 Does real magic exist or does it not exist? Some people they're skeptical, they say real magic does not exist. It's all fake. It's all illusions and deceit. Some people they will tell you know it does exist. I've seen someone do this. I've seen a magician do that. My father told me this. I heard a story from here or there and they believe that there is true magic. So this is an area of controversy. And likewise, when you go and ask the ulama themselves, do you believe in magic? Is there magic or it's all fake? You'll find also disagreements. I have asked some ulama personally they say it's all fake. I have asked other ulama they say no there is real magic. Yes it's rare but there is real magic. And they will relate to you some stories of true magic. For example, I once asked one of the ulama about magic. Does it exist or is it all fake? It's all a myth. It's all using deceit. It's all using illusions. This alim told me no of course there is magic. And he told me two stories about magic from his father. He says my father was also alim 50, 60 years ago. He went to India and as you know, India is known as the country of all the mysteries and the crazy things and the magicians. So his father went to India and he says he met an Indian magician and he says in front of me he would take the pits of the date, the seed of the date. He would put it in his mouth and he would take it out and it was true gold. And he said my father, he went and he made sure that it wasn't a game. It wasn't any form of deceit. It wasn't any illusion. He saw that it was actually gold. He was taking the seed of the date and turning it into gold. Now is this true or not? Allah knows. But this view does exist. Or another story that he related of magic, true magic, he says that in the city of Najaf there was a magician also 50, 60 years ago. And this magician was believed to hold superpowers. And one day there was a problem between two people. One person had a big, big problem with another person. So one of them he wanted to kill the other person but he didn't want to do it in a natural way. You get caught. He wanted to do it through magic. So he went to that magician and he asked him for help. He said I want a recipe. I want to spell a chant in order for this person to die. And this magician, according to this alem, he says that this magician gave him the recipe. It was a very strange, bizarre recipe. He told him I do have a way in which this person will die in a mysterious way. But there is a recipe. What is it? He said you have to go and find a certain animal. I forgot what the animal was. For example, let's say a cat or dog or something like that. You have to take that animal and you have to kill it. And then you have to extract the heart of that animal. And before you do that, you need a few pieces of the hair, the hair of that person that you want to die. So you bring the hair of that innocent victim and you place it somewhere on the floor. And then you take out the heart of that animal and while it's still dripping blood, while it's still wet, you hang it over the hair and it has to, the blood has to drip over the hair of that victim. Now the blood will drip, drip, drip. And while it's dripping, you have to read a certain chant and you have to bring the name of that person that you want to die. And as soon as that heart dries up and it no longer drips, that person's heart will stop, automatically will stop from magic. So the alem says that it's narrated in Najaf, that person did that, and he achieved his goal. That person's heart automatically stopped. All of a sudden it stopped. He had absolutely no health problems and there was no evident problem. He was all by himself in his house. All of a sudden they saw that he died. Now are these stories true or not? I don't know, Allahu Akbar. But however there are people that believe there is true magic and it's not all fake. And when we go back to the Holy Quran, the book of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala does speak about magic in numerous verses that I'll mention tomorrow insha'Allah. He does speak about as sahab magic. But however, there is no clear indication in the Quran whether that magic that was practiced is real or it was fake. There is no clear indication. It's still fake. Yes, there is magic. But is it a little clear or not? This is still an area of dispute. It's not clear. But when we come to the hadith of Ahlul Bayt, I'll read you two hadiths about this. One hadith is a companion of Imam Al-Rada, he comes and asks him about the sayah. He tells him his magic real. Is there true magic? And the iman tells him yes. He tells him that it's true. There is true magic. And magicians can hurt you. Don't think that it's all fake. No, they can hurt you. They have the power to hurt you and harm you. So this hadith clearly states that there is true magic and there are magicians that possess this power. But however, there is another hadith that says the opposite. There is a hadith that's narrated by Imam al-Sadaq, alaihi salam, alaihi salam. And the hadith says that one day an atheist came to Imam al-Sadaq and he asked him many questions. And then he asked him about magic. And amongst the questions that he posed the imam, that he posed to the imam, was what? He asked him, is magic real? Do you believe that there are certain magicians that can do real stuff or not? And he asked him this. He told him, can a magician turn a human being into a dog or into a donkey or not? This is an interesting question. Can a magician turn a human being? He takes his wand and he says abrakadabra and all of a sudden this poor human being turns into a barking dog or he turns into a donkey. Is this possible or is it not? The imam, he tells him, no, this is not possible. He doesn't have the power to do that. And then the imam, he tells him, if this person had the power to turn a human being into an animal, then this person would have used his powers to what? To be immortal, to never become sick. Why is it that you find even magicians become sick? Magicians have problems. Magicians many times you find they're poor. If he had such superpowers, why can't he use his superpowers to help himself? So this is a clear indication according to the imam. This is a clear sign that you have to be careful. These magicians are all what? Scams. It's all fake. It's all illusions. Or else if they truly had power, they would help themselves before they would harm others. So there's two conflicting ideas. Is there real magic? Is there not? Like once again I say, Allah knows if there is true magic or there is no true magic. Now the point is brothers and sisters, even if there is true magic, it's very rare. It's very, very, very rare. Most of the magic that we see, it's from the fake magic. It's the illusions. And another important point that I have to bring to your attention is that there is a problem in many societies, and this exists even more in the Middle East, is that magic, the idea of magic and especially jinn, this is blown out of proportion. It's exaggerated. You find some people, any problem that they have in their lives, they blame it on what? On magic. It's a spell. Or it's the jinn. You go to a mother, why did your son flunk this year? It was a spell. Someone casted a spell on my poor son. She does not realize that her son never studied, that he was out every day with his friends and he never studied, and that's why he flunked. She doesn't want to say that. She's not aware of that. And thus she blames it on magic or she says it's the jinn. Or many people you find in society, they're sick, especially if it's a psychological sickness. If a person has depression right away, people will say, what? Oh, it's probably a jinn. Or it's probably magic. Someone did magic on this poor guy and that's why he's depressed. There is no physical reason. There's no, for example, medical reason. No, there's a jinn. And that's why if I find many of these people when they want help, I've seen this, they come to the religious scholars because they believe this has to do with the supernatural. This has to do with jinn. And they want, for example, some dua or something to keep the jinn away or to you know, to break the effect of the magic. Most cases, brothers and sisters, are problems in our society. If not, all of them are not from magic. They're not from jinn. There is jinn. We believe there's jinn. There isn't the devil. There is magic. But however, we're taking it out of proportion. We're completely exaggerating the situation. These things do exist, but we ourselves have problems that have real reasons. I have depression because there's a real reason. There's a medical reason. There is a chemical reason. There's something wrong in my body. It doesn't have to do with the jinn. Or many people you find, many women, many wives, they're not able to become pregnant. They blame it on the jinn or they blame it on magic. Or as soon as there's a problem between a couple, a married couple right away, it's blamed on magic. This is wrong, brothers and sisters. This is the wrong mentality. This shows that we have a very, very shallow, a very, very superficial way of thinking. This is a backwards way of thinking. Every problem has its root. It has its reasons. I have to search. I have to search and see what's the problem, what's the reason, and only then I'll be able to solve the problem. So the next time I see a problem in my life, I can't blame it on the jinn. I cannot blame it on magic. Even if it exists, even if it's real, that's not the root of my problem. So this is the third point. Going back to what is magic and what is not magic, what is halal and what is not halal, I said that there are two types of magic, the fake, and we divided that into two parts, and the real magic, and we divided that into two parts, and many ulama, they team all of that as halal and it's magic. Now, when you come, for example, to contemporary ulama, for example, Sayyid al-Khuy, Sayyid al-Khuy, he believes that there is no such thing as real magic. Now, not that he believes that there is no person in this world that has superpowers. No, he doesn't say that, but he says if there is someone that has superpowers, real powers in this dunya, and that is not considered as magic. When the iman speak against magic, they're not speaking about anything that's real, they're speaking about the illusions. So all the ahadith that speak negatively of magic, this is only speaking about the fake magic, because magic to him, he defines magic as what? As something that relies on deceit, something that relies on fooling the human being and creating illusions. So magic means illusions. If it's real, it's not magic, and thus it's not halal. And that's why you find the Sayyid al-Khuy, he says that if you find someone that has his superpowers, this is not considered magic, and it's not halal unless he's doing something halal with it, unless he's hurting people, he's doing something harmful with it. And likewise, the second type of fake magic that we call slate of hands, shabada, Sayyid al-Khuy, he says this is not halal, if someone knows how to do fast magic tricks using the cards, this is not halal. This is using speed, this is using the quick hands. He says this is not halal, and he says that this is not even using, this is not even, I'm sorry, magic. This is called shabada, and it's not a part of magic unless it is used to harm someone. Anything that's used to harm someone becomes halal, so that's not because it's magic. And most of our contemporary ulama, like Sayyid al-Sistani and other ulama, they agree with him, that the slate of hands of shabada is not halal unless it's used to hurt other people.