Transliteration:( Wattaba'oo maa tatlush Shayaateenu 'alaa mulki Sulaimaana wa maa kafara Sulaimaanu wa laakinnash Shayatteena kafaroo yu'al limoonan naasas sihra wa maaa unzila 'alal malakaini bi Baabila Haaroota wa Maaroot; wa maa yu'allimaani min ahadin hattaa yaqoolaaa innamaa nahnu fitnatun falaa takfur fayata'al lamoona minhumaa maa yufarriqoona bihee bainal mar'i wa zawjih; wa maa hum bidaaarreena bihee min ahadin illaa bi-iznillah; wa yata'allamoona maa yadurruhum wa laa yanfa'uhum; wa laqad 'alimoo lamanish taraahu maa lahoo fil Aakhirati min khalaaq; wa labi'sa maa sharaw biheee anfusahum; law kaanoo ya'lamoon )
195. From this verse two issues emerge:
1. Witchcraft has come into existence since the time of Hazrat Sulaiman
2. Those responsible for spreading this evil were the devils, not the angels.
196. From these, emerge two issues:
1. To vindicate the Prophets of all blame is the way of Allah. When people accused Hazrat Sulaiman of witchcraft, Allah absolved him of all blame in this verse.
2. To practise witchcraft can be infidelity.especially when words of blasphemy are used in its practice.
197. Harut and Marut were two angels who were foremost in piety and worship amongst all angels. Once they were sent into the world in human form as a governor and a judge. They hopelessly fell in love with a pretty damsel whose case they had to judge. In her love they committed many sins. This was in the period of Hazrat Idrees, through whose mediation their sins were forgiven, but they were imprisoned in the well of Babil and were appointed as instructors of witchcraft. From this, one canlearn that when refulgent angels assume human
form they can have the power to eat, drink, even to cohabit.
Hazrat Musa's, walking stick could eat when in the state of a snake. "It began to swallow their fabrications (S26 :V45). is the Light The Holy Prophet (refulgence) of Allah but when he came in human state he would eat, drink sleep and be awake, but when he assumed the refulgent state he would abstain from eating and drinking as was the case during Meraj, Hazrat Isa's in the Fourth Heaven and the Companions of the Cave are alive for hundred of years without eating and drinking. All this is out of the manifestation of light.
198. From this verse emerge few issues:
1. The devils are the inventors or originators of witchcraft not the angels. After becoming victims of witchcraft they had come to face those who had fallen prey to this hellish practice.
2. Most forms of witchcraft is idolatry in form because either pagan words are used for it
or they are paganistic in their conditions.
3. To teach witchcraft is not an act of Kufr provided it is taught to make a person aware of its evils, thereby staying away from it. But it will become a blasphemous act if it is taught to practise it as it was taught by the devils. It should be remembered that the jurists have taught blasphemous words for prevention of it. To know infidelity is not infidelity, to accept and act upon it is infidelity.
199. From this verse two issues emerge:
1. Witchcraft has harmful effects if it contains blasphemous words.
2. The non-believers too can cause physical harm through witchcraft. Thus if witchcraft can possess the power to cause harm, can the verses of the QUR'AAN not have the power of providing cure? Without doubt they have. Says Almighty Allah: "And we send down in the QUR'AAN that which is a healing" (S 17: V 82). Likewise, when the non-believers can cause harm through witchcraft, so can the pious servants of Allah provide benefits through their miracles. Hazrat Jesus has said: "And I heal the one born blind, and the leper and I make the dead alive, by the command of Allah" (S3: V49).
200. From this verse one can assume that witchcraft is also from Divine knowledge, the existence of which is approved by Allah (Tafseer Azizi). It is for this reason that angels were appointed for its instruction.
Islamic Points: Any witchcraft which entails blasphemy leads to apostasy, but witchcraft which is not of a blasphemous nature but is used to destroy people is equivalent to the decree of robbery. Furthermore, it is not blasphemy when witchcraft is studied purely as an antidote to witchcraft, provided such learning does not contain any blasphemous words.
201. Two Issues emerge from this:
1. Witchcraft studied with the intention of causing harm is totally forbidden, but it is allowed for the purpose of removing its harmful effects.
2. Even the people of the Book knew that witchcraft is harmful and a means of depriving oneself of the Hereafter.
The tafsir of Surah Baqarah verse 102 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Baqarah ayat 99 which provides the complete commentary from verse 99 through 103.
(2:102) and then followed what the evil ones falsely attributed to the Kingdom of Solomon[104] even though Solomon had never disbelieved; it is the evil ones who disbelieved, teaching people magic. And they followed what had been revealed to the two angels in Babylon – Harut and Marut – although these two (angels) never taught it to anyone without first declaring: “We are merely a means of testing people; so, do not engage in unbelief.”[105] And yet they learned from them what might cause division between a man and his wife[106]. They could not cause harm to anyone except by the leave of Allah, and still they learned what harmed rather than profited them, knowing well that he who bought it will have no share in the World to Come. Evil indeed is what they sold themselves for. Had they but known!
104. ‘Evil ones’ embraces all evil beings, whether they belong to the human species or to the jinn. Here the reference seems to be to both.
When moral and material decline set in among the Israelites, they were overwhelmed with slavery and ignorance, with misery and poverty, and with humiliation and decadence. They were thus drained of all high ambitions and increasingly turned to magic, sorcery, witchcraft, charms and amulets. They began to search for facile means such as spells that would spare them hard work and yet ensure the achievement of their desired ends. At this stage they were misled by the evil ones, who made them believe that the mighty kingdom and astonishing power of Solomon were merely due to occult sciences and magical formulae, and that by revealing those they would pass on to them the keys to success. People were so engrossed in such practices that they ignored both the Book of God and anyone who summoned them to truth and righteousness.
105. There are various opinions on the interpretation of this verse. My own conclusion is that at the time when the whole Israelite nation was chained in slavery and captivity in Babylonia God sent two angels in human form in order to test the Jews. In the same way as angels were sent to the people of Lot in the form of handsome youths see (Surah Hud, ayat 69), they were presumably sent to Israel in the form of divines who could work magic and sorcery. These angels at once began working their magical wonders but they warned the people that their presence among them was designed to test their faith, and that they ought not to jeopardize their After-life by the practice of magic. Despite the warning it seems that the Israelites had become so fond of their magical artifices that they continued to resort to talismans and sorcery.
It should not surprise anyone that angels came down to earth in human form; angels are dutiful servants of God’s kingdom, and are capable of assuming the form appropriate to the specific task they are required to perform at any particular time. Who knows how many angels may be busy performing their duties in our midst even today!
One might also wonder why angels should teach people magic, which is after all intrinsically evil. In order to understand this we must remember that the nature of their task was no different from that of an undercover policeman who hands over marked currency notes to a corrupt official as a bribe with the aim of ensuring that he is caught red-handed.
106. This shows that the greatest demand was for magical arts and charms to sow discord between a man and his wife and to procure the eventual seduction of the latter. This was the depth of moral depravity to which these people had fallen. A people cannot sink to a lower level of moral degeneracy than when adulterous affairs become their favourite pastime, and when seducing a married woman is considered a boastful achievement. The matrimonial relationship is, in truth, the very foundation of man’s collective life. The soundness of human civilization depends on the soundness of the relationship between the two sexes. Hence, nothing could be worse than the person who strikes at the very foundations of the structure which supports both him and society as a whole.
There is a Tradition from the Prophet to the effect that Satan sends his agents on their missions to all parts of the world. On their return these agents report their achievements with each mentioning his own special evil act. But Satan is not completely satisfied with any of them. It is only when an agent reports that he has succeeded in separating a wife from her husband that Satan is filled with joy and embraces him. (Bukhari, ‘Talaq’, 25 – Ed.) In the light of this Tradition it is understandable why the angels who were sent to the Israelites to test them were asked to disclose those magical arts which would lead to separation between a husband and his wife, for the inclination of a people to learn such arts is a sure index of its moral decadence.
[34]- They warn people against the misuse of what they have learned.
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