some non-Arab shaykhs writing on their books the phrase “Ya Kabij,” claiming that it protects the books from termites.
Amulets are the plural of amulet. Originally, they were beads which the Arabs hung on a child’s head to ward off the evil eye; then they extended the term to include every protective charm.
I say: This includes some people’s hanging a horseshoe on the door of a house, or in a prominent place within it; and some drivers’ hanging one at the front or rear of a car, or hanging blue beads from the interior mirror before the driver—all of this, they claim, is to ward off the evil eye.
Do the written charms that some people hang on their children or on themselves fall under the category of amulets when they contain Quranic verses or supplications authentically reported from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him? The early generations held two views on this. In my view, the stronger opinion is that it is forbidden, as I explained in my annotations on The Good Word by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (annotation no. 34), published by al-Maktab al-Islami.
Love charms are what make a woman beloved to her husband through magic or otherwise. Ibn al-Athir said:
“He classified it as associationism because they believe that it has an effect and brings about something contrary to what Allah Most High has decreed.”
- “I remember us praying the dawn prayer with the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—wrapped in our cloaks, then leaving while none of us could recognize one another’s faces.”
Abu Ya‘la reported it in his Musnad (214/1): Ibrahim narrated to us: Hammad narrated to us from Ubayd Allah ibn Umar, from Amrah bint Abd al-Rahman al-Ansariyyah, that Aishah said; and then he cited it.
I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. All of its narrators are trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators, apart from this Ibrahim, who is Ibn al-Hajjaj. There are two men of this name: Ibrahim ibn al-Hajjaj ibn Zayd al-Sami, Abu Ishaq al-Basri; and Ibrahim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Nili, likewise Abu Ishaq al-Basri. Both of them are narrated from by—