Imam Jalaaluddin Suyuti on the Permissibility of wearing a Ta’widh
(Excerpt from his Tibb un-Nabawiyya)
Know then that the recital of verses and the wearing of amulets are indeed useful if accepted by the patient and received with his consent as a method of cure. The recitation of charms and the wearing of amulets are a form of taking refuge with Allah for the purpose of securing health, just as is done in the case of medicine. Blameworthy recitations are those not made in Arabic when the meaning of the words is not known. But if the words are understood, then the practice is approved.
On this subject 'Awf bin Malik is reported to have said: You mean: as we used to do in the days of the ignorance. And they said: O Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم , how do you regard that? And he said: Recite to me your verses. And after hearing them he said: All well & good, always provided there is no suggestion of polytheism in them. This story is reported by Muslim. In another version it is reported that a man was brought to the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم saying: O Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم , is it true that you have forbidden the recitation of charms ? I once recited a verse to charm away a scorpion bite. And the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم replied: Whosoever among you is able to help his brother, let him indeed do so. This is related by Muslim.
Indeed the prohibition is directed against heretical charms. Or perhaps the prohibition was once absolute and later was cancelled. I once asked Abu 'Abd-Ullah about charms against scorpions. He saw no harm in the practice provided the words were understood or were taken from the Quran. Said Shifa bint 'Abd-Ullah: The Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم entered the tent while I was with Hafsa. He said to me: Teach her the charms against the herpes in the same way as I had taught her to write. Abu Dawud relates this. In this tradition it will be also noted that permission is given for women to be taught to write.
From 'Ayesha comes this tradition. When people used to complain of something such as an ulcer or a wound, the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم would put his finger in the dust. Then he would raise it and say: In the name of Allah, the dust of our earth united with the spittle of some of us will cure our sick with the permission of the Lord. About this traditional saying there is general agreement. The phrase ' dust of our earth ' is used because the constitution of dust is cold & dry and a desiccant for all damp. Now, ulcers and wounds contain much damp within, which checks the good functioning of the Faculties and so hinders speedy healing. And as for the phrase ' spittle of some of us ', that is our saliva, this means that if saliva be added to dust and dried and then placed upon ulcers or wounds, these will be cured by the permission of Allah. On this subject there are many traditions.
Regarding reading verses from the Quran, 'Ali is reported to have said: The best medicine is the Quran. Al-Tirmidhi reports this tradition.
Quran 17.82: Said Almighty Allah: We reveal of the Quran that which is a healing and a mercy to the Believers. The word ' of' does not refer to certain parts only, but the meaning is that all that is revealed in the Quran is curative. The Quran cures from physical diseases if used for that purpose just as it cures from error, ignorance and doubt. It will guide a man lost in amazement. It cures the heart by removing ignorance from it: it cures the body by removing sickness from it. Know that sound bodies are found with sound hearts. Make healthy your heart and healthy will be your body. Said the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم : There is within the body a lump of flesh. If this lump of flesh is healthy, then the whole body is healthy. This is a traditional saying (Hadith).
We have already discussed reading from the Quran as a cure. Said 'Ayesha: Whenever any member of the household of the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم was sick, he used to recite over him the two terminal chapters of the Quran ( Surah Falaq and Surah Nas). A tradition is reported by Dar Qutni in his List of Authorities, quoting Ibn 'Abbas, that the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم said: He who complains of the toothache, let him put his finger on the tooth and read the verse: He it is Who has brought you into being from a single soul, then there is for you a resting place and a depository: indeed We have made plain the communications for a people who understand. Quran 6.99.
If some words are endowed with special properties and are helpful by the permission of Almighty Allah, then what are you to think of the very words of Almighty Allah Himself? Wrote Ahmad: If words from the Quran are written down upon something and then washed off and the washings drunk, all well & good. Again, if a man write a text from the Quran and put it inside a vessel and then make a sick man drink from it or even if he only reads something from the Quran over the vessel and the sick man drinks from it, this too is well & good. Similarly if a person reads something from the Quran over water and then sprinkles this water over a sick man or in the case of a difficult labor, if a man writes something from the Quran and makes the woman drink it, all this is well & good.
Ibn 'Abbas reports a traditional saying: If a woman finds difficulty in giving birth, let her take a clean vessel and write inside it the following Quran 46.35 verses: On the day that they shall see what they are promised, they shall be as if they had not tarried. And again this: On the day that they see it, Quran 79.46, it will be as though they had not tarried. And again this verse: In their histories there is certainly a lesson for men of understanding. Quran I2.111 This writing will then be washed off and the woman will be given the washings to drink and some poured over her abdomen.
According to the Traditions of Muhanna Ahmad once gave judgement that it was lawful to free one who is enchanted from his enchantment by means of any sort of medicine and that it is quite possible to remove magical enchantment. For when the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم was bewitched, he drove it out and loosed himself and this loosening of himself was accomplished by medicine. In common speech the word ' enchantment' means a change in the form of a thing. Thus we say 'What has bewitched you like this?' meaning ' What has brought about this change in you ‘?
Enchantment is also used in the sense of sheer fraud. But on the other hand an enchanter may be a very wise man. Now, enchantments may take the form of amulets containing written verses or the weaving of spells or of words spoken over a person by an enchanter or of words written down by him. And so an effect is produced in the body of the man bewitched or in his heart or indirectly within his brain. In fact by these means a man may be killed or made sick or even removed from his womenfolk. It may indeed come between a man and his wife and cause one to hate the other and destroy their mutual love.
Said 'Ayesha: I used to imagine that the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم had done something which he had in fact not done. I seek refuge from it in Allah and His mercy. It was said to Ahmad: Physicians maintain that nothing can enter a human being, by which is meant all the inhabitants of the earth. He replied: That is mere babble, for the Prophet صلى الله عليه واله وصحبه وسلم has said: Verily the Devil runs within a human being just as his blood runs within him. But I, the author of this work, maintain that the bodies of jinns are subtle bodies and that it is impossible for the humours of jinns to mix with human souls in the manner that blood and phlegm mix in human bodies with all their impurities.
When the news about 'Umr was late in reaching Abu Musa, he went to a woman within whose belly was a devil. He asked her about 'Umr and she replied: I will tell you when my devil gives me the answer. Then he arrived and she put the question to him. And the devil replied: I left him preparing camels as alms. This subject is a very wide one and many are the stories, too many to be related in this book. And Allah knoweth all.
ON THE WEARING OF AMULETS