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Praying behind an Imaam who practices magic

Question

assalamu alaikum,What is the ruling on prying an Imam who is known to practice Sihr with Jinnr?How and what methods can be used to remove him?

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad  sallallaahu  `alayhi  wa  sallam ( may  Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

There is no doubt that magic is forbidden and some of it is disbelief as Allaah Says (what means): {And they followed [instead] what the devils had recited during the reign of Solomon. It was not Solomon, who disbelieved, but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic and that which was revealed to the two angels at Babylon, Harut and Marut. But they [i.e. the two angels] do not teach anyone unless they say, “We are a trial, so do not disbelieve [by practicing magic].}[Quran 2:102]

Therefore, magic is forbidden and if one does magic only by acts of disbelief, like despising the Mushaf (the Arabic text of the Quran) and the like, then it is an act of disbelief that takes a person out of the fold of Islam, and the person who does this becomes a non-Muslim and the prayer behind him is void.

However, if magic is among the forbidden kind but it does not take the person who does it out of the fold of Islam, then whoever performs the prayer behind a person who does this kind of magic, his prayer is valid but the initiative should be taken to remove that Imaam.

Nonetheless, we are not aware of the circumstances of the country and the mosque where you are so that we may tell you how to remove him, however, you should take the matter to the administration of the mosque and clarify to them the seriousness of magic and prove to them that the man who leads you in prayer is a magician. If it is not possible to remove him, then you should perform the prayer somewhere else.

For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 93587, 83703 and 82269.

Allaah Knows best.

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