Did the Prophet of Islam order the killing of sorcerers and witches

 

Did the Prophet of Islam order the killing of male and female sorcerers? They said: Why did the Prophet of Islam order the killing of sorcerers, and was killing them permissible according to the previous prophets before him? They based their argument on what was mentioned in Sunan al-Tirmidhi, No. 1380: Ahmad ibn Mani’ narrated to us, Abu Mu’awiyah narrated to us, on the authority of Ismail ibn Muslim, on the authority of al-Hasan, on the authority of Jundub, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: “The punishment for a sorcerer is a blow with the sword.” Abu Isa said: This is a hadith that we do not know of as being attributed to the Prophet except through this source. Ismail ibn Muslim al-Makki is considered weak in hadith because of his memory, and Ismail ibn Muslim al-Abdi al-Basri - Wakee’ said: He is trustworthy. It is also narrated from al-Hasan, and the correct version from Jundub is mawqoof, and this is what some of the people of knowledge from the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) acted upon. And others, and it is the saying of Malik bin Anas. Al-Shafi’i said: The magician is only to be killed if he does something in his magic that leads to disbelief. But if he does something less than disbelief, then we do not see that he should be killed. Response to the doubt First: The hadith that is the subject of the objection cannot be traced back to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), as he never said that... The ruling on its weakness was made by eminent scholars as follows: 1- Imam al-Tirmidhi (Abu ‘Eesa) in the same hadith said: Abu ‘Eesa said: This is a hadith that we do not know to be traced back to the Prophet except from this source, and Ismail ibn Muslim al-Makki is considered weak in the hadith due to his memory, and Ismail ibn Muslim al-‘Abdi al-Basri, Waki’ said he is trustworthy, and it is also narrated from al-Hasan. The correct hadith on the authority of Jundub is Mawqoof. 2- Tuhfat al-Ahwadhi: It was used as evidence by those who said that the punishment for magicians is death, but the hadith is weak. His statement: (This is a hadith that we do not know of as being attributed to the Prophet except from this source). It was narrated by al-Daraqutni, al-Hakim and al-Bayhaqi. 2- Sheikh al-Albani said: It is weak, Ad-Da’ifah (1446), Al-Mishkat (3551 - the second investigation), Da’if al-Jami’ al-Saghir (2699). 4- Ibn Hajar in Al-Fath: This hadith was used as evidence that a sorcerer is not to be killed as a punishment if he has a covenant. As for what Al-Tirmidhi included in the hadith of Jundub, with a chain of transmission traceable to the Prophet, who said, “The punishment for a sorcerer is to strike him with a sword,” then there is weakness in its chain of transmission . 1- Fayd al-Qadir: That is why he said in al-Fath: There is weakness in its chain of transmission. Al-Dhahabi said in al-Kaba’ir: The correct view is that it is from the words of Jundub. End quote. At-Tabarani and al-Bayhaqi narrated it on the authority of Jundub with a chain of transmission traceable back to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) . Secondly: There is no doubt that the magician is committing a major sin, as he seeks the help of the jinn and devils, slaughters for them, and disbelieves in order to please them... and harms the Muslims with his criminal, satanic actions... That is why most scholars said: The magician is a disbeliever; and this is from the words of Allaah the Most High: “And they do not teach anyone until they have said, ‘We are only a trial, so do not disbelieve.’” That is, by practicing magic, disbelief comes...



























Then killing him is not agreed upon by the jurists among the Muslim scholars as follows:

1- Ibn Hajar said in Al-Fath: As for what Al-Tirmidhi narrated from the hadith of Jundub, which he attributed to the Prophet, he said: “The punishment for a sorcerer is to strike him with the sword,” then there is weakness in its chain of transmission. If it were proven, it would have been excluded from it by those who have a covenant. It was mentioned in the Jizya from the narration of Bajalah: “Umar wrote to them to kill every sorcerer, male and female.” And Abd Al-Razzaq added from Ibn Jurayj from Amr ibn Dinar in Narrated from Bajalah: “So we killed three witches.” Al-Bukhari included the original hadith without the story of killing the witches. Ibn Battaal said: A sorcerer of the People of the Book is not to be killed according to Malik and Al-Zuhri unless he kills with his sorcery, in which case he is to be killed. This is the opinion of Abu Hanifa and Al-Shafi’i. Malik said that if he causes harm to a Muslim with his sorcery against whom no covenant has been made, the covenant is to be broken. Therefore, it is permissible to kill him. The Prophet (peace and blessings of God be upon him) did not kill Labid ibn al-A’sam because he did not take revenge for himself, and because he feared that if he killed him, a strife would arise between the Muslims and his allies from the Ansar. This is part of the type of thing he observed in refraining from killing the hypocrites, whether Labid was a Jew or a hypocrite, based on the previous disagreement about it. He said: According to Malik, the ruling on a magician is the ruling on a heretic, so his repentance is not accepted, and he is to be killed as a punishment if that is proven against him, and Ahmad said the same. Al-Shafi’i said: He should not be killed unless he confesses to his magic, in which case he should be killed for it. If he confesses that his magic may kill or may not kill, and that he did magic to him and that he died, then retaliation is not obligatory upon him, and blood money is obligatory from his wealth, not from his kin. Killing by magic is inconceivable with evidence. Abu Bakr al-Razi claimed in “al-Ahkam” that al-Shafi’i was the only one who said this. By his saying that the magician is to be killed in retaliation if he confesses that he killed him with his magic, and Allah knows best. Al-Nawawi said: If the magic is a word or an action that requires disbelief, then the magician is a disbeliever and his repentance is accepted if he repents according to us. And if there is nothing in his magic that requires disbelief, then he is to be punished and asked to repent. End quote.

2- Tuhfat Al-Ahwadhi fi Sharh Sunan Al-Tirmidhi: Al-Nawawi said in Sharh Muslim: Practicing magic is forbidden and is one of the major sins by consensus. He said: It may be disbelief or it may not be disbelief but rather a major sin. If there is a statement or action in it that requires disbelief, then he is a disbeliever, otherwise not. As for learning it and teaching it, it is forbidden. He said: According to us, he (i.e. the magician) is not to be killed. If he repents, his repentance is accepted. Malik said: The magician is a disbeliever because of magic, and he is not to be asked to repent, and his repentance is not accepted. Rather, it is obligatory to kill him. The issue is based on the disagreement over accepting the repentance of the heretic. Because in his view the magician is a disbeliever as we mentioned, and in our view he is not a disbeliever, and in our view the repentance of the hypocrite and the heretic is accepted. Judge Iyad said: And according to the statement of Malik, Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, and it is narrated from a group of the Companions and the Followers. Our companions said: If a sorcerer kills a person with his sorcery or confesses that he died because of his sorcery and that he usually kills, then retaliation is required of him. If he dies because of it, but he may kill or not, then there is no retaliation and blood money and expiation are required. The blood money is from his wealth and not from his aqila (family), because the aqila does not bear what is proven by the confession of the offender. Our companions said: It is not conceivable that killing by magic is based on evidence; rather, it is conceivable based on the confession of the magician, and Allah knows best. End of al-Nawawi’s words. End of quote.


Third: The Holy Book, which the objectors believe in, mentioned that the Lord ordered the killing of the magician and the witch who harnesses and deals with jinn... This came in the following:

1- Exodus, Chapter 22, Verse 18: “You shall not allow a witch to live.”

2- Leviticus, Chapter 20, Verse 27: “And if a man or a woman has a medium or a wizard, they shall be put to death with stones; they shall stone him; his blood shall be upon him.”

Questions remain to be asked:

1- What is the response of those who object to these two texts, and what is their interpretation?!
2- What is the response of the objectors after I showed that the hadith in question is not authentic, and all that exists are the efforts of Muslim scholars regarding the controls of harm and injury, not direct killing...?!
3- What is the response of the objectors and their interpretation of the Lord’s command to kill the male and female sorcerer