Recordings › Jinn Possessions: Myth and Reality in Islam by Sh. Akram Nadwi & Mufti Abu Layth · 20 Sep 2017 › Segment 20 of 25
If jinn do not possess people, what is ruqya for?
muftis kufr kuffar kafir kaafir kufar kaafirun imaan eemaan eeman faith djinn jin jinnat jinni ruqyah ruqyaa koran quraan al-quran ayah aya ayat ayaat aayah aayat sahabah sahaba sahabi sahabiyyah sahabiyat duaa duaas supplicationWhat ruqya is for: a cure for what is in the hearts, and a scaffolding for a people prone to superstition
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This segment1:35:16 to 1:37:52 · 2 min 36 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenThe Quran is a cure for what is in the hearts, meaning disbelief and superstition, and ruqya and the taught du'as are a scaffolding to steady people's iman because humans cling to ritual and fall easily into superstition. The du'a against omens shows the Prophet using this method.
In more detail
Asked what the purpose of ruqya is, Mufti Abu Layth says the verse calling the Quran a shifa must be read in full: it is a cure for what is in the hearts, meaning not heart disease but disbelief, superstition and myths, the very things Islam came to eradicate. As for why the Prophet taught ruqya and du'as at all, he says Allah knows his creation and how he helps it is not always understood by us, but that these things work as a scaffolding to support people until their iman is stable, because humans fall into superstitious behaviour very easily. He cites a finding from Kaptchuk's work that rituals and drugs use the same biochemical pathways in the brain, so that the mind clings to ritual, and gives the example of the companions asking the Prophet about omens: rather than simply telling them to relax, he taught them a du'a with an almost ritual rhythm, 'O Allah, there is no omen but your omen, no good but your good and no god but you', because people need such a Zimmer frame to walk until they can walk on their own towards pure iman.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth holds that the Quran's healing is for what is in the hearts, meaning disbelief and superstition, and that ruqya and the taught du'as are a scaffolding Allah gave to steady people's iman because humans fall easily into superstition.
“so it is a scaffolding it's like a Zimmer frame to help you walk until you can walk”
Category: teaching
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine1:35:16 to 1:37:52 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
psychosomatic behavior when you actually can get ill it's called the nocebo effect and the placebo effect where you can actually get better so when people are going through gin exorcisms or rupiah or things like this things can actually work it's not that they but they could work anyway it's like you heard chefs say that you know but some people would get better anyway it's not an it's a bit like that scam you know if I go through it with so many people by the end of it I'm gonna have a hard coke cult that definitely always get better like imagine you did that same experiment but with exorcism or with rupiah same thing
somebody could ask what is the purpose of Rokia see a Rukia in my understanding first of all the Quran when it came to say that the Quran is a Schieffer we need to read the full verse don't just stop way says what Schieffer he says she fell only Muffy's so do it is a surefire for what is in the hearts what is it talking about like what like like cardiological heart diseases it's not talking about heart diseases it's talking about disbelief qu4 superstitions myths these very things
which islam came to eradicate now you might say well give up you know what so what what why these Rukia then why this first of all we do believe that look Allah knows his creation and how he helps his creation is not sometimes truly understood by us but at the same time these things work as a scaffolding to help people until they a man becomes stable because when you come from it is very easy for humans to fall into superstitious behavior it's very easy we too easily in fact part of the study and
that that I spoke about of Ted Kaptchuk they've realized that you know with the acupuncture that rituals one of the findings was that rituals and drugs use the very same biochemical pathways in the brain that was groundbreaking to realize that that when people are undergoing rituals it's highlighting the same neural activity that why that drugs would use the same pathways so there is
this that human beings are very easy misguided into superstition so rukia and these things have been set as a scaffolding with a large name to guide people to a pure Iman so it is a scaffolding it's like a Zimmer frame to help you walk until you can walk it's that kind of to help you along the way because you need you see when people said oh Brahma like to the Prophet or what about superstition and he told them to do all along my Latoya Ella Trudeau Kuala Huayra ilaha illa
Paragraphs overlapping 1:35:16 to 1:37:52. Full text on the recording page.
Cite this segment
Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2017-09-20-S20, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/20/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2017, September 20). If jinn do not possess people, what is ruqya for? [Video, segment 2017-09-20-S20, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/20/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2017. "If jinn do not possess people, what is ruqya for?" Video, segment 2017-09-20-S20, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded September 20, 2017. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/20/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2017-09-20-S20, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{If jinn do not possess people, what is ruqya for?}}, year = {2017}, month = {9}, date = {2017-09-20}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/20/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7z8yu8kr83y/s/20/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2017-09-20-S20, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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