Signs and Symptoms of Sihr (Black Magic) According to Quran and Sunnah

A look at signs of sihr in Islamic teaching, drawn from the Quran and authentic hadith.

Islamic teaching treats sihr, black magic, as a real and physically harmful phenomenon rather than mere superstition – the Quran itself describes people learning “that which harms them and does not benefit them” from magic (Surah al-Baqarah, 2:102), and an entire surah, Al-Falaq, was revealed specifically to seek refuge from “those who blow on knots,” a reference to the sorcerer’s craft. But because sihr is deliberately designed to imitate ordinary illness, misfortune, or marital trouble, scholars who specialize in ruqyah have spent centuries cataloguing the patterns that distinguish it from an unrelated medical or personal problem. None of these signs is proof on its own; taken together, and especially when several appear at once with no plausible explanation, they are what a ruqyah practitioner looks for before beginning treatment.

Signs of sihr: Sudden, Unexplained Aversion Between Spouses

One of the specific categories the Quran itself names is sihr designed “to cause separation between a man and his wife” (2:102) – a type of magic scholars call sihr al-taf’riq. Its hallmark is abruptness: a marriage that was stable develops sudden, disproportionate hostility or repulsion with no real precipitating argument, often centered on one partner developing an inexplicable revulsion toward the other’s presence, voice, or appearance that neither party can quite explain even to themselves.

Persistent Nightmares and Disturbed Sleep

Recurring, unusually vivid nightmares – particularly ones involving animals such as snakes, dogs, or cats, falling from a height, graveyards, or being chased – are commonly cited by ruqyah practitioners as a frequent accompaniment of sihr, alongside insomnia or waking suddenly at the same hour each night for no clear reason. Aisha (RA) narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari that the Prophet ﷺ himself experienced disturbed sleep and behavior while under the effect of the spell cast against him by Labid ibn al-A’sam, until the item used to bewitch him was located and removed.

Physical Symptoms With No Medical Explanation

Chronic fatigue, unexplained pain that moves around the body, fainting spells, or a general physical decline that a doctor examines and cannot account for are treated by ruqyah practitioners as a plausible sign of sihr, especially where the onset was sudden rather than gradual. This category also includes cases involving reproductive or marital difficulty – there is a specific and reasonably well-attested prophetic supplication for protection during marital relations against the interference of Shaytan and, by extension, harm to any child conceived – something scholars have historically connected to a category of sihr aimed at causing infertility or preventing consummation.

Sudden Aversion to the Quran and to Prayer

Perhaps the sign ruqyah practitioners regard as most diagnostic is a sudden, uncharacteristic resistance to hearing Quran recitation, performing prayer, or being in a mosque – a heaviness, irritability, or restlessness that a previously observant person did not feel before and cannot account for. Because ruqyah itself consists of Quranic recitation, this same aversion often becomes visible during the treatment session itself, manifesting as unusual reactions – yawning excessively, drowsiness, or agitation – specifically while verses such as Ayat al-Kursi or Al-Falaq and An-Nas are being recited, even though the same person shows no such reaction to ordinary speech or unrelated recitation.

Financial Loss and Persistent Bad Luck

A pattern of business failures, job losses, or financial setbacks that arrive in unusually rapid succession, without any clear mismanagement or external cause behind them, is another category scholars associate with sihr – sometimes described as sihr intended to cause hardship or ruin rather than illness. As with the other categories, the diagnostic weight is in the pattern and timing rather than any single event, since ordinary bad luck happens to everyone without any of it being magic.

Why These Signs Call for Caution, Not Certainty

Scholars who treat sihr through ruqyah are consistently careful to note that every symptom on this list also has an entirely mundane explanation the vast majority of the time – nightmares, marital strain, unexplained illness, and financial setbacks are part of ordinary human life and are not, by themselves, evidence of magic. The counsel given alongside every one of these lists is the same: rule out real medical and psychological causes first, and treat the presence of one or two of these signs as reason for increased recitation and protection rather than alarm. It is only a cluster of several signs together, arriving suddenly and without explanation, that traditionally moves a case from “possible” toward the kind ruqyah practitioners consider worth actively treating.

Sihr Carried in a Physical Object

Beyond the symptoms a person experiences, classical scholarship also describes a physical dimension to how sihr was traditionally practiced, since the episode involving the Prophet ﷺ himself was not purely an unseen affliction but was tied to an actual object – strands of his hair and a comb, knotted together and hidden inside the spathe of a date palm, then concealed at the bottom of a well. Scholars point to this episode as establishing that sihr was often carried out through a physical medium buried in the ground, hidden in the home, sewn into clothing or bedding, or otherwise concealed near the person targeted, which is why classical treatment sometimes included searching for and removing such an item once its likely location became apparent, alongside the recitation of ruqyah itself. Modern scholars caution, however, that this search should never become an obsession or replace treatment through recitation, since the removal of an item is not itself what breaks the effect of the magic – the recitation and Allah’s permission are what do.

Taken together, these points are why signs of sihr continues to shape how practicing Muslims think and act today.

This theme connects directly to our article on Nazar (The Evil Eye) in Islam: Causes, Signs, and Protection. Readers wanting to verify the primary sources directly can consult Sunnah.com for the full Quranic text and hadith references.