The ͞Hanafi Stance͟ Regarding The Black Magic Spell Cast on the Prophet

By

Bassam Zawadi

It is claimed by some that the so-called Hanafi stance on the story of the Prophet (peace be
upo hi is that it s a o o tio a d an i sult to the Prophet s stature.

The vast majority of Muslim scholars have accepted this story to be true however and have
argued that it does othi g to i pug the Prophet s hara ter, or his status as the Messenger
of Allah.1

“e o dl , it s ot true to characterize the rejection of this incident as a Hanafi stance just

because a few Hanafi scholars may have rejected the story.2 Rather, we find that the Hanafis
have either accepted this story as either true or narrated it without objecting to it. Below we
present at least five examples of these Hanafi scholars.

1) A i Ja far at-Tahawi (d. 321 A.H.) narrates two ahaadeeth mentioning the incident of the
Prophet having a spell casted upon him and after that proceeds on to argue that black magic has
remained a real part of our world up until the time of the Prophet, and consequently remains so
up until ours as well3….

1
Muslim scholars have offered two lines of proposed assessments of the story. 1) What happened to the
Prophet (peace be upon him) was a form of illness and this is not impossible for Prophets, nor does it
impugn their character and prophethood. This doesn't affect the reliability of his deliverance of the
message, hi h is hat Allah s promise for protection ultimately ensured to secure, and 2) The magic only
affe ted the Prophet s pea e e upo hi li s a d orga s, ut it did ot affe t his heart, eliefs a d
intellectual capacity to convey the revelation being sent to him (i.e. it only had a significant affect on him
on the outside, but not in the inside).
An example being Abi Bakr al-Jassas ho a ha e likel do e so due to his Mu tazilite i li atio s.
2

Regardless of what motivated his rejection of the story, al-Jassas does t speak on behalf of the entire
Hanafi school!
A i Ja far at-Tahawi, Sharh Mushkil al-Athaar, (al-Risaala, 1 edition, 1994; edited “hu a al-
3 st

Ar a ut, , Volume 15, pp. 179-181

 These two ahadeeth indicate that black magic remained existing until the time the
Prophet (peace be upon him) was influenced by black magic. If it (i.e. black magic)
re ai ed u til that ti e, the it s e iste e e e after that is possi le as ell.

2) Abu Mansur al-Maturidi d. 333 A.H. i his o e tar o the Qur a akes e tio of the
incident4 without any display of criticism or rejection of it. In fact, he mentions it as a valid
opinion when it comes to explaining the historical context of the revelation of Surah 113 and
even goes further to demonstrate that the story serves as a proof for the prophethood of
Muhammad (peace be upon him) because the story demonstrated that he was able to
overcome this trial…

But according to us fi maa QEELA [regarding what had been said], i.e. that the Prophet
(peace be upon him) was influenced by magic, there are two means of demonstrating
his Messengership and Prohethood:

One of them is that that the Prophet knew via revelation about the black magic
spell casted on him. For this was done secretly, and no one could have known
about it except via revelation.
Secondly: The recitation of the Qur a quashes the effect of magic, just as the
staff of Musa (peace be upon him) destro ed the effe t of Pharaohs agi ia s
tricks….

Some have tried to suggest that when al-Maturidi says ‫( في ما قيل‬fi maa Qeela , that he s usi g
Qeela as a seeghat tamridh in order to signify that the opinion regarding the veracity of this
story is weak. Ho e er, it s er riti al that o e pa s lose atte tio to ot o l the
methodology of al-Maturidi, but also the context itself. The word Qeela which literally translates
to it was said , could actually be used to mean just that (i.e. relaying what has been said about
a certain matter).

Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, Ta weelat Ahlussu ah, (al-Risaala, 1 edition, 2004; edited by Fatima Yusuf),
4 st

Volume 5, p. 543
Dr. Majdi Baslum in his introduction to the commentary of al-Maturidi5 says that al-Maturidi
commonly uses Qeela to either eliminate the isnad or to simply present a list of opinions about a
matter before he proceeds on to critically assess each one of them. In other words, al-Maturidi
would often use Qeela in the basic linguistic sense of it. And when we look back at his comments
on the incident of the black magic spell cast on the Prophet (peace be upon him), we precisely
see that this is ho he is usi g it. It s diffi ult to read the Qeela here as a seeghat tamridh
without imposing it upon the text and even if we assume for the sake of argument that this is
indeed the case, what is crystal clear is that al-Maturidi had no theological objections to the
story itself. On the contrary, he saw it as a potential positive argument for the prophethood of
Muhammad (peace be upon him).

3) Abi al-Layth as-Samarqandi (d. 373 A.H. i his Qur a i o e tar e plai s6 the historical
context of Surah 113:5 to be referring to the story of the Prophet being affected by Labid the
agi ia …

Allah All-Mighty said: And from the evil of an envier when he envies [113:6], meaning from all
e . He i te ds this La id i Asa the Je .

4) Abi al-Barakaat an-Nasafi (d. 710 A.H.) similarly i his o e tar o the Qur a also a epts
the validity of the story.7

5) Badrul-Deen al-‘Aini (d. 855 A.H.) in his commentary on Saheeh al-Bukhari8 refers
to those who reject the story as “heretics” (mulhideen) and refutes the theological
objection to the story by demonstrating that it had no implications on Muhammad
(peace be upon him) in terms of his role as the Messenger of Allah…

Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, Ta weelat Ahlussu ah, (Dar al-Kutub al- Il i ah, Beirut, 1 edition, 2005;
5 st

edited by Dr. Majdi Baslum), Volume 1, p. 330-331

Abi al-Layth as-Samarqandi, Bahr al- Uloo , (Dar al-Kutub al- Il i ah, Beirut, 1 edition, 1993), Volume
6 st

3, p. 526-527
Abi al-Barakaat an-Nasafi, Madaarik at-Tanzeel wa-Haqaa iq at-Ta weel, (Dar al-Kalim at-Tayyib, Beirut;
7
st
edited by Yusuf Ali Bidaywi, 1 edition, 1998), Volume 3, pp. 700-701
Badrul-Deen al- Ai i, U dat al-Qaari, (Dar al-Kutub al- Il i ah, Beirut; edited by Abdullah Mahmoud
8
st
Abdullah Umar, 1 edition, 2001), Volume 15, p. 135
 Some heretics objected to the hadeeth of Aisha. They said: How can the magic affect the
Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), whilst magic is kufr and an action of the
devils? How can its harm reach the Prophet (peace be upon him) while he was under
the protection of Allah and Allah supporting him with the angels, and the revelation was
protected from the devils? And I answer: That this objection is invalid, for Allah said to
His Messenger: Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the daybreak. [113:1], until He says:
in knots [113:4], and Blowers : are those magicians who tie knots. None of this
entails that the effect of this was permanent or that it affected him internally or his
capacity as a Messenger. Rather, the effect of the magic is similar to what a sick person
gets affected by when he gets a fever or pleurisy, such as weakness in speech or minor
delusion.9 Then this disappeared and Allah quashed the plots of the magician. There is a
o se sus regardi g the Prophet s i fallible ability to convey revelation.

I a utshell, e o ser e that it s a solutel false to sa that the Hanafi stance is to reject the
stor of the la k agi spell asted o the Prophet pea e e upo hi . It s shodd
scholarship to take isolated opinions of individual scholars and use that to paint a stance on an
entire school of thought.

9
It as arrated that Aa ishah a Allaah be pleased with her) said: A spell was put on the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) until he imagined that he had done a thing when he had not
done it. – Of course none of this entails that there was a compromise on the ability to convey revelation.