It is also permissible to write Qur’anic passages on a clean surface—such as a bowl or a sheet of paper—then wash the writing off and have the patient drink the water, for this comes under the heading of treatment by means of the Qur’an. Some of the early scholars, among them Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, allowed it. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah cited the practice in his collected fatwas, and Ibn al-Qayyim mentioned it in Zād al-Maʿād, noting that a number of the early generations were known to do so. Therefore, there is no objection to it, God willing.

Reciting over a person stricken with seizures

Question: At times someone collapses in front of me, speaks incoherently, and screams. People say that spirits or jinn have taken possession of him. I can only recite Āyat al-Kursī, al-Fātiḥah, Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, and the two sūrahs of refuge (al-Falaq and al-Nās), and I seek protection in Allah and in His words from the evil of Satan and his snares. I have heard that there is a specific invocation for such a case; what is it?

Answer: One should recite the Qur’an over him—especially Āyat al-Kursī, “Say: He is Allah, the One,” “Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of day-break,” and “Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind.” Add to that the prescribed protective supplications, such as: “I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah—all of them—from the evil of whatever He has created.” These Qur’anic passages and invocations are the sole remedy for this condition.