Using Jinn for useful purposes
Fatwa No: 85875

Question

I have read a lot about the magic that some people practise. This including sorcery and fortune telling, etc. I know that doing; learning or teaching magic is Haram. May Allah keep it away from us. The thing is that $Sulaiman$$ had Jinns which helped him in certain things. Is this black magic? Can we humans in today's world use Jinns to our advantage, e.g. to speed up certain work? I have heard that some Sufis use Jinns to transport them to other places in the world in split seconds! They levitate with the aid of Jinns! Has Allah made it lawful for us to use Jinns in any form or way for instance to transport us very fast to other places in the world?

Answer

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.It is unlawful to seek the help of Jinn even in things that appear to be good because seeking their help leads to much depravation and because the Jinn are from the unseen which the person cannot assess accurately. So, he cannot say for sure, that they are Muslims, or otherwise, or that they are good or bad.In fact, evaluating such things requires a good knowledge of their character, their piety and their religiousness. This cannot be certified by us as we lack the knowledge of their norms as far as truth and falsehood are concerned. Moreover, it is not reported that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam), his companions or those who followed them, ever did that or sought their help or resorted to them to achieve anything. Nevertheless, the spread of ignorance nowadays as well as the lack of good knowledge lead some people to have recourse to jugglery and magic claiming to use Jinn in achieving good purposes. So, the person might want to use Jinn for good purposes but is deceived by them out of his will and this might result in much temptation for normal people who might become involved with jugglers and magicians believing that they are using Jinns in good matters. Although Ibn Taymiyah said in his Fatwa that 'It is lawful to seek the help of Jinns in lawful matters in the same way one seeks the help of human beings, he emphasized that the person who did not have a good knowledge of Shariah could be deceived by these Jinns' . Ibn Muflih said in al-Adab al-Sharya: ' Ahmad said in al-Bazati's narration about the man who claims to cure mad people and epileptic ones using Ruqiya and claims to address the Jinn and talk to them, giving them orders and that some of them abide by his orders' . Ahmad said: 'I do not like that anybody does this, avoiding it is more preferable to me' .Prophet Sulaiman (Alaihi Salaam) was not a magician as Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {… Sulaimân did not disbelieve, but the Shayâtin (devils) disbelieved, teaching men magic …}[2: 102]. Allah Granted him a great kingdom including subjugating Jinns to him. So, Jinns had to obey his orders without complaints and Allah inflicted a severe punishment on any Jinn who did not abide by Sulaiman 's orders. But this kingdom was not given to anyone after Sulaiman . As Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {He said: "My Lord! Forgive me, and bestow upon me a kingdom such as shall not belong to any other after me: Verily, You are the Bestower." So, We subjected to him the wind, it blew gently to his order whithersoever he willed, And also the Shayâtin (devils) from the jinns (including) every kind of builder and diver, And also others bound in fetters [Saying of Allâh to Sulaimân (Solomon)]: "This is Our gift, so spend you or withhold, no account will be asked."}[38: 35-39]. Allah also Says (interpretation of meaning): {And to Solomon (We subjected) the wind, its morning (stride from sunrise till midnoon) was a month's (journey), and its afternoon (stride from the midday decline of the sun to sunset) was a month's (journey i.e. in one day he could travel two months' journey). And We caused a fount of (molten) brass to flow for him, and there were jinns that worked in front of him, by the Leave of his Lord, and whosoever of them turned aside from Our Command, We shall cause him to taste of the torment of the blazing Fire.}[34: 12]. Al-Bukhari reported that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: "An Afreet slipped away in front of me while praying to interrupt my prayer. But Allah gave me power over him. So, I grabbed him and wanted to tie him to one of the poles of the mosque until you all see him. But then I remembered my brother Sulaiman 's (Alaihi Salaam) Du'a: "My Lord! Forgive me, and bestow upon me a kingdom such as shall not belong to any other after me:" . From this you know that there is a big difference between the subjugation of Jinns to Prophet Sulaiman (Alaihi Salaam) and the seeking of Jinn's help that individual people do to achieve some purpose.Indeed Sulaiman (Alaihi Salaam), the Prophet of Allah did not use any magic, let alone magic.

Allah knows best.

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