The popular Muslim website Islamqa is a da‘wah site supervised by Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid. They provide “answers” for Muslims who write in asking questions about Islam. This article focuses on magic in Islam. Is magic viewed as something evil or good? A Muslim wrote asking:

“I am Muslim and I am from India. I grew up reading fairy tales and fantasies, but now after all these years I am being told everywhere that there is no good magic in Islam and there is only witchcraft. Now I am desperately looking for answers to my “CHILDHOOD FANTASIES”. I hope you would clear my doubt.”

Here’s the response from Islamqa: “According to Islamic teaching, all magic is evil, for two reasons” the reasons given are:

(1) The way in which it is attained, through which the practitioner of magic or witchcraft seeks help from the realm of the jinn and shayaateen (devils) to achieve his magic. This is a way that is filled with things that undermine one’s religious commitment and involves resorting to haraam things and – in many cases – falling into disbelief and apostasy. That is done is done to please the devils to meet the needs of that unknown realm which seeks to deceive the sons of Adam.

(2) The aim of Islam is to close this door altogether and block the means that usually lead to spreading evil among the people and causing trouble among them. That is because most of the deeds that the practitioners of magic commit only result in causing evil and harm to people. Hence it is reasonable and acceptable to say that a complete prohibition is the only way to block this evil and to rid the land and community of those evil deeds and of the illusions and myths that are connected to them, by ridding societies of witchcraft and its practitioners. This obviously serves a great purpose.

In Surah Al-Baqarah we have a story of 2 angels Allah sent called Hārūt and Mārūt, these 2 angels taught the people magic in Babylon.

If Allah decrees everything which happens then he decreed for Hārūt and Mārūt to teach black magic, which means Allah is the source of evil. As Islamqa stated, “According to Islamic teaching, all magic is evil”. If all magic is evil just as they said then the conclusion is that black magic comes from Allah.

To further prove this point Islamqa answered another question about Is man’s fate pre-destined or does he have freedom of will? In which they made statements such as: “Belief in al-qadar (the divine will and decree) is one of the pillars of faith…What is meant by al-qadar is that Allaah has decreed all things from eternity and knows that they will happen at times that are known to Him, and in specific ways, and that He has written that and willed it, and they happen according to what He has decreed.”

It’s a pillar of Islam to believe that all comes from Allah, there is no free will in Islam. We can further illustrate this by going to the Sahih Hadith’s. In this Hadith, we have an argument between Adam and Moses. How Moses and Adam are arguing is another mistake as they didn’t exist at the same time while on earth, and if this happened in Jannah how could that be because they would have been kicked out of Jannah before having this discussion.

As you’ve read this Sahih Hadith, Moses blamed Adam saying he deprived us and caused all of humanity to be kicked out of Paradise. Adam refutes Moses saying how can he be blamed for something Allah decreed 40 years before Adam was created?

Where’s the free will here? Adam didn’t have free will in fact Allah is the one responsible for decreeing that Adam would disobey and eat from the tree. The same way Allah decreed for Hārūt and Mārūt to teach black magic to the people.

And what exactly was the purpose for them to teach black magic? According to the Islamic sources, Hārūt and Mārūt taught people how to separate from their spouses (divorce) through the use of magic. How evil is that?! According to Islamic scholar Ibn-Kathir we read:

Ibn-Kathir tells us these angels came to Babylon saying they didn’t teach anyone till they had said “We are for a trial, so disbelieve not” in other words this was a test and by learning this magic the people would be disbelieving by doing so. Is this a joke or what? Allah sends angels to teach the people black magic meaning Allah is tempting the people by doing so.

Here we’re told the people indulged in evil by learning black magic from these 2 angels, as the magic was causing separation between spouses. Kathir goes as far as to say this was a work of Satan, and we couldn’t agree more!

Here we have Satan and the closet person to him causes the most Fitnah (Arabic: فتنة ,فتن: “temptation, trial; sedition, civil strife, conflict”). Iblis (Satan) embraces the shaitan who was successful in causing separation between a husband and wife. More evidence that Allah can only be Satan himself.

The God of the Bible never causes anyone to separate from their spouse, God never condones divorce solidifying the fact Allah cannot be Yahweh as they are not remotely the same. Here are a few verses from the Bible, proving this fact.

As you can see in the Torah God says a man and women come together and become one flesh. Jesus Christ also quotes the same verse from Genesis and says let not man put asunder. And the Muslims favourite Paul the apostle teaches the same Jesus did, yet Muslims always try to blame Paul for teaching something different.

Our purpose here is not to hate Muslims but to love them by bringing the truth, that their eyes and heart would be open. In hopes, they would have salvation by coming to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.