According to Islam, magic is a supernatural force or effect and is performed by an individual who knows spells and hexes and how to perform them. Magic is considered to be real, and has real consequences in Islam. Muslims are obliged to believe in it because its existence and effects are described in the Qur'an and Sunnah (teachings and sayings) of the prophet Muhammed. It is upheld as an Islamic fact by both Muslim preachers and scholars from the very earliest history of Islam till now. Even modern and liberal scholars and teachers of Islam in this day and age believe in it completely and talk about it as if it is completely real.
Islam teaches that practising magic is one of the major sins similar to polytheism and murder [Sahih Bukhari #6857]. Muslims are taught that it causes disbelief (kufur) inside religious communities and poses a great physical danger to people. They argue that magic, being a supernatural force, may be used to confuse people to think there are gods other than Allah, or that the agents of magic - magicians, witches and jinn (supernatural beings) - have great powers and attributes of god. Others state that it may mislead people to think that the active-force of the universe is based in magic and not reliant on the one all-powerful god of Islam. There are different forms of disbelief in Allah and magic could lead to one of them. For this reason witches, magicians or sorcerers are seen as individuals who misguide people from Islam and spread disbelief even if their sorcery is for good and they do no evil. Muslims also argue that magic causes physical and psychological harm to people, affecting their thinking and health, and so those who practice magic are causing strife to people and spreading corruption.
Islam charges people practising or spreading magic as serious criminals that must be executed, even if they do not misuse their magical powers for evil! Muslims argue that magic could be used to misguide people or be used for evil purposes. They consider it so dangerous that even knowledge of it is a grave risk because it can be spread and taught to people who may very well misuse it. This is why they consider anyone who practices or teaches magic spreaders of disbelief, mischief and corruption in the land so the general rule of verse 5:33 in the Qur'an, execution, is applicable. This is in line with teachings in the Jewish/Christian bible which states: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" [Exodus 22:18].
Interestingly, the hadith literature makes it clear that magic was present in the time of the prophet Muhammed and even the prophet of Allah himself was afflicted by spells. The hadiths mention the mechanisms by which magic is worked. The magic caused the prophet Muhammed to feel unwell and he was delirious during this illness. Here is described the main effect on the prophet:
Narrated 'Aisha: Magic was worked on Allah's Apostle so that he used to think that he had sexual relations with his wives while he actually had not... [Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol.7, #660]
And here is described how he overcame the magic:
Aisha narrated: Magic was worked on the Prophet so that he began to fancy that he was doing a thing which he was not actually doing. One day he invoked (Allah) for a long period and then said, "I feel that Allah has inspired me as how to cure myself. Two persons came to me (in my dream) and sat, one by my head and the other by my feet. One of them asked the other, "What is the ailment of this man?" The other replied, 'He has been bewitched" The first asked, 'Who has bewitched him?' The other replied, 'Lubaid bin Al-A'sam.' The first one asked, 'What material has he used?' The other replied, 'A comb, the hair gathered on it, and the outer skin of the pollen of the male date-palm.' The first asked, 'Where is that?' The other replied, 'It is in the well of Dharwan.' " So, the Prophet went out towards the well and then returned and said to me on his return, "Its date-palms (the date-palms near the well) are like the heads of the devils." I asked, "Did you take out those things with which the magic was worked?" He said, "No, for I have been cured by Allah and I am afraid that this action may spread evil amongst the people." Later on the well was filled up with earth. [Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol.4, #490, Tafsir Ibn Kathir for Surah #113]So we see that according to Islam, magic is real and requires incantations over physical objects. And magic can effect any person, including a prophet, and can make them feel unwell and become delirious. The hadith above is interesting because it states the prophet could break the spell without removing the bewitchment object (by the power of Allah), while we assume others cannot. Also, he states that magic can have effects beyond its intended target and so he ordered the well to be filled with sand, as if burying a bewitchment object deep underground makes it powerless. It appears magic can only happen by chanting spells over an object to bind the spell and activate it.
The realisation that magic can make the prophet delirious is a contentious issue amongst Muslim scholars, because some argue that if the wording of the Qur'an or the behaviour of the prophet could have been manipulated then how can we trust everything the prophet said or did? For this reason some scholars even doubt the prophet became delirious - but they still believe regular people can fall under the effects of magical spells though. Most scholars believe dogmatically that although the prophet was bewitched and became delirious, he was guarded by Allah from fouling qur'anic revelation or religious teachings, but he was not protected from suffering the ill effects of incantations such as deliriousness, aches and pains! I needn't explain how ridiculous that sounds but one wonders why god couldn't protect his prophets from the evil effects of magic from the very start before anyone attempted to cast any spells on them.
The existence of magic is found not only in hadith but also in the Qur'an. It also speaks about magic as a real force, thus removes any doubt about Islam's position on magic. Belief in magic is mandatory for every person who believes in Islam and calls themself a Muslim. They are taught to guard against its evils, fear it and avoid it.
There is a pair of surahs (chapters) in the Qur'an known as the mu'awidhatayn, chapters 113 and 114, which the prophet Muhammed revealed to the believers to protect them from evils, and chapter 113 (Al-Falaq) includes verses protecting from hasad and magic.
[113.1] Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn,
[113.2] From the evil of what He [Allah] has created,
[113.3] And from the evil of the utterly dark night when it comes,
[113.4] And from the evil of those who blow on knots,
[113.5] And from the evil of the envious when he envies.
Verse 113.5 talks about the evil eye, hasad, but verse 113.4 talks about blowing on knots - blowing magic spells into knots, which is the object on witchcraft was commonly done during his lifetime. A story is related in hadith providing the reason for the revelations of these verses:
One day angel Gabriel visited the prophet Muhammed to inform him that a Jew had put a spell on him of 21 knots being tied on a palm branch and thrown into a well. He sent Ali to find it and when he returned with it Gabriel came down with surahs 113 and 114. The prophet Muhammad told Ali to recite them and the knots started to come undone one by one every time he read them. [Islamic Medical Wisdom: The Tibb al-A'imma, p148-9]
The same source states that magic only affects the eyes and genitals! This can be interpreted to mean it makes people see things (become delirious) and imagine they had or did not have sex.
We discover from the hadith collections that prophet Muhammad was paranoid about magic and hasad and repeated the mu'awidhatayn surahs many times regularly, every morning and every night before he slept while blowing on himself and rubbing his body with his hands. He taught his followers to do the same too and before long his family and companions were regularly blowing on themselves, rubbing their bodies with their hands, and reciting the mu'awidhatayn after every prayer, every morning before getting out of bed and every night before they fell asleep. More than that, Muhammed taught them certain prayers, invocations, called ruqya, to protect them from the evils of magic and jinns -- to this day these are chanted in exorcism rituals! We see that Allah was not actively protecting prophet Muhammed and he needed to perform rituals continuously till the moment he died just to keep himself safe.
"Narrated Aisha: During the Prophet's fatal illness, he used to recite the Mu'auwidhat (Surat An-Nas 114 and Surat Al-Falaq 113) and then blow his breath over his body. When his illness was aggravated, I used to recite those two Suras and blow my breath over him and make him rub his body with his own hand for its blessings." (Ma'mar asked Az-Zuhri: How did the Prophet use to blow? Az-Zuhri said: He used to blow on his hands and then passed them over his face.)" [Sahih Bukhari, Vol. 7, #631]The mu'awidhatayn chapters are not the only verses related to magic in the Qur'an. We find this verse in the second chapter:
[2.102] And they [a party of the Jews] followed what the Shaitans chanted of sorcery in the reign of Sulaiman, and Sulaiman was not an unbeliever, but the Shaitans disbelieved, they taught men sorcery and that was sent down to the two angels at Babel [Babylon], Harut and Marut, yet these two taught no man until they had said, "Surely we are only a trial, therefore do not be a disbeliever." Even then men learned from these two, magic by which they might cause a separation between a man and his wife; and they cannot hurt with it any one except with Allah's permission, and they learned what harmed them and did not profit them, and certainly they know that he who bought it should have no share of good in the hereafter and evil was the price for which they sold their souls, had they but known this.
There is a lot to unpack here so we will split the explanation into two parts - one talking about Solomon, the Jinns and the Jews, and the other part talking about the two angels of Babel (Babylon).
According to the commentary of the Qur;an by Ibn Kathir on this verse, the Jinn used to eavesdrop on heaven regularly (also see verse 37:6-10 and commentary) and pass on the secrets to witches and soothsayers who wrote them in books. People found that some of what the books said came true and some of the magic spells worked so they were deceived into believing the Jinn and magicians had knowledge of the future, magical powers and supernatural capabilities, thus turning them to polytheism and the occult. The story goes that around the time of king Solomon (970-930BC) magic was becoming more widespread amongst the Israelites, so when king Solomon heard about this happening in his kingdom he confiscated all their books, but, instead of destroying them he buried them under his throne. So when he died, the Jinn, masquerading as people, told the Jews to look under his throne and lo and behold the books of magic were discovered! The Jinn told them that the only way Solomon was able to do miracles or know anything was through the power of magic and not from god and the rumour that Solomon was a magician and practised witchcraft became widespread amongst the Jews and the Jews also practised the evil art following the Jinn and their books.
Now, some of the Jews realised the Torah is clear about magic being a serious evil akin to disbelief so they believed Solomon practised magic and was a disbeliever and a bad person and not amongst the prophets. So this is what the Qur'an is talking about in this verse. The Qur'an clarifies the Islamic position on Solomon. It states he is a prophet instead of just a king as the Old Testament shows, and by defending him, it states clearly that he was no evil doer, did not practice magic and accuses the Jews of practising evil witchcraft and the Jinn of teaching them... One wonders why god couldn't stop Jinn from eavesdropping on heaven and why he couldn't get Solomon to destroy the magic books instead of burying them and incriminating himself after he died. After all, god is supposed to know the future, right? Another thing to wonder about is that this story of Solomon's magic is not in the Old Testament nor the Talmud.
Now we explain the second part. Juxtapositioned in the same verse is a story of the two angels of Babel (Babylon), which is disconnected from the story of Solomon. Babylon is approximately 1000km away from Jerusalem. In 605BC, over 300 years after Solomon died, King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and exiled the Jews to Babylon, Iraq. The Jews remained there until Cyrus the Great of Persia invaded in 539BC and granted them the right to return to their homelands thereafter. It is appearent that the tale the Qur'an tells reportedly happened some time during this period of captivity in Babylon. The verse clearly states that two angels came with magic spells - spells expressely for the purposes of doing evil - and taught them to the Jews! As you may know, Islam teaches that angels are agents of Allah and do his bidding. They know nothing except what Allah teaches them and it is clear here that Allah had sent them to misguide the weak minded amongst the Jewish captives. The commentators of the Qur'an clarify that Allah sent the two angels Harut and Marut in human form to test the faith of the Jews by tempting them with the teaching of magical spells, but they would warn them before they taught them the dark arts. The magic led to their disbelief and the spread of witchcraft in the Jewish community at a level above what they had reached after the reign of Solomon.
What should be shocking to Muslims from reading the verse is that they discover Allah actively teaches evil deeds to people. According to the Qur'an, it is Allah who allowed the Jinn to overhear the magic and teach it to the people. It is Allah who did not advise Solomon to destroy all the magic books. It is Allah who sent evil magic spells in the hands of Harut and Marut, to teach the Jews how to perform one of the most evil and sinful of actions and spread unbelief. More so than this, it is Allah who invented the whole idea of magic and made it possible and he made it an active force for evil before placing it in the hands of humans and jinn. This verse of the Qur'an clearly shows that Allah actively manipulates and misguides people. Allah could have created a world without magic, but instead he decided to add more evil to the world than is already present to harm and misguide even more people than is possible without resorting to the supernatural. Can a Msulim then say Allah is All-Good or that Allah is not evil?
It is interesting to note that these two stories, of Harut and Marut and the magic books of Solomon, cannot be found in the the Old Testament nor the Talmud. After looking into both these sources I think I can confidently say the story has no basis in traditional Judaism and is a false narrative. If I had to guess the origins of this tale, I would say made-up stories about Solomon became widespread hundreds of years after his passing and before long Muhammed came to hear of them and he included them in the Qur'an. The accusations of the Qur'an are levelled at the Jews whose holy books state that magic is sinful and to kill those who practice witchcraft, just as Islam teaches, but Allah does not seem to be well-versed in the Torah nor the Talmud.
Many people have been killed throughout history in the name of the three Abrahamic religions because they uphold these laws. Many people, mostly women, throughout the ages have been accused and summararily executed for being witches with little or no evidence all because these religions teach that magic is a real thing and that witches should be killed. Instead of spreading rational thought and teaching that magic is a fictional thing, they taught people to kill others for something fictitious. Their holy books taught distrust and hate and to murder innocent (possibly mentally ill) people. Fortunately, the Jews and Christians have since suppressed the blood lust for killing witches and abandoned strong belief in magic and witchcraft. It is seen as an embarrasing part of their history. Their laws and thinking are now secular and their thinking has progressed, but not so the Islamic world. They continue to believe in this nonesense and to this very day they arrest, convict and execute men and women for the practise of witchcraft and sorcery. One scholar stated:
"Some magicians may ride a broom and fly in the air with the help of the jinn" [Source: Saudi Arabia's War on Witchcraft by Ryan Jacobs, The Atlantic, 19 Aug 2013]
The religion of Islam promotes, teaches and punishes people based on the delusional belief in superstitions like magic and sorcery. In this modern day and age we should be able to put behind us such nonesense from by-gone ages but Muslims are required to observe and uphold the belief in these superstitions. Through these beliefs, many people have had to suffer and die. Even today people suffer because they are made to believe that they have been vexed or are under a witch's spell. They will spend hundreds or thousands of dollars/pounds on imams and other charlatans who will falsely claim to remove the incantations by ruqya exorcisms. The afflicted will buy herbal mixtures, take their directions and say their prayers. They waste their time and money. Then, perhaps they might be astonished that they have been cured of the affliction and assume the ruqyah worked. By believing in this nonesense they tricked themselves into taking it seriously and made themselves ill by obsessing over it and then by believing in the ruqya and herbal remedies made themselves well again. Their affliction and the cure to it was all in their mind! In some cases, people with genuine mental health problems and real cases of insanity are treated as coming under a magic spell. They do not need an imam; they need a doctor and real treatment using proven medicines.
In conclusion, belief in magic and witchcraft is a part of Islam and found in the Qur'an and narrations of the prophet Muhammad. The teachings of Islam, far-from agreeing with science and logic, promote the superstitious belief in magic and foment ignorance and mental illness. They promote fear in the community from something which doesn't actually exist and people suffer and are killed because of it. It is time to abandon this nonsense. Is it any wonder in the West that reports of afflictions due to spells are almost never heard of and people who fall ill and are diagnosed with mental health problems become well again, not through prayers, but by seeking medical attention? If magic is real, then why does therapy and taking anti-psychotic/anti-depressent drugs cure the afflicted? Why does magic always appear in the form of an illness that can be medically treated? Why is it only the believers in magic who fall under these spells? I ask the Muslims reading this to use their mind and reconsider their faith in Islam.