Protection from Envy

There is no doubt that protection from envy troubles many people; indeed, some are more preoccupied with it than with treatment, since it averts the dangers and evils of envy. If prevention is better than treatment in physical illnesses, precisely the same is true of the evil eye.

Since one of the conditions I have set for myself in this book is not to follow the approach of those who experiment and act on the basis of their own trials, I do not endorse such practices. A number of scholars have taken this same position. Among them is Dr. Fahd ibn Duwayyān al-Suhaymī, a lecturer at the Islamic University of Madinah, who wrote in his master’s thesis:

“Protection against all of this and anything similar is achieved by means suited to it and capable of warding off its harm. The same applies to medical treatment and prevention. Among the self-evident first principles of medicine are diagnosing the illness and then administering the remedy. Likewise, each illness is prevented according to its nature by using the vaccines appropriate to it. As for the evil eye, the precise manner in which it causes affliction is unknown, as previously stated, because it is one of the unseen matters hidden from us. It therefore cannot be diagnosed in chemical laboratories, through electrical scans, or by outward symptoms. Nothing can be known about it except the effects that appear upon the person struck by the evil eye after it has occurred. Thus, before it occurs, there is no means of protection against it except what has come by revelation in Allah’s Book or the Sunnah of Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him).” (1)

I say: This is a strong and authoritative statement from a specialized study to which the researcher devoted himself. It is precisely what I have been advocating and reiterating from the beginning of this book. Shaykh Atiyya Muhammad Sālim (may Allah have mercy on him) also held this view (2), and his words will be cited later. For this and other reasons, I say: protection is achieved by two means that can be known only through the Sacred Law: