Version: 19th January 2024.
DISCLAIMER: This is from the writer’s own experience. The writer will not be held responsible for any repercussions that may occur if his advice is practiced. Please read the terms of use at the bottom of the page.
Bismillah walhamdulilah wasalatu wasalam ala Rasulilah.
INTRODUCTION
One of my first intentions for producing practical self ruqya series was to make this knowledge of ruqya accessible to the general Muslims so that they could treat themselves and then treat their families. I was also hoping that some of these would go on and start treating the wider Muslim community. However, it seems and Allah knows best, that some of those brothers and sisters who are quite competent at treating their families haven’t gone on to start treating the wider Muslim community. Therefore, I felt I would put something together that would help these family raqis become raqis for the general Muslim community.
RAQI QUALIFICATIONS
There are NO set specific qualifications from an Islamic university that makes you a raqi. You just need to be a good sincere Muslim that wants to please Allah by helping his fellow Muslims. By ‘good’, we mean that the prospective raqi needs to understand Islam correctly, be able to read the Quran correctly and that he needs to keep away from committing major sins or continuously doing the same minor sins like listening to music or shaving his beard. If a raqi can’t stop sinning because he hasn’t got control of his own jinnee or qareen then how can he deal with other people’s jinn!
What we have mentioned above is based on the saying of Sheikh Abdullah Jibreen (rahimullah) who said in (https://islamqa.info/en/7874) about the qualifications of a prospective raqi:
Praise be to Allaah.
The correct view is that it is permissible for every reader who can recite the Qur’aan well and who understands its meanings, has a sound belief, does righteous deeds and is of upright conduct to use ruqyah. It is not essential for him to have knowledge of minor matters or to have studied all branches of knowledge in depth. This is because of the story of Abu Sa’eed and the man who had been stung by a scorpion, “… and we did not know that he ever did ruqyah before that incident”, as is stated in the hadeeth. (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 2276; Muslim, 2201). The raaqi must have a good intention and want to benefit the Muslim; he should not be concerned with money or payment, so that his reading will be more beneficial.
And Allaah knows best.
THE MAIN INTENTION FOR BECOMING A RAQI
As Sheikh Ibn Jibreen said, you should not be concerned with making money. In fact, you shouldn’t get into this field because you don’t have a job or you need money to get married because this intention for money, itself, will affect the effectiveness of your ruqya on people and it can be a way for shaytan to destroy your ruqya by making you obsessed with money, women and the dunya in general. How many a raqi have fallen into fitna because of money and women!
No one can deny that not wanting money and just helping Muslims for the sake of Allah is better than the person who wants and demands money for his ruqya services! We are not saying that it is haram to charge for ruqya. We are just saying that it is better not to charge for ruqya.
Your main intention or What should be driving you to read ruqya on the Muslims:
……..is your desire to please Allah by helping Muslims with ruqya so that they can get back to worshipping Allah properly again without any illnesses.
This intention should be driving you to read and teach Muslims about ruqya. You must love to this act and not have any regrets for getting involved in ruqya. Sadly, I have heard of a raqi who is sad and regrets that he got involved with ruqya because of the constant need to perform adkhar and the constant need to watch out for sins! WELL, ISN’T THAT WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT…….remembering Allah and keeping away from sins! Life is short and we should not regret doing deeds that will save us from the torment of the hereafter. We should see the field of ruqya as a blessing and honour from Allah and that Allah has given us the ilm in this field so that we may use it to get closer to him. We should know that this field is type of jihad against the jinn and shayateen and so there is a lot of reward in it. Sheikh ul Islam Ibn Taymeeyah (Rahimahullah) said,
“For the Exorcist [the Raaqi] such a person is a soldier of Allah, he is a Mujaahid for the sake of Allah, and this is from the greatest forms of Jihad, so he should be careful, lest the enemy overcome him by his sins. If the circumstances is beyond his capacity, he should remember that ‘Allah does not burden a soul beyond its capacity.’ He should not expose himself to tribulation by taking on what he is unable to handle” [1]
He also said, “It is not right that someone is scared of learning this knowledge [of Ruqyah] and practising it, because it is an act of worship, and jihad for the sake of Allah, the Exalted. The servants of Allah who stick to his limits are within the safekeeping of Allah, his protection, his care, and his preservation.” In explaining this, he said, “The Prophets and the pious people who followed them fought against the enemies of Allah, from the jinn and the men, and they repelled them with whatever permissible means that they were able, and they would remove the jinn from the bodies of people, as ‘Eesa and our Messenger Muhammad (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon them both) did.” The purpose of jihad is to make the word of the Allah the highest, and the word of those who disbelieve the lowest. The Raaqi is the one who puts himself in danger, fighting against the Shayateen to achieve this aim.
Al Majmoo al Fataawa Ibn Taymeeyah.
[1] Ibn Taymeeyah’s Essay on the Jinn, pp 69-72.
After reading what Ibn Taymeeyah said, we shouldn’t have any regrets about becoming a raqi.
THE BENEFITS OF NOT TAKING MONEY
From my experience, one of the benefits of not taking money for ruqya is that you find that the patients make a lot of dua for you even when you don’t request dua. We have to remember that the patients who are under sihr are actually being oppressed by a sahir and jinn so when they make dua to Allah for you then there is no barrier between it and Allah and therefore it is NOT like the dua of a normal Muslim. I believe these duas are one of reasons that I have been able to help many Muslims especially with diagnosis. I am certain that these duas have also helped me in other spheres of my life.
Another benefit in not requesting or demanding money is that you are able to purify your intentions and make sure that you are ONLY helping Muslims for the sake of Allah. When you do this work solely for the sake Allah, you will find that Allah helps you in many ways from protection from jinn, to diagnosis/treatment of patients and from the fitna of women. You will even find Allah’s help in understanding this knowledge of ruqya. From my experience, in general, I would say the most knowledgeable raqis in this field that I have come across are those who don’t charge for ruqya.
From my experience, it seems that it is the heartless raqis who demand money from patients (ie they will NEVER treat patients for free even if the patient can’t afford it and they are busy exploiting vulnerable Muslims) are the type of raqis who usually fall into fitna with women or get attacked by jinn and that is because they are not concerned about helping Muslims but are just in this field to make money. Unfortunately, because of the experience and fitna that this type of money-hungry and heartless raqi falls into, sincere brothers have been afraid to get involved in ruqya because they fear that they will also fall into fitna. We say to these sincere brothers that they should ignore this type of raqi and realise that MOST authentic raqis who charge or don’t charge for ruqya are not like this type of raqi and that they are not heartless and that they will treat for free, if patients can’t afford it and therefore these authentic raqis, don’t fall into the same fitna as the heartless raqis do because Allah protects them. If you are sincere then Allah will protect you as Ibn Taymeeyah says from the above quote:
“It is not right that someone is scared of learning this knowledge [of Ruqyah] and practising it, because it is an act of worship, and jihad for the sake of Allah, the Exalted. The servants of Allah who stick to his limits are within the safekeeping of Allah, his protection, his care, and his preservation.”
So I strongly recommend brothers to get involved in ruqya and not to pay any attention to what happens to those heartless demanding raqis.
Another benefit of not charging for ruqya is that you do not have any pressure on you to produce results. Obviously, the cure is from Allah but many of the lay Muslims will blame the raqi for not improving the patient’s situation. If you are not charging then you don’t really care about what people say regarding your ruqya.
If you make ruqya the means for feeding your family then you inevitably must show a very high success rate or you won’t have enough patients to pay your bills. This unnecessary pressure on a raqi to produce results can cause the raqi to fall into the following issues:
1. A charging raqi may lie or exaggerate their success rate so as to attract more patients to his clinic.
2. Instead of warning and ordering the jinn to leave the patient, a charging raqi could get very desperate for results so he ends up begging or pleading with the jinn to leave the body. We should never beg or plead with the jinn for anything as this could be classed as the major shirk of calling on others beside Allah in some cases.
3. A charging raqi may find himself getting so desperate to produce results that he ends up using the help of the jinn to solve the patient’s problem, which is major shirk.
4. A charging raqi may speak ill or backbite other raqis who are on the sunnah so as to diminish their popularity.
5. A charging raqi might not recommend any other raqis who can help the patient because he wants all the money for himself.
6. A charging raqi may try to refute what others are doing even when he knows that no proof can be found.
7. A charging raqi might change his opinion regarding certain ruqya principles because it suits his business. So you may find a raqi agreeing with the opinion that self ruqya is dangerous because self ruqya is bad for his business.
A charging raqi might believe that a patient is fully cured when their ‘life gets better’ because it suits his business and he can therefore claim more success. The opinion that a patient is only fully cured when they no longer react to ruqya diagnosis is not good for his business and so it gets rejected.
8. A charging raqi might not want to share his knowledge with other people because he fears that they will compete with him in the ruqya business.
9. A charging raqi might not encourage people to do self ruqya because it is not good for his business.
10. A charging raqi might go to extremes in beating or hitting the jinn in the patient because he needs quick results. He may even use dangerous high voltage electricity on patients, which could kill patients, because he is desperate for results.
11. A charging raqi may believe that the hadith, that explains that it is better not to ask for ruqya from a raqi, is not applicable to his patients because it is not good for business. He may say that the scholars have misunderstood the hadith even though the hadith is quite clear and explicit that it is better not to ask for ruqya so that a person can be from the 70,000 that enter jannah without reckoning: https://islamqa.info/en/139092
(I have come across two patients who have told me that they went to a raqi (it may be the same raqi), who said this hadith doesn’t apply to his patients or any patients who ask for ruqya from a raqi. I have NEVER ever heard or read this opinion before. If this opinion does exist out there, then it is a very weak opinion).
TEACHING RUQYA VERSUS READING RUQYA ON PATIENTS
Most of my time is now spent on teaching and advising Muslims on how they should do ruqya on themselves and their families rather than actually reading ruqya on people. This is because there is more reward in teaching.
Teaching ruqya is basically teaching tawheed in action ie the action of ruqya is a manifestation of Tawheed and that is better than just reading on patients because you are connecting the patients to Allah rather than yourself ie the patient is less likely to fall into the shirk of believing the raqi has the cure and not Allah. So your main aim should be to teach and advise the people about ruqya and only really offer ruqya diagnosis or treatment when you can see that the patients are really having problems. Because of all this, we believe the best raqis are those who always encourage self ruqya over their own ruqya reading on patients because they want to connect the patients to Allah. If that is the case, then there is no need to take up ruqya as a full-time profession and you can carry on doing your day job.
BEING PATIENT AND KEEPING CALM WITH PATIENTS
There is a lot of confusion out there regarding the science of ruqya so it is imperative that raqis are patient and calm when teaching and advising Muslims. You may get the same question being asked several times by the same patient or others. It can be mentally tiring to keep repeating yourself but you must remember that most patients will find it difficult to grasp concepts or ideas because the possessing jinn are playing with their minds and emotions.
Most patients will just need your help to gain confidence about ruqya so even if they get clear results during self diagnosis, they just need to hear you tell them that they have spiritual illness. You just need to remember that you were once in their shoes, lacking confidence and not fully understanding the topic.
It is essential that you take some time off from answering questions so that you can relax and tend to your needs and your family’s. If you don’t do that then you are more likely to lash out and get angry at patients. TAKE A BREAK! You will be a better raqi!
YOUR STUDIES OF THE SCIENCE OF RUQYA
You must sit down and learn this science by studying, there is no way around this. The more you know, the better the raqi you become.
The following is brief study plan for a prospective raqi:
1. Study the books: ‘Kitab Tawheed’ and ‘Kashfa Shoubahat’ by Imam Mohammad Abdul-Wahab. ‘Aqeedah Wasatiya’ and ‘Essay on the Jinn’ by Imam Ibn Taymeeyah. You should study these books by listening to Youtube lectures from the following channels: Criterion Productions (Luton Islamic Centre), Green Lane Masjid, Masjid Humera (of Ustadh Murtaza Khan) and Brixton Masjid.
2. Study my article ‘The Problems with Jinn Catching’, and understand why it is a bidah, focusing particularly on the fatawa from Islamqa.info. YOU MUST GET INTO YOUR HEAD THAT WE DON’T ASK OR NEED JINN’S HELP. We also don’t like speaking to jinn because it could lead to shirk. We must not even use jinn to do diagnosis or any form of treatment.
3. The next article of mine that you should read is ‘101 Important Ruqya Principles’ and then the ‘Importance of Ruqya Diagnosis’, followed by ‘How Sins Affect Possessed Muslims’. After these, you may watch the videos in order and then finish reading the rest of the articles on my website.
4. You need to learn hijama from a reputable hijamist or institute. Your aim is not to become a professional hijamist but to become a raqi that can offer the JET treatment to your patients.
5. Learn the following parts of the Quran with tajweed (and that means you must recite these surahs and ayahs to your local imam or qari): Surahs Fatiha, Ikhlas & last two Quls. Also Ayah Kursi and the last two ayahs of Surah Baqarah. THAT’S ALL YOU NEED FOR READING ON PEOPLE.
YOUR PROTECTION ADHKAR
As we mentioned earlier from Ibn Taymeeyah, if you do ruqya for the sake of Allah then he will protect you and this is obviously to do with thinking well of Allah.
The additional things you can do for protection are:
1. Keeping away from committing major sins or continuously doing the same minor sins.
2. Morning and evening adhkar (please refer to the book Hisnul Muslim)
3. The Quls after every salah.
4. Adkhar before sleeping, the minimum being the Quls and Ayah Kursi
5. Praying 2 rakah protection salah before you leave your home and then praying them again when you enter your home (Please refer to my article ‘Self Treatment Notes’ for the evidence of this prayer).
6. After magrib and fajr prayers, you say the below dhikr 10 times before you speak to anyone, reply to someone’s salam or move out of the tashahud position. Through this dhikr, Allah will protect you from every harm and He will also protect you from the shaytan. There is also a lot of reward to be gained from saying this dhikr. (Please see the video below for more information)
لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، لَهُ الْمُلْكُ وَلَهُ الْحَمْدُ يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ وَهُوَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
Laa ‘ilaaha ‘illallaahu wahdahu laa shareeka lahu, lahul-mulku wa lahul-hamdu yuhyee wa yumeetu wa Huwa ‘alaa kulli shay’in Qadeer.
None has the right to be worshiped but Allah alone, Who has no partner. His is the dominion and His is the praise. He brings life and He causes death, and He is Able to do all things. (Ten times after the Maghrib and Fajr prayers.)
At-Tirmizi 5/515, Ahmad 4/227, Zadul-Ma’ad 1/300.
Here is a video explaining the above dhikr.
https://youtu.be/oj70lBwonb8 [1]
7 AJWA DATES FOR PROTECTION AGAINST SIHR
Eating 7 ajwa dates in the morning gives you protection against sihr because of the hadith:
Al-Bukhaari (5445) and Muslim (2047) narrated from Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqaas that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever eats seven ‘ajwah dates in the morning, will not be harmed by any poison or witchcraft that day.”
I would NOT recommend that you take 7 ajwa dates everyday but you should take them whenever you feel that someone is trying to do sihr on you or when you visit a particular house, city, region or country that is well known for sihr.
Because of the situation you may find yourself in, it may mean that you occasionally take 7 ajwa dates for 2 or 3 weeks continuously or until the threat of sihr disappears.
You should take the 7 ajwa dates on an empty stomach after praying fajr and you should wait an hour for them to digest and then you may have your breakfast.
DRIVING AWAY SHAYTANS FROM YOUR HOME & PREVENTING SHAYTANS FROM ENTERING YOUR HOME
If you want to drive the devils from your home and prevent any from entering, you should read the last 2 ayahs of surah baqrah in your home for 3 nights consecutively (after magrib, anywhere in your home except the toilet). On the third night the jinn will be driven out and none will be allowed to enter.
You can keep repeating this action whenever you need to.
http://www.abuaaliyah.com/2014/10/26/keep-the-devil-away-from-your-home-2-verses/ [2]
ACTS OF WORSHIP & THINGS TO AVOID FOR A RAQI
These things that we will mention are also important for patients but they are more important for the raqi because he is dealing with more jinn.
If the tahajjud prayer can be added to this list then that would be excellent but if you can’t because of your work and ruqya schedule then don’t worry too much about it because helping sick Muslims in need is a better deed than tahajjud (https://islamqa.info/en/105343)
ACTS OF WORSHIP
1. Pray all 5 Salah in congregation in a masjid. If you live in a Non-Muslim country and live far away from a masjid then try and get at least 2 prayers in the masjid, especially fajr and isha.
2. Do all adhkar after the salah especially the Quls and the tasbih (saying subhanullah 33 times, Alhamdulillah 33 times etc)
3. Pray all Sunnah prayers at home so your home and family gets blessed and your home doesn’t become like a graveyard. (https://islamqa.info/en/22209)
4. Make istighfar (seek forgiveness from Allah) throughout the day.
5. Pay sadaqa everyday even it is a very little. Do this via online or drop a few pennies or cents into the sadaqa box in your local masjid.
6. Keep your wudu throughout the day and night. Whenever you lose it, re-do it.
7. Constantly remembering Allah is watching you and doing dhikr at the same time. YOU SHOULD STOP & PONDER ON THIS IMPORTANT POINT VERY CAREFULLY. You should always feel aware that Allah is watching you wherever you are and whatever you are doing and you should do dhikr with your tongue as well at the same time. If this feeling of awareness of Allah watching you or your dhikr of Allah gets disrupted because of your work or family then make istighfar even though this is NOT a real sin that you have committed. You do the istighfar because you “feel guilty” that you allowed the dunya to disrupt the intensity of your remembrance of Allah. To do this action is actually a sunnah (Muslim 4: 2075) WHICH HAS TOTALLY CHANGED MY LIFE and I strongly recommend that you do it because of the amazing things it has done for my worship of Allah! We must remember that the Nabi salulahu alayhi wasalam used to make regular istighfar and he wasn’t committing any sins SO WHAT ABOUT US THEN! He would make istighfar when his heart became preoccupied or his dhikr of Allah got reduced (Muslim 4: 2075). If you understand this point properly and you experience the love of Allah in your heart because of this sunnah then you will NEVER allow certain things to corrupt or disrupt your dhikr and awareness of Allah.
8. Keep your beard long (if you are a woman then wear proper islamic hijab) and don’t trim it until it gets to a fistful length. If you are one of those who can’t grow a long beard, such as myself, then you shouldn’t be trimming it in the first place.
THINGS TO BE STOPPED OR AVOIDED
1. Avoid sitting with people who are more concerned about the dunya than the akhirah except for dawah or giving them advice. This is because you could end up sinning with them in speech (back-bitting) or in action (watching or doing something haram)
2. Don’t deliberately hurt, mock or laugh at Muslims because of their incorrect understanding of ruqya and of Islam in general. Be kind and gentle to Muslims so that it easy for them to approach you and ask you questions about ruqya. Make sure you keep all communications with patients strictly confidential!
3. Stop watching useless programmes on the TV or your mobile phone such as dramas, soap operas, TV series and entertainment programmes and NEVER WATCH FILMS OR LISTEN TO MUSIC.
With the good intentions, You can watch news or current affairs or science programmes or important documentaries but even here you have to be careful with lowering your gaze and sometimes having to mute the music.
With regards to sports on TV, then if you are going to watch them with the intention to help motivate yourself to do exercise then I think that would be fine since motivation can be difficult to achieve sometimes and any help in this area is most welcomed. If you also watch them to learn new skills which you can use during your own exercise thereby making your exercise even more enjoyable then I do not see any problems in this. In fact, this will make you do more exercise since you are enjoying yourself and therefore you might forget that you are actually exercising because you are enjoying yourself. This is one of the benefits of being good at a particular sport.
You can also watch these sports’ programmes for the purpose of giving dawah as knowing certain things about these sports allows you to discuss something halal with a non-Muslim rather than discussing something haram ie they are great at breaking-the-ice and for small talk, and making non-Muslims think differently about you. For example, you can join-in a discussion about who is a good football player or good team and steer the conversation towards Muslim football players etc. Sometimes, you may not want to mention Muslim football players or even Islam initially, when talking about football but use the topic of football to get to know the non-Muslim colleagues or neighbours and then later on in the future, when you have developed a good rapport with the non-Muslim, you can discuss other aspects of life and eventually speak about Islam. I remember being picked up by a non-Muslim taxi driver and he asked me where I was from in the UK and then he asked me about football and then we had a good informal talk on football and I think we went onto other topics. I know I left a good impression on him because of the way he was speaking to me and the way he said goodbye. Some might say he was only talking to me because of money. This doesn’t matter at all! The main thing is that I spoke to him and didn’t ignore him and I wasn’t rude to him and I treated him well and I had a good laugh with him so next time he sees or hears people speaking ill of Muslims or saying that Muslims are cold or rude, I am sure he will remember our interaction and not pay any attention to that propaganda. In fact, such interactions sometimes cause a non-Muslim to investigate Islam and then eventually embrace it! Sometimes the best dawah is just treating the non-Muslims well.
4. Always speak to female patients or students formally and respectfully without being harsh or rude.
5. Avoid treating with ruqya, women who don’t wear proper islamic hijab.
If you keep to the above then inshallah you would have closed several doors to sins. It is sins that make a raqi weak against the jinn.
GAINING PRACTICAL RUQYA EXPERIENCE
You should use following plan in order for you to gain experience in reading ruqya on people.
Ruqya is an act of worship and action that you have to see being done so try and watch an authentic raqi in action by requesting permission to watch a ruqya session. If this is not possible then try to watch some YouTube videos and then move onto diagnose and treat yourself and your family.
When you have definitely decided to read ruqya on someone then I strongly recommend that you pray istikharah and then teach them the effects of sins and that it is sins that cause jinn to speak and make mischief and chaos in patients. Then tell them about having a sincere beseeching heart that wants the ruqya from Allah.
You should offer free ruqya to Muslims and tell them that they should accept ruqya when it has been offered to them because the Nabi (salulahu alayhi wasalam) accepted the ruqya from Jibril (alayhi salam) when it was offered.
1. Firstly, you should do self ruqya on yourself, diagnosis and then treatment, if you need it. (It is possible to do ruqya on people even while you yourself are suffering and treating your own spiritual illnesses)
2. Diagnose and treat your family and relatives.
3. Diagnose and treat some of your friends.
4. Finally, diagnose and treat other Muslims.
EXTREME POSSESSING JINN CASES
You should not worry about extreme jinn cases since you would have already told potential patients to be very careful about committing sins. It is sins that cause jinn to speak and cause havoc and chaos in a patient and his home. Please refer to my article ‘How Sins Affect Possessed Muslims and Why Jinn Speak in Them’.
From my experience, I would strongly recommend that you don’t treat or disgnose any patients who have manifesting jinn ie speaking, crying, laughing etc. This is because it can be very dangerous. You should focus on getting the patient to stop sinning and making tauba and paying sadaqa to remove sins. Once the patient has completely changed their life and the jinn no longer manifests and speaks, you can diagnose and then treat them. We must remember that the sins of the patient will make ruqya less effective, hence the importance of stopping sins.
IN GENERAL THERE IS NO NEED TO TOUCH FEMALE PATIENTS BUT If a jinnee does completely manifest in a female patient and the mahram is unable to restrain or control her jinnee then you can help the mahram out of necessity. Don’t just sit back and leave the mahram to deal with the situation especially when the jinnee starts attacking the patient or if the jinnee tries to make the patient jump out of the window. In such situations it becomes wajib for the raqi to intervene to stop the jinn from killing the patient if the raqi can see that the mahram can’t control the situation.
In order to prepare yourself for extreme jinn cases then you need to watch my video ‘practical self ruqya part 3’. In this video, I give some guidelines regarding how to control people with extreme jinn manifestation.
Conclusion
The whole point of this article is to remove the fear of becoming a raqi and to instill and foster some appreciation of the importance of a raqi and to encourage a person to become a raqi.
It is not obligatory to become a raqi but you shouldn’t stop becoming one because you are afraid of jinn.
One of the best deeds you can do after your obligatory ones, is to help your fellow Muslims and I hope and pray to Allah that some Muslims, BOTH sisters and brothers, take up the challenge and become raqis.
……..and with Allah is the success and cure!