In their classification of the sciences, the Muslim encyclopedists, such as al-Afk ān ī, T āshk öpr üzade, and Ḥ ājj ī Khal īfah, call divination a branch of magic. The boundaries between magic and divination remain blurred. Another group of verses, condemning this almost instinctive quest by humans to penetrate the will of God, connects magic with divination.
Thus, "God decided, in his justice, that all the inhabitants of the world would die, for they knew all the secrets of the angels, and possessed the hateful power of the demons, the power of magic" (ibid., 64:6). These angels revealed to humans secrets "that they ought not to have known" ( Apocalypse of Enoch 64:10). In certain verses, however, magic appears as a fragment of a celestial knowledge that was given to humans by fallen angels such as H ār ūt and M ār ūt ( s ūrah 2:102). Black Magicįrom the many Qur ʾanic verses relating to magic (sixty-six, of which only three were revealed in Medina), one might conclude that the phenomenon of si ḥr occurs in the revelation only in the form of a condemnation of pagan practices. The third section will consider the mutual connections between effective and efficient forces, the ability to vanish instantly from sight, and prestidigitation. The second section will examine the properties of divine names, numbers and certain spells, sympathetic magic or sorcery, amulets, talismans and potions, charms, and the properties of medicinal plants. The first section will deal with divinatory magic, exorcism of demons, spells and the summoning of spirits into bodily forms. Magic (Arab., si ḥr ) is an important branch, like divination and astrology, with which some forms of magic overlap.įollowing the very rich literature of magic in Islam, I shall here treat the various categories of si ḥr in three sections: black magic ( ʿilm al-si ḥr ), theurgy ( ʿilm al-khaw ā ṣ ṣ wa-al- ṭal āsim ), and white or natural magic ( ʿilm al- ḥiyal wa-al-sha ʾwadhah ). Magic in Islam forms part of what are called ʿul ūm al-ghayb, "the occult sciences," which include divination, astrology, oneiromancy, and all fields of learning relating to prophecy.
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