to undo it for him, or to treat him with nushrah (a counter-charm)?” He replied: “There is no harm in it. They seek only to bring about a cure; as for that which is beneficial, it has not been prohibited.”
Al-Hafiz supplied its connected chain in al-Fath (10/233), through the narration of al-Athram and others, by several routes from Qatadah, from him. Ibn Abi Shaybah (8/28) also transmitted Qatadah’s narration from him in abbreviated form, with an authentic chain.
There is, in my view, no contradiction between the two reports. Al-Hasan’s report is to be understood as referring to seeking the aid of the jinn and devils, and to means that please them, such as sacrificing to them and the like; this is what the hadith means. Saʿid’s report, on the other hand, refers to seeking treatment through lawful incantations and protective formulas sanctioned by the Quran and sunnah. Al-Bayhaqi inclined to this view in al-Sunan. This is also what is meant by what al-Hafiz related from Imam Ahmad, when he was asked about one who removes sorcery from a person bewitched. He replied: “There is no harm in it.”
As for al-Hafiz’s statement, “The ruling differs according to the intention: whoever intends good by it—and otherwise it is evil,” I say: this is not sufficient for distinguishing between them, for a good intention may coincide with an evil means of attaining it. As was said concerning an immoral woman: “... ... ... ... ... Would that she had neither committed adultery nor given charity.”
Included in this category is the treatment of people by certain individuals who outwardly display righteousness, through what they call “spiritual medicine”—whether this is done by the old method of communicating with a female jinn companion, as was practised in the pre-Islamic period, or by the method nowadays called “summoning spirits.” In my view, hypnosis is similar to this. All of these are unlawful means, since they are based on seeking the aid of the jinn, which was among the causes of the polytheists’ misguidance, as stated in the Noble Quran:
“There were men among humankind who sought refuge in men among the jinn, and so they increased them in burden”—that is, in fear and sin.
And the claim of some who have been afflicted with seeking their aid that they seek help only from the righteous among them