Treatment with a polytheistic mantra

Question

Question: Zayd, who is unlettered, does not even pray and works as a washerman, uses a mantra (incantation) to treat certain illnesses, for example an internal abscess and cancer, and the patients recover through it. In the mantra with which he performs the incantation, help is sought from other than Allah; he does not mention God at all. However, at the beginning he does recite “Bismillah”, and says, for example: “In the name of such-and-such a goddess or god, or by their command, be healed, burn, be scorched.

Answer

Being treated by such a person through incantation is not permissible: in it the goddess and god are held to be healers and disposers of affairs (mutasarrif), and this incanter is acknowledged as one close to that goddess and god. Such a belief is also contrary to Islam and is kufr, and having such a person perform incantation involves affirming this belief and honouring him.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

Preview. The full text opens with JavaScript enabled.