Al-Tafsīr al-Qayyim - Ibn al-Qayyim - (639)

Al-Tafsīr al-QayyimIbn al-Qayyim

Section

The person who casts the evil eye and the envious person share something in common, but differ in another respect.

They share this: the soul of each assumes a particular state and directs itself toward the person he wishes to harm.

In the person who casts the evil eye, this state arises when he encounters and looks at the one affected. In the envious person, it arises whether the envied person is absent or present.

They differ in that someone who casts the evil eye may afflict something he does not envy—an inanimate object, an animal, crops or wealth—although he is seldom free of envy toward its owner. His evil eye may even afflict himself. For looking at something with admiration and a fixed stare, while his soul assumes that particular state, produces an effect in the eye.

More than one Quran commentator has explained Allah’s words, 58:51,

“The disbelievers would almost make you slip with their eyes when they hear the Reminder,”

as referring to affliction by the evil eye. They wished to afflict the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with it. Some people who cast the evil eye gazed at him and said, “We have never seen anyone like him, nor any argument like his.” Some of them, when a fat she-camel or cow passed by, would cast the evil eye on it, then say to a servant, “Take the basket and the dirham, and bring us some of its meat.” Before it could leave, it would collapse and be slaughtered.

Al-Kalbī said: “There was an Arab man who would go two or three days without eating, then lift one side of his tent. When camels passed him, he would say, ‘Never have I seen camels or sheep finer than these today.’ They would go only a short distance before some of them collapsed. The disbelievers asked this man to afflict the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with the evil eye, doing to him what he did to others. But Allah protected His Messenger and kept him safe, and revealed to him: ‘The disbelievers would almost make you slip with their eyes.’” This is the view of one group.

Another group, including Ibn Qutayba, said: “What is meant is not that they afflict you

فصل والعاين والحاسد يشتركان في شيء، ويفترقان في شيء. فيشتركان في أن كل واحد منهما تتكيف نفسه، وتتوجه نحو من يريد أذاه. فالعائن: تتكيف نفسه عند مقابلة المعين ومعاينته. والحاسد: يحصل له ذلك عند غيبة المحسود وحضوره أيضا. ويفترقان في أن العائن قد يصيب من لا يحسده، من جماد أو حيوان، أو زرع أو مال، وإن كان لا يكاد ينفك من حسد صاحبه. وربما أصابت عينه نفسه. فإن رؤيته للشيء رؤية تعجب وتحديق، مع تكيف نفسه بتلك الكيفية: تؤثر في العين. وقد قال غير واحد من المفسرين في قوله تعالى: ٥٨: ٥١ وَإِنْ يَكادُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَيُزْلِقُونَكَ بِأَبْصارِهِمْ لَمَّا سَمِعُوا الذِّكْرَ: إنه الإصابة بالعين. أرادوا أن يصيبوا بها رسول الله ﷺ. فنظر إليه قوم من العائنين، وقالوا: ما رأينا مثله، ولا مثل حجته. وكان طائفة منهم تمر به الناقة والبقرة السمينة فيعينها، ثم يقول لخادمه: خذ المكتل والدرهم وائتنا بشيء من لحمها. فما تبرح حتى تقع. فتنحر. وقال الكلبي: كان رجل من العرب يمكث يومين أو ثلاثة لا يأكل، ثم يرفع جانب خبائه، فتمر به الإبل، فيقول: لم أر كاليوم إبلا ولا غنما أحسن من هذه. فما تذهب إلا قليلا حتى يسقط منها طائفة. فسأل الكفار هذا الرجل أن يصيب رسول الله ﷺ بالعين، ويفعل به كفعله في غيره. فعصم الله رسوله وحفظه. وأنزل عليه وَإِنْ يَكادُ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَيُزْلِقُونَكَ بِأَبْصارِهِمْ هذا قول طائفة. وقالت طائفة أخرى، منهم ابن قتيبة: ليس المراد: أنهم يصيبونك