Ibn Hibbān related in the report of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) entered upon her while a woman was treating her—or performing ruqyah for her—and said, “Treat her with the Book of Allah.” (1)
He said (may Allah have mercy on him): “By his words, ‘Treat her with the Book of Allah,’ he meant: Treat her by means of what the Book of Allah permits. In the pre-Islamic period, people used to perform ruqyah with things containing shirk, so with these words he forbade them from using any ruqyah except that which the Book of Allah permits, rather than that which constitutes shirk.” End quote. (2)
He says this on the assumption that the hadith is authentic as a Prophetic report; otherwise, it is attributed only to a Companion.
Al-Bayhaqī (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “Chapter: The Permissibility of Ruqyah So Long as It Contains No Shirk.” He cited several hadiths, including the aforementioned hadith of Awf ibn Mālik, and then said: “The hadith of Awf applies generally to every form of ruqyah that contains no shirk. A report with the same meaning was likewise narrated by Abū Sufyān from Jābir, in which he said: ‘Whoever among you is able to benefit his brother should do so.’ This indicates that every transmitted prohibition concerning ruqyah or anything akin to it applies only to those incantations of the polytheists whose meaning is unknown, for they may contain shirk.” End quote. (3)
Abū Ja'far al-Tahāwī (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “The hadith of Jābir indicates that every ruqyah that affords benefit is permissible, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ‘Whoever among you is able to benefit his brother should do so.’” He also said: “Reports have been narrated from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) permitting every form of ruqyah so long as it contains no shirk.” He then cited the hadith of Awf ibn Mālik and said: “This demonstrates that any ruqyah containing no shirk is not reprehensible.” End quote. (4)