There's an issue that has been on people's minds for centuries, an issue that remains a mystery, something that has not been fully solved; The evil eye. There have been so many examples of this phenomenon it has somehow found a place in many societies. It exists in Greek culture, in Ireland, in Poland.
. . Or when you go to Mesopotamia, Phoenicians, Assyrians, in one way or another, you come across this issue.
It is something that is talked about very much in the Islamic world as well. So how can a look, a glare harm a person? And what should we pay attention to to protect ourselves from the evil eye?
Let's look at this issue in light of the Qur'an and the Hadiths, including the explanations of scholars. In Suratu’l-Qalam, ayah number 51, our Lord says to His Messenger: ‘’And indeed, those who disbelieve would almost make you slip with their eyes [i. e.
, looks] when they hear the message (the Qur’an), and they say, "Indeed, he is mad! " The statement, "Those who disbelieve would almost make you slip with their eyes" was interpreted by the scholars as the evil eye. In other words, they were looking at the Prophet (s.
a. w. ) with such hatred and envy that it got to the point of harming him.
Also, In one hadith, our Prophet (pbuh) gives an interesting clarification: “The evil eye can put a man into the grave and a camel into the cooking pot. ” The Arabs have called the evil eye "isabet-ul ayn". When the evil eye casts upon something, it can harm or damage it.
And when it hits a person, it can injure the person, or psychologically constrict him. If you are having trouble understanding the logic of this. Think of it this way; First of all, human beings don’t have knowledge of everything.
We are only just discovering the secrets of the quantum world. So it might also be possible to cause harmful effects just by looking at something. Secondly, we can compare this effect to laser beams.
A laser is also a ray, a beam of light, but that light is so strong that it can cut through things. In the same way, spiritual rays coming out of the eye can also cause a certain effect. Also, remember that not everything is made up of matter.
Just as even an immaterial offensive word can break someone's heart and make them depressed or even sick, the effect of a glance can harm a person too. Sometimes we come across the concept of the evil eye in our daily lives or sometimes people tell us about interesting events that they have experienced related to it. For example, you hear about a sweet child who frequently has accidents or gets ill.
Or you hear about someone who is very successful in his career but sometimes he encounters downfalls without any logical explanation. Someone buys something new and immediately that thing gets damaged in an unexpected way that they cannot even understand. In another hadith, our Prophet (peace be upon him) says: “The influence of an evil eye is a fact; if anything would precede the destiny, it would be the influence of an evil eye… (Sahih Muslim 2188) Just look at this effect!
It has the potential to compete with destiny. This makes you say "How can this be? " In a little while, we will look at several important duas and methods to protect us from the evil eye.
But before that, let me ask you this question: What kind of look could cast an evil eye on a person? I mean, does it only happen by looking at people in a bad way? Actually no.
Both looking at someone in a bad way, like an envious look, or looking at someone with too much appreciation or admiration could cause the evil eye. This means, you could cause this to happen to something you own or something you love. Even a mother could cast an evil eye on her child.
There are lots of subtle details about this, but what they all have in common is: If there is something to admire or envy, that means those things are risky. You have to be careful about them. Like what?
Like intelligence, knowledge, beauty, wealth and so on. Now let's come to our question: How can we protect ourselves from the evil eye? There are two important points on this matter: For a certain part of his life, the Prophet (saw) used to make dua for protection from the evil eye, but when Suratu’l-Falaq and Suratu’n-Nas were revealed, He left that dua and began to recite these surahs.
(Riyad as-Salihin 1015) Remember the ayah at the end of Suratu’l-Falaq: ''I seek refuge from the evil of an envier when they envy. '' Again, our mother 'A'isha (r. a) narrates that the Prophet (saw) used to do the following: Whenever the Prophet (ﷺ) went to bed every night, he used to cup his hands together and blow over it after reciting Suratu’l-Ikhlas, Suratu’l-Falaq and Suratu’n-Nas, and then rub his hands over whatever parts of his body that he was able to rub, starting with his head, face and front of his body.
He used to do that three times. Scholars have also recommended reciting the following dua of the Prophet (asm) against the evil eye: أَعُوذُ بِكَلِمَاتِ اللَّهِ التَّامَّاتِ مِنْ شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ ‘’I seek refuge in the Perfect Words of Allah from the evil of what He has created. ” (Hisn al-Muslim 97 ) Again, the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) used to recite the following dua for the protection of his beloved grandsons Hasan and Husayn (ra): أَعُوذُ بِكَلِمَاتِ اللَّهِ التَّامَّةِ مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْطَانٍ وَهَامَّةٍ، وَمِنْ كُلِّ عَيْنٍ لاَمَّةٍ “O Allah!
I seek Refuge with Your Perfect Words from every devil and from poisonous pests and from every evil, harmful, envious eye. ” (Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 3371) The Prophet (saw) said that this was the dua that Ibrahim (as) used to seek Refuge with Allah for Ismail and Ishak (as) And what is the other thing that protects from the evil eye? It is to never forget to say certain phrases.
The Prophet (saw) is reported to have advised that when something pleasing is seen, one should say, "mā shāallah, lâ kuvvata illâ billāh" (whatever Allah wills happens, all power and might belong to Him) (al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab al-īmān, IV, 90). Another incident that happened in the life of the Prophet (saw) is: Sahl ibn Hunayf was a companion with beautiful white skin. One day Amir ibn Rabia saw his skin and said to him, “I have never seen anything like what I have seen today.
” Sahl fell ill on the spot, and his condition grew worse. Somebody went to the Messenger of Allah (saw) and told him that Sahl was ill. The Prophet (saw), came to him, and Sahl told him what had happened with Amir.
Then Rasulullah (saw) said, 'Why does one of you kill his brother? Why did you not say, "May Allah bless you? " (ta baraka-llah) The evil eye is true.
” MashAllah sounds like a simple word, but there is an underlying detail that most of us are not aware of. What does MashAllah mean? It’s made up of 3 words "Mâ" - "Shae" - "Allah" which means in Arabic "what Allah wills or what Allah wants" So what do we mean when we say this phrase while looking at something?
We mean that we look at things not in terms of what they are, but in terms of their Creator, their artist. We say, "Allah wished to create it, not anyone else," in a sense we say; "How beautifully Allah created it. '' We remember that Allah is the one who gives everything.
Every attribute of creation has been given by Him. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, says the following on this matter: “In short, love this world and the creations in it as pointing to a meaning beyond themselves, (like a word). Do not love them just for themselves.
Do not say, “How beautiful they are. ” Say, “How beautifully they have been made. ” What this means is that; when we are reading a word, we don't carefully observe and focus on just the letters of that word but instead, we think about the meaning that it represents.
Just like that, when we look at a creation, we shouldn't just be looking at it merely for its appearance or its qualities, but rather we should focus on and try to understand the meaning, the message its creator wants to convey to us. Since this creation couldn't have come into existence by itself, its beauty and all its great qualities must have been given to it by the Creator. That's why all praise and appreciation should go to its maker, not to the creation, and rightly so.
Don’t you find this very interesting too? The Hadith that we mentioned earlier implies that if we look at something focusing only on its appearance and benefit, not in the name of Allah, we might cause harm to that thing. It might be a new phone we just bought or our beloved child, or our relatives, our beauty or anything that Allah granted us.
But if we pay attention to these 2 points, I mean reciting the Surahs, and the Dua’s we mentioned and saying MashaAllah, TebarekAllah, we will be protected from the evil eye inshaAllah. So far we have talked about the evil eye and how to protect ourselves from that, but do you know what causes this the most nowadays? Have you ever thought about it?
Of course, the answer is social media and the posts that we share. The Prophet (pbuh) says: "While looking at something with admiration, the Shaytan and the envy of a man is ready to be present there. (Al-Jami' al-Saghir 5747) The life we’re living, the things we’re experiencing might be someone else's dream, we can never know.
When we openly share what we have, we can make someone feel deprived of those things. And then, either by that person's or by someone else's evil eye, those things might get damaged or lost. Perhaps we might have experienced this situation a few times in the past, but couldn't realize it.
For this issue, I want to offer 2 final solutions. The first one is that we should be careful not to share what we have by making it look desirable. We shouldn’t make anyone feel deprived by doing so.
And the second thing is, for some reason, if we have decided to share what we have, we should remind people that it is actually from Allah, not from ourselves and say "Alhamdulillah’’. In other words, by saying "This is not from me, this is a blessing from Allah", we should show people that it’s only Allah that should be praised and thanked. To sum up: Allah created the concept of the evil eye as a warning.
In a way, the evil eye says to us, "Be careful," and it keeps us from forgetting the real source of blessings and the real source of true beauty.
