Hadith #195

Arabic Text

English Translation

It was narrated from Zaynab — the wife of 'Abdullah [ibn Mas'ud] — via Abu Mu'awiya, from al-A'mash, from 'Amr ibn Murra, from Yahya ibn al-Jazzar, from the nephew of Zaynab — that she said: ''Abdullah, when he returned from an errand and reached the door, would cough and spit before entering, disliking to come upon us in a state he might dislike. One day he came and coughed; I had with me an old woman who was performing a ruqya over me for erysipelas [al-humra]. I hid her under the bed. He entered, sat beside me, and saw a thread on my neck. He said: What is this thread? I said: A thread with a ruqya over me. He took it and cut it, then said: The family of 'Abdullah are far too noble for shirk. I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: Indeed incantations [ruqa], amulets [tama'im], and love spells [tiwala] are shirk. I said to him: Why do you say this — my eye was weeping and I kept going to a certain Jew to recite over it, and whenever he recited it would calm down. He said: That is only the work of the shaitan — he was pricking it with his hand, and when you had it recited over, he would leave it alone. All that was sufficient for you was to say what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say: Remove the affliction, O Lord of mankind — heal, You are the Healer; there is no healing except Your healing, a healing that leaves no illness behind.'