Question:
Was the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ bewitched? What is the evidence for this?
Answer:
It is narrated from Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) that she said the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was affected by magic. His condition became such that even if he did not go to his wives, they would think he had gone. (Sufyan said that when such a condition occurs, it is the most severe attack of magic.) Then the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
يَا عَائِشَةُ أَعلمتِ أَنَّ اللَّهَ قد أَفْتَانِي فِيمَا اسْتَفْتَيْتُهُ فِيهِ ؟ أتَانِي رَجُلاَنِ فَقَعَدَ أَحَدُهُمَا عِنْدَ رَأْسِي وَالآخَرُ عِنْدَ رِجْلَىَّ . فَقَالَ الَّذِي عِنْدَ رَأْسِي لِلَّآخر : مَا بال الرَّجُلِ قَالَ مَطْبُوبٌ . قَالَ : ومَنْ طَبَّهُ : قَالَ: لَبِيدُ بنُ الأعْصَمِ، قَالَ رجل من بني زريق، حليف اليهود، كان منافقا، قال : وفيم ؟ قَالَ: فى مُشْطٍ ومُشَاطَةٍ، قَالَ وأين ؟ قال : فى جف طلعة ذكر تحت راعوفة فى بئر ذوران قالت : فأتي البئر حتي استخرجه فقال : هذه البئر التى أريتها، كَأنَّ مَاءَهَا نُقَاعَةُ الحِنَّاءِ، وَكَأَنَّ نَخْلَهَا رُءُوسُ الشَّيَاطِينِ . قال : فاستخرج فقلت : أفلا تنشرت ؟ فقال : أما الله فقد شفاني، وَأكَرِهْ أَنْ أُثِيرَ عَلَى احد من النَّاسِ شَرًّا “O Aisha! Do you know that what I asked Allah about, He informed me? Two men came to me, one sat near my head and the other near my feet. The one sitting near my head said to the other: What is wrong with this man? The other said: He has been bewitched. He said: Has someone bewitched him? The other said: A man named Labid ibn A’sam, who was an ally of the Jews from Banu Zurayq and was a hypocrite, did so. He first asked: In what? (He has bewitched) in some male dates, in the well of Zarwan, under the stone on which they stand to draw water (the magic is placed there).” Sayyida Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) says: Then the Prophet (peace be upon him) came to the well and took it out. Then the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: This was the very well that was shown to me, and its water was like water mixed with henna, and its dates were like the heads of devils. So those (magical things) were taken out. I asked: Did you not make it public? The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: When Allah has healed me, I do not want to incite evil upon anyone.”
It is also narrated that Labid ibn A’sam, a Jew, bewitched the Prophet (peace be upon him) with eleven knots and a bowstring, which he buried in a well called Rawan. Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) became ill, and this illness was quite severe for three days. Then Jibril (Gabriel) informed the Prophet (peace be upon him) about the magic. The Prophet (peace be upon him) sent Sayyidina Ali ibn Abi Talib and Sayyidina Talha, and they brought it. The Prophet (peace be upon him) recited the Mu’awwidhatayn (the two protective chapters) over it, and as each knot was untied, the Prophet (peace be upon him) felt relief and ease in his body.
Here we say that indeed the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was bewitched, as mentioned in Sahih al-Bukhari, and it is agreed upon that whatever is in Bukhari is authentic, it is authentic, it is authentic.
Below are some observations about Imam Bukhari, may Allah have vast mercy on him.
Imam Bukhari was born in 194 AH. He had memorized the Qur’an before the age of ten, then he lost his eyesight. His mother continuously prayed to her Lord that she saw Sayyidina Ibrahim (peace be upon him) in a dream, who told her: Allah has restored his sight.
Imam Bukhari memorized the Qur’an before the age of ten and then began memorizing hadith.
Then he went to Mecca, which is one of the great signs of Allah, and by the age of 18, he had memorized 15,000 hadiths with their chains of narration. He collected one hundred thousand hadiths and two hundred thousand non-authentic hadiths by birth.
Imam Bukhari is like a mountain, such that even a hammer made of baked bricks cannot move him. If Imam Bukhari is removed, then the Sunnah is completely removed. Imam Bukhari is the head of the Sunnah; when the head is removed, the whole body falls. Imam Bukhari was the Imam of Tafsir, Fiqh, and Hadith, an ascetic and devout personality. Whoever speaks ill of Imam Bukhari does not have even a little understanding of Allah’s religion, no matter how great a scholar he may be.
He knew everything about the person from whom he took hadith, including their nickname.
Before writing any hadith, he would perform ghusl (ritual bath), then wudu (ablution), then pray two rak’ahs, and then write the hadith.
He saw the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a dream removing something from his face or placing every step on the blessed footprint of the Prophet (peace be upon him).
He met more than a thousand scholars and learned from all of them and wrote hadith from 1080 scholars.
Imam Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him) passed away on a Saturday night of Eid al-Fitr in 256 AH after praying to Allah and was buried after the Dhuhr prayer.
Some righteous people saw the Prophet (peace be upon him) and all his companions walking with his funeral. His grave emitted the fragrance of musk, and everyone experienced this fragrance.
When he came to Baghdad, some hadith scholars took 100 hadiths to test him and gave them to ten men to interchange their texts and chains of narration. Each man was given ten hadiths and ordered to interchange them. After this was done, one man asked Imam Bukhari about the first hadith, and he said: I do not know it. Then he asked about the second hadith, and he said: I do not know it. This continued for all ten hadiths, and Imam Bukhari kept saying: I do not know it. Then the second man presented his ten hadiths, and the same happened. This continued with all ten men presenting their hadiths, but Imam Bukhari did not say more than: I do not know it. However, the scholars recognized that he possessed this knowledge. Then Imam Bukhari told the first man: Your first hadith is like this, the second like this, and so on up to ten, matching each text with its chain and each chain with its text. The same was done with the other nine men. Everyone acknowledged his memory and recognized his excellence. This was Imam Bukhari (may Allah have mercy on him)!
