Al-Rabī ibn Sulaymān said: I asked al-Shāfi'ī about ruqyah. He replied, “There is no harm in a man performing ruqyah using the Book of Allah and whatever he knows of the remembrance of Allah.” I asked, “May the People of the Book perform ruqyah for Muslims?” He replied, “Yes, provided they use what is known to be from the Book of Allah or the remembrance of Allah.” I asked, “What is the proof for that?” He replied, “More than one proof. As for the report of our companion and yours, Mālik informed us, from Yahyā ibn Sa'īd, from Amra bint Abd al-Rahmān, that Abu Bakr entered upon Aisha while she was suffering from an ailment and a Jewish woman was performing ruqyah for her. Abu Bakr said, ‘Perform ruqyah for her with the Book of Allah.’” I then said to al-Shāfi'ī, “We disapprove of the People of the Book performing ruqyah.” He asked, “Why, when you yourselves transmit this from Abu Bakr? Nor do I know that you transmit anything contrary to it from any other Companion of the Prophet. Allah—exalted be His mention—has made lawful the food and women of the People of the Book, and I consider ruqyah, when they perform it with the Book of Allah, analogous to this or a matter of even less concern.” End quote. (1)
This report is attributed only to a Companion and may be anomalous. It has not been narrated through any other chain, and Mālik himself did not act upon it (2), though he narrated the report and best understood its legal import.
Such innovation knows no end. It has neither a governing principle nor a boundary by which the bizarre may be deemed bizarre or the reprehensible condemned—save only the bounds of the Sharia, and the Sharia alone. We are well aware that each time they say, “We tried it, and it proved beneficial.” Let no one imagine that, when I relate such things and mention the jokes subsequently made about them, I laugh in approval. I laugh only out of astonishment, for the worst calamity is one that makes a person laugh. How many things in our land make us laugh and weep at once!
Allah knows how deeply the heart aches over this and other matters, and how much bitterness I feel at the spread of innovations. I recall the early Muslims, who, when they saw an innovation they were unable to change, would urinate blood. Yet we see evil deeds with our own eyes, and scarcely anyone’s face even reddens with anger, let alone that he should urinate blood. To Allah alone is the complaint made.