Ruling on going to someone who undoes spells

 

If a person goes to the imam of a mosque who claims to undo witchcraft and does what he says, thinking that this will undo the witchcraft without knowing that this is haraam, has he committed a sin? What is the ruling on that?.

Praise be to Allaah.

If a person undoes spells
or witchcraft, one of two scenarios must apply: 

1-

He uses shar’i ruqyahs and
ta’awwudhaat (prayers seeking refuge with Allaah) that were narrated from
the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and
permissible remedies. There is nothing wrong with this, rather it is
mustahabb. 

2-

He treats the spell by
doing witchcraft which means drawing close to the jinn by offering
sacrifices or doing other acts of worship. This is not permissible, because
it is the handiwork of the shaytaan and is in fact major shirk, so we must
beware of it. It is also not permissible to deal with it by asking
sorcerers, fortune-tellers and charlatans or doing what they say. The
Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) has warned
against going to them, asking them questions and believing them. He
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever goes to a
fortune-teller and asks him about something, his prayer will not be accepted
for forty days.” Narrated by Muslim (4137). 

And the Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever goes to a
soothsayer or fortune-teller and believes what he says has disbelieved in
that which was revealed to Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him).” Narrated by Ahmad in al-Musnad (9171) and classed as
saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’, hadeeth no. 5939. 

So it is not permissible to
go to practitioners of witchcraft or ask them anything or believe them. 

Abu Dawood narrated in his
Sunan (3370) that Jaabir ibn ‘Abd-Allaah (may Allaah be pleased with
him) said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) was asked about al-nushrah and he said: “It is the handiwork of
the shaytaan.” Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani. 

Ibn al-Qayyim said in
I’laam al-Muwaqqi’een (4/399): Nushrah means undoing witchcraft. It is
of two types: undoing witchcraft by means of witchcraft, which is the
handiwork of the shaytaan, because witchcraft is the handiwork of the
shaytaan, and the one who engages in nushrah and the one for whom it is done
draw close to him by means of what he likes, thus undoing the spell. The
second type is undoing witchcraft by means of ruqyah, ta’awwudhaat, du’aa’s
and permissible kinds of medicine. This is permissible, and is in fact
mustahabb. End quote. 

Thus you will know that if
this imam is of the type who undoes witchcraft by means of haraam methods,
then going to him is a sin, and may constitute kufr. What the one who has
gone to him must do is repent from that, and Allaah accepts the repentance
of the one who repents. If he did this out of ignorance then we hope that
there is no sin on him, but he must give that up and resolve not to do it
again in the future. 

If he is one of the type
who treat those who are bewitched by means of the Holy Qur’aan and du’aa’s
narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him),
then there is nothing wrong with going to him, and that is not a sin. 

And Allaah knows best.