Is magic (sihr) real, and what is the ruling on learning or practising it?

Siḥr is real and produces real effects by Allah's permission — He alone creates every effect — so denying its reality outright (as the Muʿtazilah did) contradicts the texts. Allah mentions the two angels at Bābil who taught magic only after warning, "We are only a trial, so do not disbelieve," and states that people learned from them what separates a man from his wife, "but they harm no one by it except by Allah's permission" (2:102); He also commands us to seek refuge from "the evil of the blowers in knots" (113:4), and al-Bukhārī devotes a chapter of his Book of Medicine (Bāb al-Siḥr) to narrations affirming that it happens. Practising it is forbidden by consensus: the Prophet (ﷺ) listed siḥr among the seven destructive sins alongside shirk and killing a soul. The majority of scholars (Ḥanafīs, Mālikīs, Ḥanbalīs) held that learning and practising siḥr is kufr, taking "so do not disbelieve" in 2:102 at face value; many Shāfiʿīs distinguished — it is kufr when it involves words or beliefs of disbelief, such as invoking jinn or degrading the Qur'an, and otherwise a major sin. A Muslim's protection is the revealed remedy: the Muʿawwidhāt, Āyat al-Kursī (2:255), the morning and evening adhkār, and ruqyah with the Qur'an. Undoing magic with more magic, amulets, or going to a magician or "spiritual healer" who works with jinn is not permitted — the cure is sought from Allah through what He revealed.

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