# Is the evil eye real in Islam?

*The evil eye, a God who only enables harm, and black magic*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/yd3ehw0vtls/s/1/
- Date: 2018-02-13 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: The Evil Eye has no reality in Islam - Mufti Abu Layth al-Maliki (0:00–6:50)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd3ehW0VTls&t=0s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/yd3ehw0vtls/

**Topics:** Magic, the evil eye and superstition; Tawhid and shirk

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Belief that a look can cause disease or disaster contradicts tawhid; the evil eye is simply envy, whose harm lies in how it is acted upon.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says believing in superstitions such as the evil eye causing harm contradicts the tawhid of Allah.

**Evidence, his words at 4:53:** “so believing in these kind of superstitions contradicts the towhead of Allah it contradicts the Sunnah of the messenger of allah” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd3ehW0VTls&t=293s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth recalls a discussion in which he said belief in the evil eye goes against the Quran and the Sunnah, citing Imam Malik that not every hadith is the Sunnah. He says the hadith that the eye is real does not literally mention the evil eye, and that the evil eye is synonymous with envy, which has real consequences in how it is acted upon. He relates arguing that it is absurd to believe a look can cause cancer, bankruptcy or a car accident, and that if God enabled only harmful looks and never a healing 'angel eye' he would be an evil god, not al-Rahman al-Rahim. He says such superstitions contradict tawhid and the Sunnah, and that black magic is only mind control and hypnosis, referring to a longer video with Shaykh Akram Nadwi [?]. He briefly calls doing istikhara for others live on shows absurd.

## Sources and names cited

- Imam Malik
- report: the evil eye is real
- al-'ayn (the evil eye)
- hasad (envy)
- tawhid
- sihr (magic)
- Shaykh Akram Nadwi [?]
- istikhara

## Transcript (machine tier, 0:00–6:50)

[0:00] we had an interesting discussion on the evil eye and I said look I said the evil eye is not established by the Quran or some nanny seems to contradict the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah all right so right okay anybody just chatting nonsense he gonna get blocked right so

[0:33] now all right so the interesting point is that right so coming back to the evil eye we had this discussion on the evil eye and I said look that the belief in the evil eye seems to go against the Quran was Sunnah now I'm not saying it goes against the Quran hadith but goes against the Quran or Sunnah because as Imam Malik said not every hadith is the

[1:07] Sunnah so now when we look at this it was an interesting discussion and I think it's worth sharing there's a hadith aligned ohok but first of all right first of all this hadith is speaking about the eye nobody takes this hadith literally because the hadith simply means the eye but Muslims understand the eye to hear be referring to the evil eye so everybody is interpreting and I said the evil eye

[1:45] which is synonymous with the term envy has a reality to it in terms of its consequences so how you act out on your Envy has a concern to it so that's what the hadith is talking about right so now what is interesting is I said look you tell me if some part of this discussion the other person had

[2:20] said well look God allows people to afflict cause affliction using this evil eye I said okay let's just look at this for a moment let's just look at this we are saying that you can do things like cause cancer cause bankruptcy cause somebody to break a leg caused a car accident cause mechanical default in a car you can cause a building to dilapidate and collapse by simply looking at it and even unintentionally I

[2:55] said that is this what we are is this right what we are talking about because that is absurd because you are speaking about alright you are speaking about you are speaking about cause and effect we know how cancer comes about we know how buildings collapse this is not because

[3:35] somebody looked at somebody so I asked that how can this happen how can this happen how can they be cause and effect how can you call cellular mal reproduction how can you cause somebody to go into bankruptcy how can you cause a car accident by just looking at them so they said well look [Music] so they said that well yeah no you can because Allah enables this Allah enables this so I said well okay right so he overrides the laws of nature and the laws of physics to help you cause some

[4:14] harm I said can I ask does he also enable you to do good things like does he also enable the the helpful I like so if you look at somebody and you cure them from cancer you look at somebody's car and it gets fixed you look at somebody and he becomes a millionaire and and and the words that no that's that's dumb okay so the person said no right he doesn't do that so I said oh so let me get this right god only facilitates evil things he doesn't facilitate any helpful things I

[4:53] mean what kind what kind of a god is that that only facilitates evil like if I'm to say well you know God he allows the evil eye but he doesn't allow a good eye what what kind or an angel I read one I like the sound of that angel eye he doesn't allow an angel eye let's say so that's absurd so that's just an evil God it's not the God that I know al Rahman al Raheem so believing in these kind of superstitions contradicts

[5:32] the towhead of Allah it contradicts the Sunnah of the messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wasallam it contradicts with the overall message of Islam okay so it is so evil I is our English for what we call what they call not do measure or in Arabic align these words are synonymous with the term Envy that's all it is black magic as well it's only simply mind control hypnosis thinks there's no such thing as actually

[6:10] impacting and causing harm through black magic now about that I've got a very lengthy video on YouTube that I'd code deliver with Chef Akram Nedley and you can watch that it's on Facebook okay now right now can someone do it stay hard on behalf of someone else's on someone else's behalf how do self-proclaimed Islamic scholars do it live on shows this is Tijara is absurd okay it's okay before let me come to a stakeout I'll just finish up on the three codes look the three codes

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment Yd3ehW0VTls/s/1. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/yd3ehw0vtls/s/1/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.