Therefore it is said that sorcery (siḥr) is of two kinds:
• Real sorcery: the sort by which separation is brought about between husband and wife, between close friends, and the like.
• Illusory sorcery: that which casts deception upon the eyes so that the bewitched person sees things other than as they truly are. He might, for example, see a donkey as a man, a man as an animal, pebbles as gold, or ropes as writhing serpents, just as Pharaoh’s magicians did.

As for the notion that magic can alter the actual substances of things, this is impossible. A sorcerer cannot turn a human being into an animal, an animal into a human being, gold into stone, or stone into gold. This must be clearly understood: none can change the essences of created things except Allah, the Creator of all, Glorified and Exalted be He. All the sorcerer can do is produce illusion and visual deception, as the Most High says: “They bewitched people’s eyes, struck them with awe, and produced a mighty display of magic.” ⦗al-Aʿrāf 7:116⦘.

Both types of sorcery come from the lore of the devils, and both are disbelief. Allah, Exalted is He, says: “Cast what is in your right hand; it will swallow up what they have contrived. What they have contrived is but a magician’s stratagem, and the magician shall never succeed wherever he goes.” ⦗Ṭā Hā 20:69⦘—thus denying success to the sorcerer without exception.

Sorcery is deemed disbelief because it is founded upon shirk (associating partners with Allah) and can never be detached from it. The sorcerer seeks closeness to the devils, worships them, and obeys them; they in turn obey him and help him in the corruption and mischief he wishes to spread.