Ruling on reciting ruqyah in unison over sick people

Question: 174933

In my mosque, they always recite ruqyah for the sick; no week goes by without the mosque announcing a request for volunteers to recite ruqyah for someone. Usually they form a circle around the person and recite Qur’an, either by sharing out the ajza’ (parts) of the Qur’an, or one person recites some soorahs of the Qur’an, whilst the others repeat after him. Sometimes they recite Qur’an for blessing after divorce, graduation from school or a number of other things that I have seen myself. Or they pass out books of supplications (du‘aa’s) and verses to be recited during this gathering, but they do not provide any evidence for what they are doing. Sometimes in these circles there is mixing with women. I also attended a gathering in which they recited the basmalah (the phrase Bismillah ir-Rahmaan ir-Raheem (in the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful) over some water, then they began to sprinkle it on the members of a family. Can you tell me whether these practices are permissible or innovated? I have stopped attending these gatherings altogether. Is there any book on the fiqh of ruqyah and ta‘weedh (seeking refuge with Allah from the Shaytan)? Can we use ruqyah for trivial things such as divorce and graduation?

Answer

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

Firstly:

It is not correct to make ruqyah something widespread that is done by everyone. How many there will be among these volunteers who do not recite Qur’an well or do not understand its meanings! Based on that, this is the first problem with what these people are doing of asking volunteers to perform ruqyah for the sick. Most of them may not be qualified for that, and they (the organizers) will not have fulfilled the conditions that must be met by the raaqi (the one who performs ruqyah).

See the answer to question no. 7874

Secondly:

There is no basis in Islam for reciting ruqyah in a group, as far as we know, whether that is done by reciting it in unison or repeating it after one of them. This is not the way to perform ruqyah. What is normally done with regard to ruqyah is that it is done by one person who recites over the sick person the ruqyah that is Islamically prescribed; there is no reason why someone else should not help him if he becomes tired or he stops, so that the other person may perform ruqyah for the sick person after him. But with regard to more than one person reciting in unison or repeating after a reciter or raaqi, this is something for which there is no basis in Islam, as stated above, and it does not come under the heading of treating the sick with ruqyah. With regard to recitation of the Islamically prescribed ruqyah by a particular reciter or raaqi over water, which is then used to wash the sick person or given to him to drink, that is permissible. We have discussed this in the answer to question no. 96793

Thirdly:

Recitation of Qur’an on the occasion mentioned (in the question) and similar occasions is something for which there is no basis in the Sunnah, whether that is recitation of a random passage from the Qur’an or recitation of al-Faatihah in particular on some occasion, because the basic principle with regard to acts of worship is that they are based on tawqeef [i.e., they can only be known through divine Revelation and sound texts of hadeeth, with no room for ijtihaad]. There were (among the early generation) occasions such as divorce, marriage and so on, during which not a single letter of the Qur’an, al-Faatihah or anything else, was recited by the people present. All goodness is in following the earlier generations and all evil is in following innovations introduced by those who came after them.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said: al-Faatihah and other specific soorahs are only to be recited in the cases prescribed by Islam. If they are recited in other cases as an act of worship, then this is regarded as an innovation. We have seen many people reciting al-Faatihah on all occasions; we have even heard people saying, “Recite al-Faatihah for the deceased” or “for such and such” and so on. All of this comes under the heading of reprehensible innovations. Al-Faatihah and other soorahs are not to be recited in all situations, in all places and at all times, and we should object to the one who does that.

End quote from Fataawa Noor ‘ala ad-Darb, tape no. 371

See also the answer to question no. 147645

Fourthly:

Mixing of men and women is haraam and reprehensible; the prohibition is more emphatic and the abhorrent nature of the act is greater if that mixing takes place in one of the houses of Allah and is done openly and attributed to Islam! We have quoted the evidence for the prohibition on mixing in the answer to question no. 1200

What appears to us to be the case from the questions asked by the brother is that the people who do these actions and supervise them are not people of knowledge; he should explain to them the mistakes that they are making and show them this answer of ours, in the hope that Allah will guide them to give up what they are doing wrong; you should also be gentle in telling them not to do it. May Allah guide and help you.

And Allah knows best.

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