: 6 and Al-An’aam 6: 128 and what the scholars said regarding this issue of seeking the jinn’s help. Please see the fatwa below from Sheikh Al-Fawzan and then the next fatwa from Islamqa, which explains the use of these two ayahs. I have also added similar situations and scenarios that I know of and which can also be classified as seeking the jinn’s help as they share the same characteristics and realities as the original examples the scholars used to explain the concept of seeking the help of the jinn. We must understand that when Allah forbids something for us, then by default, anything which has the same characteristics and reality is also forbidden.

Some may say that ayah 6 in surah Al-Jinn does not mention the seeking of the help from the jinn and it only mentions the seeking of refuge in the jinn. They need to understand that “seeking refuge” is a type of seeking help and therefore we can apply this ayah to other situations where people are seeking the jinn’s help. If one type of seeking the jinn’s help is forbidden then ALL types of seeking the help of the jinn are also forbidden. It is as simple as that!

THE DEFINITION: “SEEKING THE HELP FROM THE JINN” OR “HELP OF THE JINN”: It is, but not limited to: Behaving and acting like a fortune teller or those who work with the jinn by asking the jinn questions about the unseen world or getting them to do things or benefiting from them or their services, such as diagnosing the patient ie the type of spiritual or physical illnesses, asking the jinn to diagnose the condition of present or absent patients or people, asking the jinn to diagnose the condition of the patient’s family, asking the jinn about the taweez and where it is and what it is for, asking the jinn to destroy sihr in the body or external sihr, asking the jinn about the sahir and who he is, asking the jinn to diagnose if there is any sihr on a group of people and why the sihr was done on them, asking the jinn to fight other jinns or humans, asking the jinn to protect people, asking the jinn to treat patients such as removing sihr from the stomach, asking the jinn about unsolved crimes or stolen items, using the help of the jinn’s vision of the unseen world by asking the jinn to watch and see if the sihr, jinn or other things like blood sacrifices or other sacrifices or sihr contracts or networks or pacts get destroyed by ruqya and then afterwards asking the jinn to see and look if these things have really been destroyed (so in order to know if a patient’s sihr is cured or not, the jinn’s help, via its vision, is required for diagnosis), using and benefiting from the jinn’s vision or hearing, telling a completely manifested and speaking jinnee in a patient to remove sihr or ayn or any other illness from another patient, …….etc. 

In the above definition, what is highlighted in red is what I have seen some jinn catching raqis do or say they do, particularly using the vision or sight of the jinn.

A good example of what I mean by seeking the help of the jinn can be found in the fatwa below (via the link) by Sheikh Fawzan:

(LINK)  *ASKING THE JINN QUESTIONS DURING RUQYAH | AL-‘ALLÂMAH SÂLIH AL-FAWZÂN*

*Question:*

“Virtuous Shaikh, may Allâh grant you success; if the Jinn speaks at the end of the ruqyah, should I ask him about the magic and who did it?”

*Al-‘Allâmah Sâlih al-Fawzân:*

“No, do not ask him about the unseen and the magic. Tell him, “Fear Allâh, get out of this person; fear Allâh and do not transgress against the Muslims”. Advise him, (but) as for asking him to inform you about things, this is not permissible – this is seeking aid and assistance from the Jinn. Yes.”

In another fatwa, which is taken from Islamqa, we can clearly see the scholars forbid us from asking the jinn about the magic and evil eye and who did them:

QUESTION

“What is the ruling on asking the jinn for help in finding out about the evil eye or magic [i.e., who did it and what type it is], or believing a jinn who is residing in a sick person in what he says about magic and the evil eye, and taking action based on that”?

ANSWER

Praise be to Allaah.

It is not permissible to seek the help of the jinn in finding about what the problem is and how to treat it, because seeking the help of the jinn is shirk. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And verily, there were men among mankind who took shelter with the males among the jinn, but they (jinn) increased them (mankind) in sin and transgression”

[al-Jinn 72:6]

“And on the Day when He will gather them (all) together (and say): ‘O you assembly of jinn! Many did you mislead of men,’ and their Awliyaa’ (friends and helpers) amongst men will say: ‘Our Lord! We benefited one from the other, but now we have reached our appointed term which You did appoint for us.’ He will say: ‘The Fire be your dwelling place, you will dwell therein forever, except as Allaah may will. Certainly your Lord is All-Wise, All-Knowing’”

[al-An’aam 6:128]

The meaning of the phrase ‘We benefited one from the other’ is that the men venerated the jinn and submitted to them and sought help from them, and the jinn served them by doing what they wanted and bringing them what they asked for. That includes informing them of the type of sickness and its causes, because the jinn can come to know of things that humans cannot; but they may tell lies, because they cannot be trusted, and it is not permissible to believe them. And Allaah knows best”.

The above fatwa can be accessed here:

https://islamqa.info/en/11114

For more examples on what “seeking the help of the jinn” is and how the evidence from the Quran and hadith regarding this issue have been explained by scholars, then please refer to the fatawa below from “islamqa” and other fatawa elsewhere on the internet about the work of fortune tellers and the people who work with jinn.

For an explanation of the kufr of a fortune teller and why he is considered a kafir then please read this fatwa:

https://islamqa.info/en/answers/40924/advice-to-a-fortune-teller-who-reads-coffee-cups

Basically, this above fatwa explains to us the kufr of a fortune teller and why he is a kafir. In the fatawa below from islamqa, the scholars consider those people who use the jinn’s help to be like fortune tellers (ie kuffar) because fortune tellers use the jinn’s help to get their information so therefore the hadith that talk about the kufr and the prohibition of visiting fortune tellers will also apply to anyone who behaves like a fortune teller or anyone who wants to visit a fortune teller ie those hadiths will also apply to jinn catching raqis and their patients who want to visit jinn catching raqis because they have similarities to fortune tellers and people who visit them, such as asking the jinn certain questions about the unseen and also asking the jinn for their help and services and believing what the jinn say about the unseen (please see the above definition of “seeking the help of the jinn”).

Here is a fatwa from Sheikh Uthaymeen explaining that the one who visits a fortune teller can fall into major kufr ie become a kafir and so one of these categories will be the situation of those patients who visit jinn catching raqis. This understanding that a person who uses the jinn’s help and services is a kafir is taken from the second fatwa below as those scholars see the people who use the jinn’s help to be like fortune tellers and hence the fatwa of Sheikh Uthaymeen will be applicable to anyone who visits such people:

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen said:

Those who go to fortunetellers fall into three categories:

1 – The one who goes to a fortuneteller and asks him things without believing in what he says. This is haraam, and the punishment of the one who does that is that his prayers are not accepted for forty days, as it is narrated in Saheeh Muslim (2230), that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever goes to a fortuneteller and asks him about something, his prayer will not be accepted for forty days.”

2 – When a person goes to a fortuneteller and asks him about something and believes what he says. This is disbelief in Allaah (kufr), because he is believing the fortuneteller’s claim to have knowledge of the unseen, and believing a human’s being claim to have knowledge of the unseen constitutes disbelief in the verse in which Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Say: None in the heavens and the earth knows the Ghayb (Unseen) except Allaah”

[al-Naml 27:65].

Hence it says in the saheeh hadeeth: “Whoever goes to a fortuneteller and believes what he says has disbelieved in that which was revealed to Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).” (Abu Dawood (3904), al-Tirmidhi (3904) and Ibn Majaah (936); classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Ibn Maajah)

3 – When he goes to a fortuneteller and asks him questions so that he can explain to the people what he is really doing, which is deceiving people and leading them astray. There is nothing wrong with this. The evidence for that is the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) went to Ibn Sayyaad. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) though of something to himself.  The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) asked him what he was thinking of and he said, “Al-dukh” meaning al-dukhaan (smoke). End quote.

Majmoo’ Fataawa wa Rasaa’il al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, 2/184

Here is the fatwa from islamqa that explains that anyone who uses the jinn’s help or services is considered to be a kafir and that Muslims should not visit them. This fatwa is also applicable to jinn catchers as well since they are doing similar things. If someone visits jinn catching raqis then the above fatwa of Sheikh Uthaymeen will be applicable to them :

Question

My husband has told me that in his country, many people including Shaykhs have gone to talk with the jinn. He told me that when someone has an ailment they go to the jinn for help. I have told my husband that I believe that this is haram (impermissible), but he says that it is halal (permissible) because the Shaykhs do that. Could you please give me some evidence (daleel) about this matter?
 
Answer

Praise be to Allah

1 – Seeking the help of the jinn or turning to them to fulfill one’s desires to cause harm or bring benefit is shirk or associating others in worship with Allah, because it is a kind of mutual benefitting whereby the jinn responds to the human’s requests and fulfills his needs in return for the human’s veneration of the jinn, turning to him and asking for his help to do what he wants.

Allah says (interpretation of the meanings):

“And on the Day when He will gather them (all) together (and say): ‘O you assembly of jinn! Many did you mislead of men,’ and their awliya (friends and helpers) amongst men will say: ‘Our Lord! We benefited one from the other, but now we have reached our appointed term which You did appoint for us.’ He will say: ‘The Fire be your dwelling place, you will dwell therein forever, except as Allah may will. Certainly your Lord is All-Wise, All-Knowing.’

And thus We do make the Zaalimun (polytheists and wrongdoers) awliya (supporters and helpers) of one another (in committing crimes), because of that which they used to earn.” [6:128]

“And verily, there were men among mankind who took shelter with the males among the jinn, but they (jinn) increased them (mankind) in sin and transgression.” [72:6]

If a human seeks the help of a jinn to cause harm to another person, or seeks his help for protection from the evil of a person whose evil he fears, all of this is shirk.

Whoever is like this, his prayer and his fasting are both invalid, because Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“If you join others in worship with Allah, (then) surely, (all) your deeds will be in vain, and you will certainly be among the losers.”

[39:65]

If a person is known for doing this, then the funeral prayer is not to be offered for him if he dies, his funeral is not to be attended, and he is not to be buried in the Muslim graveyard.

2 – The Standing Committee was asked a similar question, which said:

I would like to inform you that in Zambia there is a Muslim man who claims that he has jinn with him, and the people go to him and ask him to heal their diseases, and this jinn prescribes medicine for them. Is this permissible?

The answer is:

It is not permissible for this man to use the services of the jinn, and it is not permissible for the people to go to him, seeking treatment for their diseases through advice from the jinn, or to fulfill any needs in this manner.

Treating disease by means of human doctors and by using permissible medicines means that there is no need for that. This should be enough to free us from the control of these charlatans.

It was narrated in a saheeh hadeeth (authentic narration) that the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever goes to a fortune-teller and asks him about something, his prayers will not be accepted for forty days.” [Muslim]

The four authors of al-Sunan, and al-Hakim in a saheeh hadeeth, narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever goes to a fortuneteller and believes what he said has disbelieved in that which was revealed to Muhammad.” (Abu Dawood (3904), al-Tirmidhi (3904) and Ibn Majaah (936); classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Ibn Maajah)

This man and his companions from among the jinn are to be regarded as fortunetellers and soothsayers. It is not permissible to ask them anything or to believe them.

And Allah knows best.

Here is another fatwa from islamqa explaining how a person who visits a fortune teller can become a kafir and that there is NO contradiction in the two hadiths that speak about this matter. The questioner actually misquoted the hadith from Sahih Muslim and added “and believes him”:

Question

How can we reconcile between the two following hadeeths? 
1 – “Whoever goes to a fortune teller and asks him about something and believes him, his prayers will not be accepted for forty days.” Narrated by Muslim in his Saheeh. 
2 – “Whoever goes to a soothsayer and believes what he says has disbelieved in that which was revealed to Muhammad.” (Abu Dawood (3904), al-Tirmidhi (3904) and Ibn Majaah (936); classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Ibn Maajah).

The first hadeeth does not point to kufr whereas the second hadeeth does.

Answer

Praise be to Allaah.

There is no contradiction between the two hadeeth. What is meant by the hadeeth “ Whoever goes to a soothsayer and believes what he says has disbelieved in that which was revealed to Muhammad” is that the one who asks a soothsayer a question, believing that he tells the truth and that he knows the unseen, has committed an act of kufr, because he has gone against the Qur’aan in which Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): “Say: “None in the heavens and the earth knows the Ghaib (Unseen) except Allaah” [al-Naml 27:65]. As for the second hadeeth, “Whoever goes to a fortune teller and asks him about something and believes him, his prayers will not be accepted for forty days”, which was narrated by Muslim, it does not contain the words “and believes him”. (ie the questioner made a mistake and misquoted the hadith by adding the words “and believes him” so that is why it looked contradictory to the questioner)

Thus we learn that if a person goes to a fortune teller and asks him anything, his prayer will not be accepted for forty days, and if he believes him, then he has committed an act of kufr.

And Allaah is the source of strength. May Allaah send blessings and peace on our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions. End quote.

Standing Committee for Academic Research and Issuing Fatwas

Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azez ibn baaz, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Razzaaq ‘Afeefi, Shaykh ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Ghadyaan

https://islamqa.info/en/answers/112069/does-the-one-who-goes-to-a-fortune-teller-and-asks-him-about-something-become-a-kaafir


TAKING AN EXTRA PRECAUTION WITH SPEAKING POSSESSING JINN: DON’T ACT UPON WHAT THEY TELL YOU!

For myself and the general Muslims who are NOT specialists in the fine details of Tawheed and the shirk of using the help of jinn, it might be better to avoid acting on any information that the jinn tell or give you. So if a jinnee speaks during ruqya then you should ignore it and JUST TELL IT TO LEAVE THE BODY. Don’t get into any conversations with jinn which may lead to shirk. If they offer you information or just tell you things about the unseen world, without you asking for it, DON’T BELIEVE THEM BUT AT THE SAME TIME, DON’T DENY THE INFORMATION BECAUSE IT COULD BE TRUE. 

If the jinn tell you information about their unseen world or other things then you have NOT sinned by just hearing this information from them because you did NOT request it in the first place. This is important to remember as some patients get confused about this point.

If the jinn say the taweez is in the back garden don’t believe them and don’t go to the back garden to look for it because the jinn told you. You should look in the back garden for the taweez, NOT because of what the jinn said to you but because searching gardens and the house is what people are supposed to do in the first place, when they realise they are suffering from sihr.

DON’T ACT ON OR FOLLOW UP ANY INFORMATION THE JINN GIVE YOU……TAKE IT AS IF YOU DIDN’T HEAR IT. This will stop you from having any interest in speaking to jinn and getting information from them. It will also foster and instill in you a hatred of speaking to jinn. 

Acting on any information from the jinn may make you more inclined to asking the jinn for help, which is major shirk, so that is why you should avoid it. By doing this, you will not have any veneration or love in your heart for the information that speaking jinn give you. It will also prevent you from being in awe of the jinn.

Occasionally, a jinnee may tell the truth. A jinnee may say that it is leaving the body and then it actually does leave the body so when we check the patient via ruqya diagnosis, we find that the jinnee really did leave. Knowing this fact, doesn’t mean we should listen to the jinn and act upon their statements. In this instance or situation, we don’t do the ruqya diagnosis for jinn possession because the jinn said it left but we do the ruqya diagnosis because it is always a good idea to do ruqya diagnosis after any treatments.

If a Muslim has this attitude of not acting upon any advice or statements from the jinn, it will help close the door to shirk.


FALLING INTO THE SHIRK OF USING THE JINN’S HELP SUBTLY DURING RUQYA DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT WITHOUT ACTUALLY SPEAKING TO JINN

We should not do any ruqya diagnosis or treatment that uses the sight (vision) or hearing or knowledge of the jinn or anything else of the jinn. We should not even use the jinn’s bodies, if that is even possible! Basically, using anything of the jinn is similar to using the help of the jinn, which is shirk. Keep far away from anything to do with using jinn.

If the possessing jinn starts communicating, via hand gestures, with the raqi during the raqi’s ruqya or with the patient during self ruqya, then we must be very careful and ignore this communication as it could lead us to fall into shirk. For example, lets imagine that during the ruqya, the jinn indicate via hand gestures (using the patient’s hands) that the sihr or jinn are in a particular part of the body and then the possessing jinn proceed to supposedly remove the sihr or jinn from the patient’s body (they do this by using the patient’s hands). After seeing all this so-called help from the possessing jinn in removing sihr and jinn, if in the next ruqya session, the raqi or the patient doing self ruqya make the intention to read ruqya to cause the jinn to help out by pointing or using hand gestures then this ruqya would be classified as shirk because it is using the help of the jinn. It is even shirk if the raqi just wants to see where in the body the jinn is taking out this sihr or jinn. This is all shirk even though no words have been spoken. This is why it is ALWAYS important to ask a raqi what his intention is when he is reading ruqya.

IMPORTANT: JINN MOVEMENTS IN THE PATIENT DURING RUQYA DIAGNOSIS IS NOT SEEKING THE HELP OF THE JINN.
If it is said that I use the jinn’s help to diagnose patients because I wait for the jinn to move around in a body or react to the ruqya diagnosis, then I would say that this is a complete misunderstanding of what is actually happening. It is Allah who creates the ruqya reactions and not the jinn. It is Allah who causes the jinn to move and react and the jinn are not doing it by themselves. It is Allah who makes the jinn react and move during the ruqya diagnosis. The jinn have no choice but to react to the ruqya diagnosis and they can’t independently decide to not react. I am asking Allah directly, via my ruqya diagnostic intention, to cause my ruqya to affect any jinn in the body so that jinn give us a reaction. If I get a jinn reaction, then it was Allah who caused it and not me or even the jinn. Yes, the jinn reacted but they were made to react by Allah!
Indeed, I am not calling on the jinn or using any of their help. I am only asking Allah to attack the jinn with ruqya and then using this information that Allah has given me. Therefore, the source of the diagnostic information is Allah. This diagnostic information didn’t come from me nor did it come from the possessing jinn.
I can use this diagnostic information to help the patient because this information is from Allah. For example, if I read ruqya diagnosis with the intention of asking Allah to show us if the patient has jinn in his arm and the patient’s arm starts shaking, then it is Allah who gave us this information (and not the jinn even if the jinn moved because I am only asking Allah for help and not the jinn). If I decide to put a hijama cup on the arm to try to remove the jinn, then this is permissible because it was Allah who told us that the jinn are in the arm.
If someone actually believes that it is the jinn that are in control and it is the jinn that are causing the actual effects of the ruqya then this person would have fallen into shirk himself and has gone against what the scholars had agreed upon regarding the Islamic ruqya. This is because the person had attributed the effects of the ruqya to the jinn and not to Allah.

A VERY SHORT SUMMARY OF JINN CATCHING RUQYA TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE DISCUSSION BELOW

Please understand that jinn catching ruqya has primarily 3 steps that are closely related to each other: the first step is having an intention to do the whole process from the beginning to the end, which includes using the jinn’s help and services during the last stage of the of the jinn catching process. In other words, the raqi intends to read the Quran to catch jinn in the catcher so when the jinn start speaking in the catcher, he can then use their help and services. This is his intention in the heart. The second step is actually reading the Quran with this intention so that the jinn can be caught in the catcher and then be used. In the final step, the jinn start actually speaking in the catcher and then the raqi uses the jinn’s help and services, such as asking the jinn where the taweez is or using the jinn’s vision: eg, asking the jinn if the blood sacrifices and pacts have been destroyed, etc. Please go back and look at the definition of what seeking the help of the jinn is, especially those points that are highlighted in “red” as these are what I have seen jinn catching raqis do or I have read that they do.

What we have to do here is focus on the last step as that is where the clear shirk takes place and no one can hide it but this does not mean we ignore the two previous steps. We must see the first two steps as laying the groundwork for the apparent shirk at the end of the jinn catching session, which everyone can see and no one can deny. Indeed, it could be argued that the first two steps are more dangerous, since we cannot see any clear shirk when we see a jinn catching raqi reading Quran as ruqya. It all looks legitimate and permissible. However, in reality there are two subtle forms of shirk that are happening before our eyes but we are oblivious to them. We will discuss these two in the next section of this article.

Anyway, the main point here is that you should not presume that every raqi who reads Quran as ruqya, is reading it without shirk!


Having this above broad definition and understanding of ‘seeking the help from the jinn’ or ‘help of the jinn’, will let you appreciate what I say below.

1. Jinn catching ruqya is not permissible because it is seeking help, assistance and cure through jinn, which is shirk. That’s because the jinn catching raqi wants and desires the help of jinn in his heart and then he makes the intention to use the help of the jinn before the actual reading of the ruqya so therefore his whole reading of ruqya is false since actions are ONLY based on intentions. This intention alone renders the ruqya invalid as it is reading ruqya with the intention to commit shirk! ie wanting, desiring and yearning for the help of the jinn in the heart and then using ruqya as a way or means of getting the help from the jinn. We are supposed to read ruqya with the intention of ONLY seeking the help from Allah and not the jinn because seeking help is a type of worship which is ONLY for Allah (“You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help” Quran 1:5). Even if the jinn catching raqis say that they are seeking help from Allah and the jinn at the same time with their ruqya reading……IT IS STILL SHIRK since you are associating partners with Allah! You can’t worship jinn and Allah at the same time!

Another form of shirk that jinn catching raqis fall into is the fact that they are actually calling on the jinn while they are actually reading ruqya. Yes, they call on Allah but they also call on the jinn at the same time and that is because of their ruqya intention of ‘wanting to cause jinn possession so that the jinn’s help can be used’ and this is an intention that makes your ruqya action an action of shirk. If you read ruqya with this intention then your action of ruqya (or your calling) is major shirk!

Ruqya is a dua or a CALL to Allah and you can’t use it to call for help from the jinn because calling is only for Allah (Quran 72:18). It may not seem like they are calling on jinn because the Quran is being used but in reality that is what the ruqya action is being used for. In an authentic ruqya session that uses the Quran as ruqya, even though the words ‘O Allah help and cure us’ are not literally said, that is what is really happening in reality ie there is definitely a call or dua ONLY to Allah through the recitation of the Quran as ruqya. Basically, the action of reading the Quran has been turned into a DUA of help to Allah because of the intention in the heart. Likewise, when a jinn catching raqi reads ruqya with the Quran, he is basically calling on Allah and the jinn at the same time because he has the intention of seeking the help of the jinn through Quranic ruqya, means, by default, that he is calling on the jinn through his recitation of Quran as ruqya even though, literally, he will not actually say the words ‘O Allah and O jinn help and cure us’. Indeed, he is calling on the jinn and that’s why he eagerly waits and anticipates a response or reply from the jinn in the catcher. It is irrelevant and it does not matter if the jinn were forced to possess the catcher or not because the real focus to know the status of this ruqya and whether or not it contains shirk, is to look and to investigate the intention of the raqi. THAT’S IT. We don’t look or investigate the status or reality of the jinn in this matter.

Once you have the intention in your heart to seek the help of the jinn through the call or dua of ruqya then automatically you are calling on the jinn because that is what dua or calling is all about ie if your intention of ruqya in your heart contains shirk then definitely your action of ruqya reading will also be shirk! Because of this, we can say that there is no real difference between the jinn catching raqi and the man running out in the desert, seeking and wanting the help of the jinn and then saying certain words to summon the jinn so that the jinn in the desert appear and present themselves to the man and then the jinn fufill the needs of the man. Looking at this example of the man in the desert, we will all agree that the jinn catching raqi has definitely got the first stage of this shirk within his heart which is the desire and want to use the help of the jinn. He also has the last part, which is actually using the help of the jinn in reality. If that is the case, then by default and by necessity, he has the middle stage, which is calling on or getting the jinn to present themselves. He has the intention to use the help of the jinn and then reads ruqya with this intention to get this help from the jinn so therefore the ruqya gets turned into a call to the jinn. If your original intention for ruqya contains shirk then your subsequent ruqya action becomes shirk! That is because actions are based on intentions!

This calling of the jinn could be done by using any words or phrases, such as ‘Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha’. All that matters is that you have the want and the desire to call on the jinn and then you actually call on the jinn with ‘Ha, ha, ha.’ IT IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT!

It really does not matter if the jinn recognize or they don’t recognize that they are being called on by the jinn catching raqi. It also does not matter if they were unwilling or forced to possess the catcher. All of this and also the jinn’s state of mind does not affect the shirk in the ruqya action of the jinn catching raqi because this shirk does not depend on the reality and state of the jinn but it ONLY really depends on the the reality and status of the jinn catching raqi’s heart ie if the raqi’s intention in his heart has shirk then his ruqya will be shirk, irrespective of the jinn’s status. We must remember that people call on idols and even a living human and do shirk with them. The actual status, reality, shape, colour, etc of the idol or if the living human knows or doesn’t know he is being worshipped, is totally irrelevant and does not affect the reality of the shirk that has been done by the people who worship the idols or the living human. Therefore, it is irrelevant if the jinn know or don’t know what is actually happening during jinn catching ruqya. 

The ruqya of the jinn catching raqis has become a means of causing jinn possession in the catcher so that the jinn’s help can be used. This action of ruqya has become shirk by just the mere intention of wanting the jinn’s help.

Sadly, the jinn catching raqis are able to use the Quran to do this calling of the jinn. In general, we believe the jinn don’t mind being forced to possess the catcher and they recognise that the jinn catching raqi’s Quranic reading of ruqya is not really just calling on Allah but it is also calling on them as well, to present themselves in the catcher so that they can fulfil the jinn catching raqis requests and needs. The jinn will always take up an opportunity to make Muslims fall into shirk, especially the devils.

Using the Quran to call jinn is not only done by the jinn catchers. Other people do this as well, especially those who have an incorrect or Sufi understanding of Tawheed. (I remember reading a person’s experience of dealing with jinn and how he used the Quran to call jinn. Please read this): http://www.khalidzaheer.com/experiencing-jinn/

It seems the jinn teach people to read some Quran, when the people need the help of the jinn, and then the jinn will appear in a dark room or possess a human medium. When the jinn appear, the people ask the jinn their questions or get their needs met. Obviously, the jinn, that teach this way of using the Quran to call jinn, are from the shayateen. These devils know that the action is major shirk and they are pleased with it and they know the person who follows their teachings is sinful and that Allah does not accept such recitations of the Quran. Outwardly, it looks very Islamic ie “only reading Quran” but in reality shirk is taking place. This is why it is very important to ignore the fact the Quran is being recited and we must ask the person, who is reading the Quran, to explain what exactly is their intention for reading the Quran.

We should mention here that the jinn catching raqi’s call or dua via the Quran to Allah for help is actually rejected by Allah because Allah doesn’t accept being called on at the same time as jinn, angels or idols. SO THE CLAIM TO BE CALLING ALLAH, IS ONLY A CLAIM. In reality, jinn catching raqis are ONLY calling on the jinn because Allah rejects any dua or ruqya that is to him and to the jinn at the same time. Our hearts cannot and must not have the desire and want for Allah’s help combined with the want and desire for the jinn’s help….indeed in the heart is where ALL the shirk of dua begins!

Due to this shirk state of the jinn catching raqi’s heart and the fact that he is calling on Allah and the jinn at the same time via the Quran as ruqya, the jinn catching raqi’s Quranic reading as ruqya or calling on Allah through the Quran is rejected by Allah and is not answered or accepted. How many unfortunate people read Quran or do good deeds but it is rejected by Allah because it was done with the intention of showing off, so we shouldn’t get surprised at the fact that someone’s Quran reading can be rejected by Allah. In fact, one of the first people to be thrown into hell will be a reciter of the Quran who read the Quran for other than Allah in the well known hadith. Therefore, the jinn catching raqi’s Quran reading as ruqya is really ONLY calling on the jinn and not Allah because Allah doesn’t accept being called on at the same time as jinn or anything else (Quran 72: 18).

After reading this false ruqya, the jinn present themselves in the catcher and then the jinn catching raqi uses the help and services of the jinn through the catcher. This action or use of the jinn’s help is also shirk (Quran 6:128) & (Quran 72:6).

Therefore, from the above, we can say that there are 3 forms of major shirk that the jinn catching raqis fall into:

1. Shirk of the heart ie wanting and desiring the help of Allah and the jinn in the heart and then reading ruqya with the intention of seeking the help of the jinn and Allah at the same time. (Remember, it is irrelevant that Allah is mentioned here as Allah doesn’t accept his help being wanted at the same time as jinn’s help being wanted because that is shirk).

2. Shirk of dua ie calling on the jinn and Allah at the same time. (Again here, it is irrelevant that Allah is mentioned because Allah doesn’t accept being called at the same time as jinn being called because that is shirk).

3. Shirk of seeking help ie once the jinn present themselves and start speaking in the catcher, the jinn catching raqis use their help and services.

Having said all of that, there are some that still can’t understand that jinn catching is SHIRK. They claim that what I have mentioned above does not apply to them because their intention for ruqya is different. They claim that they read jinn catching ruqya with just the intention of “asking Allah to bring the jinn into the catcher”. WE SAY THAT IS NOT TRUE BECAUSE YOU WANT TO DO MORE THAN JUST CAUSE JINN POSSESSION……YOU WANT THE JINN’S HELP! Therefore, their real intention is much more than just that. Their real intention is: “Asking Allah to cause jinn possession in the catcher SO THAT YOU CAN USE THE HELP & SERVICES OF THE JINN”. We can say that because jinn catching is NOT just one stage of asking Allah to cause possession in the catcher. There is the final stage of actually using the services and help of the jinn. This final stage is the main objective and goal of the whole of the jinn catching ruqya and to get to that stage there has to be a want or desire for jinn’s help in the beginning of the process and in the heart of the raqi.

The problems with this real intention is:
1. It is rejected because you want and desire the help of the jinn even if the actual help is done at the final stage of jinn catching. This want and desire for the jinn’s help in the heart of the raqi is a major shirk of the heart as mentioned earlier. It is a PRESENT feeling in the heart and it doesn’t matter that this feeling has to do with the final stage of the jinn catching process. This present and current wanting and desiring in the heart of the raqi is where all the shirk stems from.
2. Reading ruqya with this intention is also major shirk as explained earlier. We know from usool ul fiqh that whatever leads to haram is haram itself. So this reading of ruqya is SHIRK and it is haram because it leads to major shirk.

3. When the jinn present themselves in the catcher, their services and help are used.

(We can also add to these 3 points the fact that they are asking Allah to cause jinn possession in a Muslim or non Muslim. Asking Allah to harm an innocent person is haram itself even if they ask for it. How can a sane Muslim ask Allah to harm is brother or sister with jinn possession. We will discuss this again, later in the article)

As can be seen clearly, there is NO difference between what I mentioned earlier. Jinn Catching is full of Major Shirk!

There is something else that we did not mention earlier, which is even more dangerous and that is asking Allah to actually help you to commit the shirk of seeking jinn’s help. How can we ask Allah to help us do the worst type of sin! If we ponder on this for a little while then you will hopefully see how grave the jinn catching raqi’s situation really is. He is basically asking Allah to put jinn in the catcher so then he can get help from the jinn, which is shirk. It is like asking Allah to help you buy idols so that you can worship them! In fact, this is worst than asking the jinn directly as it is completely disrespectful and shameful to ask Allah to help you do shirk. Doing shirk is a terrible sin on its own but actually asking Allah to help you do the shirk and then really doing the shirk itself, is even worse!

Those jinn catchers who say that we can’t know what is really in their heart, need to understand that we are only basing this opinion on what we have seen and read about jinn catching ruqya. So this information is coming from the jinn catchers themselves. We have seen jinn catchers using the services and help of the jinn in the catcher and have seen them being very happy with the help and services of the jinn and definitely this happiness with the jinn’s help is an action of the heart that they are not embarrassed about expressing in words. Now, to get this jinn’s help they describe what must be done and how to do it and what the final outcome will be and how to use the jinn. So they clearly manifest, what is in their hearts, through their speech and writing and that the whole point of jinn catching is to get the help of the jinn. Obviously, the jinn catchers are not going to call what we saw them do ‘getting the help from the jinn’. They will call it by another name like ‘jinn catching’ or ‘doing dawah to the jinn’. But the Islamic verdict is based on the reality of things and processes and not just names so when we break down what jinn catching really is, we find that it has the 3 types of major shirk that we mentioned earlier and it also has other things that make it haram as mentioned in the rest of this article.

If there are still jinn catchers who believe that I have misunderstood what jinn catching is all about after my above explanations. Then we ask them a simple question:

DO YOU SEEK THE HELP AND SERVICES OF THE JINN DURING THE ACTION OR PROCESS OF JINN CATCHING? (ie interact, communicate and benefit from the jinn like a fortune teller or those people who work with jinn. Please see the definition of ‘seeking help from the jinn’ at the beginning of this article) 

If the answer is “YES”, then that is major shirk! If the answer is “NO”, then you yourself haven’t understood what jinn catching is all about!

It is very important to know and understand that jinn catching involves SHIRK because the scholars have agreed that ruqya that involves shirk is NOT allowed because of the hadith of Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “There is nothing wrong with a ruqyah that does not involve shirk (paganism).” [Muslim]. In jinn catching, the treatment can only be completed or done properly or done partially with the assistance of jinns. The raqis can’t do it without the help of jinn or calling on jinn or speaking and interacting with jinn ie they are dependant on jinn, hence the name jinn catching. This assistance, reliance and calling on the jinn to treat people is where the problem lies and is severely condemned in the fatawa below so please click the links and read them carefully.

When seeking a cure or treatment through ruqya, we must just stick to what the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam did and we know that he NEVER used the jinn as a way of treating illnesses in people even though the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam had the opportunity to use their services and assistance. Those who say that jinn catching is just a new type of treatment similar to taking new medicines or brain surgery, then we say to them that using the jinn’s help is not like modern methods of treatment because we have been commanded to avoid interaction with jinn and calling on them for help and assistance because that is shirk (Quran 6:128 & 72:6 & 72:18. Please refer to the fatawa below for an explanation of these Quranic ayahs).

The Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam would call the jinn to Islam but this calling or dawah had nothing to do with treatment of Muslims who are sick with sihr or jinn possession. Treatment using the jinn’s help, which is shirk, is one separate thing and dawah to the jinn, which is allowed, is another separate thing and they should not be combined together. The Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam NEVER did dawah to the jinn so that he could use the jinn’s services and their help to cure people. Sadly, this is exactly what the jinn catching raqis do!

While doing ruqya on a patient and suddenly and by accident the jinn start speaking in a patient and there was no intention to use the help of the jinn from the raqi while he was actually reading the ruqya then the raqi in such a situation can briefly warn and give dawah to the jinn. If the possessing jinn decide to embrace Islam after we have warned and given them dawah, we will still NOT use their services to help or cure our patients. We will not even ask them for help to diagnose the patient. We will just tell the the possessing jinn to leave the body of the patient! Unfortunately, this is not the case with jinn catching, which uses the help and services of the possessing jinn. The jinn catching raqis will ask the possessing jinn to do particular things and to carry out certain missions so as to ‘treat’ the patient, such as removing sihr from the patient’s stomach or asking about where the taweez is or what it is for. They will use the help of the jinn’s vision or sight during the last part of the jinn catching process and they will also use the jinn’s help in diagnosis and that is asking the jinn to help them to know what is exactly wrong with the patient or his family. ALL OF THIS IS SHIRK so please read the fatawa below.

https://islamqa.info/en/78546

https://islamqa.info/en/6846

https://islamqa.info/en/121234

https://islamqa.info/en/11114

https://islamqa.info/en/10084

2. It actually and directly causes jinn possession in the ‘catcher’: The Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam NEVER caused or made someone become possessed with jinn. On the contrary, the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam removed jinn from people and never put jinn in people. The hadith of the dua of Sulaiman alayhi salam cannot be used as evidence for jinn catching since the jinnee the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam caught hold of while in pray was an external jinnee and the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam did not put that jinnee into someone.

3. Using the Quran for other than its purpose of curing illnesses: Instead of using the Quran as a cure, it is used to cause harm or an illness in a person. It is used during jinn catching to cause jinn possession in a person or to bring about jinn possession in a person, in this case the catcher. The Quran was sent down to heal and it is a cure (Quran 17:82) and it was NOT sent down to harm anyone or to be used to cause jinn possession, which is definitely, without doubt, a type of spiritual illness (Quran 2:275). Therefore, jinn catching promotes the devaluing or disrespecting of the Quran.

4. Making ruqya dua via the Quran or otherwise to harm a muslim with jinn possession: Harming muslims is totally haram and is a MAJOR SIN and causing jinn possession is one the worse things you can do to a muslim because it affects their body, mind, soul and deen. Jinn possession can cause a muslim to commit evil deeds as possessing jinn can influence a person’s heart.
It does not matter if there is a good intention for jinn catching as the action is invalid and haram and the intention does not make the action of causing possession a good deed. It is like causing someone to have sihr to get married or stealing money to feed the poor. Even if the intention is good in both cases, the actions are still haram. Therefore causing a person to be possessed, especially a muslim, is a serious violation of the rights of your muslim brothers and sisters even if the raqis believe that they aren’t doing evil and even if the ‘catcher’ requests jinn possession because in reality jinn possession has always been something harmful and it has never been praised in the Quran and sunnah. In fact, it is frowned upon in other religions as well. The only people who I have seen that are happy with jinn possession are the sahirs and shayateen so those who are happy with the jinn possession of the catcher need to ponder on that fact!

5. Ruqya is only supposed to be used for treatment and diagnosis of diseases and it is NOT for other purposes like making or causing the jinn to speak. If it is used for other than dealing with diseases then it can’t be called Islamic ruqya and the action itself has gone against the Shariah.

In jinn catching, ruqya is used as a means of causing jinn possession so that the raqi can speak to the jinn. We do not need to speak to jinn during ruqya!!! If jinn manifestation occurs during ruqya treatment then the raqi can briefly speak and give dawah to the jinn but this manifestation of the jinn must be a TOTAL ACCIDENT and was not the purpose and intention for the ruqya in the first place and that is essentially one of the differences between correct authentic ruqya and jinn catching ruqya.

Sometimes, in jinn catching ruqya, you will just see the raqi and catcher enter a house, building or somewhere outside like a hill, field or outside a nightclub or casino and then the jinn catching raqi does ruqya, NOT TO TREAT OR DIAGNOSE PATIENTS, but the ruqya is just done to make the catcher possessed so that the jinn catching raqi can speak and ask the jinn questions in order to get information about what they do in this particular place or if they have any information about recents events in the area or if the jinn have any information about missing people, planes or unsolved crimes. This is totally unacceptable and a BIDAH that you won’t find the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam did or the sahaba. RUQYA IS AN ACT OF WORSHIP and therefore it has rules and regulations that we cannot add to and this action of the jinn catching raqi is a deliberate use of ruqya to specifically speak, communicate and interact with jinn and ruqya is NOT for these purposes and it is only supposed to be used to treat and diagnose people ie RUQYA IS ONLY FOR DISEASES. This reprehensible action is exactly the same as what some fortune tellers do when they ask their jinn to explain why certain events or crimes have happened in the world. (Certain fortune tellers don’t just tell you about the future, they will also tell you about the present unseen world). This action of the jinn catchers is also similar to what some non Muslims do during a ‘seance’, when they wish to speak to ‘dead spirits’ (in reality, not dead spirits but jinn) through a medium and so they gather in a house and have a dinner party and a psychic with a medium start searching and speaking to jinn. So jinn catching raqis and their catchers are basically following the ways of these people, where the jinn catching raqi is exactly the same as the psychic and the catcher is exactly same as the medium, and what an evil and unislamic tradition to follow and replicate! BOTH GROUPS’ METHODS ARE EXACTLY THE SAME but one set of people call it ‘jinn catching’ while the others call it ‘speaking to the dead spirits’. This similarity in actions also applies to the fortune tellers and jinn catchers so when you look at what the fortune tellers do and compare that to the work of jinn catchers, you will find that they both get information about the unseen from the jinn and then they relate this information to people. The jinn catchers will deny that they are doing anything wrong and that they are not like fortune tellers but when we examine both, we find that they are doing exactly the same thing and therefore we must warn against jinn catching ruqya just like we warn against fortune tellers and those who do seances or those who work with jinn.

We must remember that names will always change but the Islamic verdict is based on the reality of methods and things not just names. The shaytan will always confuse people with name changing as he did with Adam alayhi salam by calling the tree by other than its real name and there will be people in the future who the shaytan will confuse and make them drink alcohol, do zina and listen to music by changing the names of these haram actions (Bukhaari). So what the jinn catching raqis have fallen into is an old strategy of the shaytan that he used against our father Adam alayhi salam SO PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO THE REALITY OF THINGS AND NOT JUST NAMES even if the name sounds islamic like ‘jinn catching’.

Jinn manifestation in patients during ruqya, where the jinn speak in patients has to always be an ACCIDENT and something that was NOT EXPECTED or intended since you cannot have the intention to want to CAUSE THE JINN TO SPEAK through your ruqya reading prior to actually doing the ruqya reading itself because that intention alone will render the action of ruqya null and void and will make it a bidah as it is using the ruqya for other than its real islamic purpose. Remember, Allah didn’t legislate ruqya so that it could be used as a way to make contact with the jinn or to cause jinn possession or to cause the jinn to speak in humans. Ruqya was legislated to ONLY help to deal with diseases. If you use it for other than helping to deal with diseases then by default you are doing a bidah. 

If it is said that people can read ruqya with the dua or intention: “O Allah make the possessing jinn speak and communicate with us”, and they say that they do this because they want to tell the jinn to leave the patient and they also want to call them to Islam. I would say that deliberately seeking to communicate with jinn is not something that Islam has ever encouraged because it is something that can lead to the shirk of seeking the assistance of the jinn and because of this, we should avoid all deliberate interactions and communications with jinn.

We must remember that all fortune tellers and sahirs started their evil work by initially having a desire to want to speak to jinn and communicate with them. Therefore, if you want to keep away from their evil practices and following them, then you must eradicate from your heart this desire to want to speak to jinn.

Another point that many forget is that it is already possible to give dawah and ask the possessing jinn to leave without having to listen to the jinn’s speech and without the use of ruqya to facilitate this. Therefore, I can tell the possessing jinn to leave and to embrace Islam without using ruqya to help me do this. Nothing is stopping me from giving dawah or advice to the jinn so there is NO point in using ruqya in this situation. This is because the ruqya is not providing us with anything special to complete the job against the spiritual disease or to help us against the spiritual disease, ie the ruqya is not solving any difficult problem for us. We can already do the job of dawah and advise the jinn without using ruqya. It is much quicker and easier to speak directly to the possessing jinn and tell them to leave and embrace Islam rather than reading ruqya and then waiting for them to start speaking and then finally giving them dawah and advising them. Because of this, if this ruqya is actually done then it can be classified as “trivial ruqya” that is not beneficial and which must not be done (Please see “RULE 4” in my article “7 Rules of Specific Ruqya” to understand “trivial ruqya”).

If it said that we need to hear the possessing jinn speak so we can know the jinn’s replies and answers to our dawah and advice. I would say that our job is just to convey the dawah and give advice and then leave the rest to Allah as it is Allah who guides. We cannot force jinn or humans to embrace Islam and we cannot make them accept our advice. We are not obligated to know what the jinn’s replies were and we do not need to know if they rejected our dawah or advice. Upon us, like the messengers of Allah (alayhimusalam), is to give dawah and leave the guiding to Allah.

Before constructing our ruqya intentions or duas for diagnosis or treatment, we must stop and think, and ask ourselves, “if we really need the help of ruqya in a particular situation and is there a quicker and easier alternative than ruqya in a particular situation”. This is all because ruqya should only be used when we really need the special help of Allah and when we cannot do something against a disease or when we find it difficult to do something against a disease. This is when the ruqya is beneficial and according to the Sunnah ie the ruqya has helped and benefitted us against a disease.

Having said all of this, If you know that the patient is possessed because of their reactions during ruqya then you may STOP the ruqya and give the jinn a verbal warning or call them to Islam briefly as Ibn Taymiyah advised (Majmoo’ al-Fataawa, 19/42). When this dawah or warning is done, we don’t have to necessarily hear the jinn reply to our speech and this is the IDEAL SITUATION. If the jinn do speak in the patient, which is an unfortunate situation to be in, then you may still give the warning or call them to Islam but this warning or dawah MUST be brief and to the point and you must avoid any long discussions because it may lead you to shirk. Remember, shayateen among the jinn know what sins are and what the different levels of sins are and they are experts in the field of making people do sins. They know the greatest sin is shirk and they know that if they can confuse a raqi and make him fall into shirk with regards to ruqya then they would have truly done a great evil since this raqi may end up teaching people this ruqya that has shirk in it. So always be aware of this and don’t fall for their traps. One of the common things the possessing shayateen will say to raqis is that they can help you with other patients and attack other jinn for you. If you accept this and actually start doing this then you would have committed shirk as has been explained in the fatawa above. So please don’t be happy when jinn start manifesting and speaking in patients. In fact, you should be very sad when jinn speak in patients because speaking to jinn can lead you outside the fold of Islam!

6. Reading ruqya on someone who doesn’t need ruqya, in this case the catcher: The catcher is someone who does not need ruqya. Ruqya should only be done on people who are ill (treatment) or people who think they may be ill (diagnosis). It is never done on people who are well and healthy. So if we ask the catcher, “Why is he having ruqya?” He will say that he is having ruqya done, not because he is ill (treatment) or not because he thinks that he is ill (diagnosis) but he will say that he is well and healthy and he does not personally need any ruqya treatment or diagnosis for himself. In fact, the jinn catching raqi will also say that the catcher doesn’t need ruqya treatment or diagnosis and therefore, this is probably the ONLY situation I have ever come across where the one receiving the ruqya (the catcher) and the raqi himself, think and believe that the one receiving the ruqya (the catcher) is totally fine and doesn’t need ruqya diagnosis or treatment. If that is the case then the catcher is not really getting any Islamic ruqya at all and he has made himself the main target and focus of an Unislamic practice that cannot be called ruqya.

Indeed, this act of doing ruqya on a fit and healthy person (catcher) who doesn’t want or need it is a bidah in of itself because you will NEVER find in the sunnah that ruqya was done on fit and healthy people, who don’t need it. There must be some sort of illness or problem that a person complains about or a experienced person notices something in someone or a person may think they have spiritual ailment and then ruqya diagnosis or treatment will be applied to this person. Ruqya is not done on healthy people, who don’t need it or who don’t exhibit any problems and if it is done then it is not really Islamic ruqya but something else that cannot be called ruqya, rather it is a bidah. HOW CAN WE CALL THIS RUQYA WHEN THERE IS NO DISEASE AND THE ONE RECEIVING THE RUQYA IS NOT A REAL AND GENUINE PATIENT! 

As we said in the previous section, please remember that Allah didn’t legislate ruqya so that it could be used as a way to make contact with the jinn or to cause jinn possession or to cause the jinn to speak in humans. Ruqya was legislated to ONLY help to deal with diseases. If you use it for other than helping to deal with diseases then by default you are doing a bidah.

We cannot even use ruqya as a preventative measure on a healthy and fit person because that would be a bidah as well. So you can’t read ruqya with the intention: ‘O Allah cure me from any illness that I might get in the future’.
There are 2 problems with this above intention and the subsequent ruqya. Firstly, it is being done on a healthy and fit person. Secondly, the ruqya is being used as a preventative measure and there is no text in the Shariah for that.
If you want protection and prevention for spiritual or physical ailments then you should do the morning and evening adhkar and also read the Quls after salah and do the adhkar before sleep.
7. In some cases, the jinn catching raqis don’t visit the actual patients in their homes but instead ‘treat’ them with jinn catching from a distance with or without the patient’s knowledge or permission. This action is known as doing jinn catching remotely. To do this ‘remote ruqya’, the jinn catching raqi may use a photograph of the patient and may even use the patient’s name. This is a bidah! THE PATIENT MUST NOT BE ABSENT AND MUST BE IN FRONT OF THE RAQI OR IN THE SAME ROOM OR AREA AND THE PATIENT MUST HEAR THE RUQYA. The only exception is when a phone or videophone are used such as SKYPE. (The remote jinn catching that I researched did not use any phone or videophone).
In all the hadiths about ruqya, we find that the raqi and patient are together in the same room or area and there is no large distance between them so for example the sahabi who read fatiha on the mushrik, when Jibril alayhi salam read ruqya on the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam and when A’ishah read ruqya on the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam: IN ALL OF THESE EXAMPLES, THE PATIENT AND RAQI ARE TOGETHER IN THE SAME ROOM OR AREA. So if someone wants to do ruqya on his family in another city or country then he can’t do that unless he visits them or his family visit him. He may make a general and normal dua for them while they are separated but he can’t do ruqya except except over the phone.
NB: In general it is permissible to read ruqya over a patient without his knowledge or permission as when the sick are sleeping or in a coma. It is also permissible to do ruqya over the phone or over a videophone or give the patient a recording of ruqya to listen to.

8.  I believe that jinn catching can eventually lead to the jinn catching raqi becoming a sahir because it has similar acts like those that are done by a sahir in sihr, namely:

A) Wanting and desiring the help and services of the jinn in the heart is what a sahir does (See 1 above).

B) Calling on the jinn is what a sahir does (See 1 above).

C) Using the help and services of the jinn is what a sahir does (See 1 above).

D) Causing jinn possession or putting jinn in people is what a sahir does (See 2 above).

E) Disrespecting the Quran and using it for other than its real purpose is what a sahir does (See 3 above).

F) Causing the jinn to manifest so that they can be spoken to is another action a sahir does (See 5 above)

G) Using a photograph of the person is what a sahir may do when he wants to do sihr on someone. (See 7 above)

H) Targeting or ‘treating’ a person who is absent or who is not in the same room is what a sahir usually does when he wants to do sihr on a victim. (See 7 above)

I) Using the names of people is what a sahir does when he wants to do sihr on a victim. (See 7 above).

Considering all these 9 above actions, it is better to keep far away from jinn catching because of its similarity to sihr.
I would not be surprised if some jinn catching raqis have already become or are now more inclined to do sihr because of their practise of jinn catching.

9. Doing indirect ruqya diagnosis and treatment of the patient: In jinn catching, the raqi does not directly read ruqya on the patient but reads on the catcher. Indirect ruqya is a bidah.
You cannot read ruqya on someone in order to diagnose or treat another person. In jinn catching, the patient is ignored and ruqya is applied to the catcher who subsequently gets possessed by jinn. The possessing jinn in the catcher get asked about the condition of the patient. So the information doesn’t come from directly reading on the patient but it comes indirectly from the reading on catcher and his jinn. After this initial indirect ruqya diagnosis the catcher and his jinn are read on again to treat the patient indirectly. This is indirect ruqya diagnosis and treatment which is a bidah. The Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam never did this nor did the sahaba. All the ruqya that is described in the sunnah is beneficial and direct on the patient and it is not on a third party. Some of the examples of direct ruqya from the sunnah are when the sahabi read fatiha directly on the mushrik, when Jibril alayhi salam read direct ruqya on the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam and when A’ishah read ruqya directly on the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam. You will not find a third person ruqya set up in the sunnah.

In jinn catching you are NOT using direct ruqya in diagnosing or treating the patient but instead reading ruqya on the catcher so the catcher is the main focus and not the patient. The patient does not get any benefit from the ruqya itself and they just sit there watching the raqi perform ruqya on the catcher.
No ruqya diagnosis or ruqya treatment is directly applied to the actual patient. So if no ruqya diagnosis or treatment is being directly performed on the person who REALLY needs it, ie the patient, then we must ask the question: “What is exactly being done here in reality?” In short, and to be frank, NO DIRECT ISLAMIC RUQYA IS BEING DONE AT ALL! Therefore, it cannot be called ruqya. It is something new and an invented matter; a bidah!

10. I was asked about doing self ruqya before sleeping, using ayah 148 of surah baqrah in order to summon and then catch the jinn in a dream so that the jinn can be attacked by the patient in the patient’s dream.

Again this a bidah because it is using the ruqya for other that its legislated purpose. Ruqya is NOT for summoning jinn or catching jinn or calling on jinn so that you can speak to them. RUQYA IS ONLY FOR DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT.
The issue here is with the intentions of wanting to summon and then catch jinn in dreams and then followed by the subsequent ruqya action of reading ayah 148 with these 2 incorrect intentions. This ruqya is not according to the sunnah
I have seen a video describing this process and I have also heard of a patient doing this. They both describe that you will receive a sword in your dream that you will be able to use to attack the jinn.
Now, even if you receive a sword and attack the jinn, this is not an evidence that this ruqya method is correct. We don’t base things on dreams to prove if something is halal or haram as this will open the door to shaytan.

I personally believe that since this whole ruqya is a bidah in the first place, that the “dreams” these patients have are NOT actually dreams but are visions from the possessing jinn so as to confuse and misguide people into believing that the ruqya they did was good and effective.

We know that the possessing jinn (and even the qareen but to lesser extent) can give you fake visions. So a patient can just close their eyes and then the possessing jinn can show them moving images and play out a scenario in the patient’s mind like a video or film eg the possessing jinn may cause a patient to see themselves jumping from a tall building or using a knife to attack their spouse or children. ALL THESE WASWAS “VIDEOS” OR “FILMS”, DON’T MEAN ANYTHING AND THEY MUST NOT BE INTERPRETED LIKE DREAMS BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT DREAMS! I believe that the patients who do this ruqya to catch the jinn in their dreams are in fact not sleeping and dreaming but are watching a concocted vision from their possessing jinn in order to deceive them.
 
The possessing jinn are very deceptive and they may not start their vision immediately when a patient closes their eyes to fall asleep. They may wait a few minutes and then start the vision and this waiting may convince the patient that they are really dreaming since no one really closes their eyes and immediately starts dreaming.

The possessing jinn can make it seem that the jinn in the visions have been attacked by the patients’ swords as this will make the patients continue doing this bidah. In fact, patients might start believing that they are cured and no longer need ruqya because they ‘killed’ the jinn in their dreams with a sword.

11. Being happy or delighted or at the very least  being content that you have caused jinn possession in a muslim or any human which is terrible thing to do. How can someone rejoice at oppressing their muslim brother or sister. Clearly jinn possession is an illness as described by Allah in the Quran (2: 275) and being happy at seeing this happening to a muslim is an evil deed or action of the heart in of itself. Obviously, jinn catching raqi thinks that they have done something good but in reality they have done an awful action and they will continue to do this because they believe they are doing a good deed.

This bidah of jinn catching is not only harming the iman of the raqi but it is also physically oppressing the catcher. So the jinn catching raqi gets two sins. One sin for doing the action of jinn catching and another sin of harming the catcher.

12. One of the things a jinn catching raqi usually does, is to read ruqya on blood sacrifices and other irrelevant things that have nothing to do with the patient or their sihr. Yes, the sacrifices may have been used to do the sihr in the first place but now the sacrifices are irrelevant. Focusing on something like that is useless because the sacrifices are not in the patient’s body and they are not harming him and they have no physical or spiritual connection to him. We shouldn’t focus on sacrifices because the sacrifices are not a spiritual illness that a person can suffer from. This is a total waste of time and energy and it is a bidah because it is using the ruqya for other than it’s Islamic purpose of treating patients ie no direct benefit for patients and it is also a bidah because it is reading on things that are at distance and are not in front of the raqi.

13. THE CURSE PRAYER IS A BIDAH AND HARAM

This curse prayer is recommended by some jinn catching raqis. This prayer is a bidah and must not be prayed because it is ADDING to the FIXED act of salah. We cannot make up a new salah. SALAH IS COMPLETE. We don’t need a new salah. It is NOT the name that we are talking about but we are talking about the fact that this curse prayer is basically tahujjud prayer with the following additions that have NO evidence from the sunnah:

1. Praying salah and at the same time doing the action of ruqya.

2. Praying salah while reading ruqya on water in bottles which are in front of you.

3. Giving a very specific number (100 times) for a specific ayah (surah 33:68) to be read in salah. You can read any ayah in salah but you can’t choose a specific ayah and then recite it 100 times. Where is the evidence to read this ayah 100 times.

NONE OF THE 3 ACTIONS ABOVE HAVE EVIDENCES FROM THE SUNNAH.
We as Muslims must understand the basic concept in Islam and that is that you cannot add any action to our fixed acts of worship like salah and hajj. The description and actions of salah have been fixed and completed by The Nabi (salulahu alayhi wasalam). We don’t need to change or add to the salah. THE DEEN IS COMPLETE!

The description of this curse prayer is below in red:

“11 rakaat afer Isha read Sura 33 verse 68 afer Faathah 100 tmes in every rakaat, totaling 1100 tmes, so it takes about 1 h 30, putting the open bottles or container in front of you to collect all the curse in the water and it will strike in sha Allah the authors of witchcraf when the patient bathes. We prescribe it when witchcraft is repeated or when we see that the sorcery is very evil and the patient has the anger to fght. We found that this prayer has a big efect on the djinns even though the catching has been done, we see that through the dreams of patients the reactons of djinns”.

There is no need for a new prayer or a new way to make a dua. We can already make dua for our general needs, and even against the sahir, in all of our prayers during the prostrations (sajdah) and just before saying the final salams (tasleem) so please just stick to that and don’t invent any new acts of worship. Our deen is complete!

If you are praying this curse prayer regularly then you must stop doing it and make tauba and as a precaution, you should also pay sadaqa with the intention of removing sins. If you continue doing this prayer (and any jinn catching at the same time) then this might be the reason for your cure to be delayed by Allah.

CONCLUSION

Dear Raqis and patients, If you ask Allah sincerely and ponder and reflect on what I have mentioned then you will surely see that jinn catching is not something that should be practised or encouraged.

One of the most important lessons we can take from this article is the fact that we need to investigate the ruqya intentions of those Muslims who use the Quran as ruqya so that we can see if their ruqya is Islamically acceptable or not. This investigation may require you to directly speak to them or to look at the material which they have produced. This is the only way to know if their ruqya contains shirk or bidah because their apparent reading of the Quran will not disclose anything to us. We should NOT presume that their ruqya is permissible just because they are using the Quran as ruqya.

To those patients who want to visit a jinn catching raqi then I warn you not to do so as you will be visiting those who have similar methods to fortune tellers or those people who work with jinn. Please read at the beginning of this article, the islamic verdicts (fatawa) above from ‘islamqa’ which quote the 2 hadiths about visiting fortune tellers and the negative effects of just visiting them or believing in what they say.

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that patients do self ruqya rather than depending on any raqi or catcher or jinn for their treatment because the scholars are agreed that self ruqya is the best form of ruqya. The fact that jinn catching ruqya doesn’t promote self ruqya and that it needs the use of a raqi, catcher and speaking jinn, clearly demonstrates that it makes a patient rely and be dependent on one of those 3 for treatment and therefore the patient can’t get away from using them or is forced to use one of them to get “cured”. Any ruqya method that doesn’t make use of self ruqya or encourage patients to be independent should be abandoned and not used.

I advise my fellow raqis to practice this special hijama treatment to extract active and moving jinn in patients that I explain here:
http://www.practicalselfruqya.com/2016/10/16/jinn-extraction-technique/

You should use this other hijama technique below to extract disabled and non moving jinn from patients and is what I did to remove a disabled jinnee from my own body:
http://www.practicalselfruqya.com/2016/10/16/how-allah-cured-me/

Finally, I would like to say two important things to my fellow raqis and brothers and that is they should learn how to do specific ruqya diagnosis as this will stop them from relying on and speaking to jinn. You can learn more about specific ruqya from this video of mine:

http://youtu.be/PMI7b9nXruU

We can use specific ruqya diagnosis to find out who the sahir is and who the ayn perpetrator is. We can also find out where the taweez is via specific ruqya diagnosis. We can do all of this without using the help of jinn.
Please watch these videos for more information:

I must also point out the important rules for specific ruqya that can be read here:
http://www.practicalselfruqya.com/2016/10/16/7-rules-for-specific-ruqya-2/

The last point I would like to say to my fellow raqis is that the phenomenon of jinn speaking in patients has hardly anything to do with your recitation of Quran as ruqya but it has more to do with the sins of the patient. Please read this research I wrote on how sins affect possessed Muslims and why jinn speak in them:
http://www.practicalselfruqya.com/2016/10/16/how-sins-affect-possessed-muslims/

(MY DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, CAN’T WE SEE THAT SPEAKING POSSESSING JINN IN MUSLIMS IS A DEGRADING AND HUMILIATING PHENOMENON! NON OF OUR PIOUS IMAMS, SCHOLARS OR BELIEVERS OF THE PAST, ESPECIALLY THE SALAF, EVER HAD SPEAKING POSSESSING JINN. IN FACT, YOU WON’T FIND ANY OF THE PIOUS IMAMS, SCHOLARS OR BELIEVERS OF TODAY IN SUCH A PREDICAMENT AND THAT’S BECAUSE THROUGH THESE PEOPLE, ALLAH SAFEGUARDS OUR DEEN AND THEREFORE ALLAH WOULD NEVER ALLOW THEM TO BE HUMILIATED NOR ALLOW US TO BE CONFUSED WITH THE QUESTION OF: “IF THE JINN SPOKE OR THE SHEIKH SPOKE” WHEN WE ASK FOR A FATWA ie Allah does test our scholars with jinn possession BUT he does not let our pious scholars have speaking possessing jinn as this would confuse us and we would not be able to differentiate between the scholar or the jinn and we would not be able to have confidence to ask for fatwa because the possessing jinn may impersonate the scholar and thus misguide us. 

CAN YOU SEE THE CORRUPTION THAT SPEAKING JINN COULD DO VIA A SCHOLAR, HENCE ALLAH DOESN’T ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN, EVEN THOUGH SOME SHEIKHS DO GET TESTED WITH JINN POSSESSION. SO IF YOU ARE A ‘CATCHER’ IT IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE HAPPY OR PROUD ABOUT AS THERE ARE NO GOOD EXAMPLES IN OUR PAST OR EVEN PRESENT. INDEED, NO SANE MUSLIM WHO UNDERSTANDS HIS RELIGION WOULD LOOK UPTO SOMEONE WHO HAS SPEAKING POSSESSING JINN AND HE CERTAINLY WOULD NOT WANT THE SAME TO HAPPEN TO HIM)

I PRAY TO ALLAH THAT HE MAKES MY FELLOW RAQIS AND BROTHERS SEE THE PROBLEMS WITH JINN CATCHING CLEARLY AND CAUSE THEM TO ABANDON PRACTISING IT…………and with Allah is the success and cure.

Saeed Abdullah