Is Witchcraft Real? What It Is, How to Know If It’s Being Used Against You, and What Protects You

You may have arrived here from two very different directions. Perhaps someone in your life practises “witchcraft” openly and you are uneasy. Perhaps your life fell apart and a relative whispered the word. Either way the question is the same: is witchcraft real, and if it is, can it be used against you? This guide explains what the word means, how it relates to black magic and sihr, the signs that it is being used against someone, and the prayer and protection the tradition trusts.

What witchcraft means

The word is doing a lot of work. In the United States today it covers at least four different things:

• A modern religion or lifestyle. Wicca and the broader “witch” movement: candles, crystals, moon rituals, intentions. Mostly self-focused, often explicitly against harming others.
• Folk magic. Hoodoo, brujería, root work and similar traditions, some protective, some used to attract or to harm.
• Historical accusation. The Salem trials and the European witch hunts, where “witchcraft” was a charge, often false, rather than a practice.
• Sorcery. The deliberate use of rituals, jinn and hidden means to harm, control or separate people. This is what the Quran and the Sunnah call sihr, and it is what people mean when they fear that witchcraft has been “done” to them.

This guide is about the fourth. If a friend lights candles and talks about manifesting, that is not what harmed your marriage. If someone paid a practitioner to work against you, that is a different matter, and it is the one the tradition takes seriously. The mechanics of that kind of work are explained in what is black magic.

Is witchcraft real?

In the sense of sorcery, the Islamic answer is yes, and it has been for fourteen centuries. The Quran describes magic taught at Babylon that separates a man from his wife (2:102), Pharaoh’s sorcerers whose ropes “appeared to him, by their magic, to be moving” (20:66), and sorcerers who “blow on knots” (113:4). The Prophet ﷺ was afflicted by sorcery and cured by recitation. The Bible, for readers who come from that tradition, is equally clear that sorcery exists and is forbidden.

What is not real is the Hollywood version: instant transformations, flying, controlling the weather. Real sorcery is slow, hidden and specific. It works on relationships, health, livelihood and the mind. It needs a practitioner, a medium tied to the victim, and, in the Islamic understanding, the cooperation of jinn. And it works only by God’s permission, which is why it can be undone.

So the honest position is neither the sceptic’s (it is all superstition) nor the frightened one (a witch can do anything). It is the traditional one: sorcery is real, limited, forbidden, and curable.

Signs witchcraft is being used against you

Because sorcery is what the tradition calls sihr, the signs are the signs of black magic. We list them in detail in signs of black magic on you or your home; here is the shape of them.

One row alone proves nothing. Marriages, bodies and businesses all have ordinary crises, and a doctor or counsellor must be seen for anything that affects health. What the tradition looks for is the cluster, the turning point and the reaction to the Quran.

Prayer against witchcraft and what actually protects you

People who search for a “prayer against witchcraft” are usually looking for a spell to fight a spell. The tradition says the opposite: you do not fight sorcery with sorcery, because that only adds a second harm. You fight it with what sorcery cannot stand.

1. Surah al-Falaq and an-Nas. Revealed specifically for protection from sorcery and envy, and recited by the Prophet ﷺ every night, three times each, with al-Ikhlas, blowing into the hands and wiping over the body.
2. Ayat al-Kursi. After every prayer and before sleep; the hadith promises a guardian until morning. See Ayat al-Kursi benefits.
3. The last two verses of Surah al-Baqarah every night, and Surah al-Baqarah itself in the home, from which the hadith says Satan flees.
4. The morning and evening adhkar, especially Bismillahil-ladhi la yadurru ma’a ismihi shay’un three times, after which, the hadith says, nothing will harm you that day.
5. Seven ajwa dates in the morning, which the Prophet ﷺ said protect from poison and magic that day.
6. Saying Bismillah before eating, drinking, entering the home and the bathroom, so that nothing enters through what you consume.

That is the whole of the protection. It costs nothing, and it is stronger than anything a practitioner can sell you. If you believe sorcery has already been done, the treatment is the traditional method of removing black magic, and if you want to know what you are actually dealing with, describe it to Sheikh Kamal Elhidi on the consultation page.

How the Sheikh approaches it

The Sheikh does not care what the practice was called, only what was done and what it produced. He asks for the story: when it began, who had a reason, what came into the home, how the person reacts to recitation. That tells him whether this is sorcery, the eye, jinn, or an ordinary hardship wearing a frightening name.

If it is sorcery, he prescribes the recitations that address it and explains how the medium is typically found and dealt with. He never offers a counter-spell, never asks for anything hidden, and never promises an outcome that is in God’s hands.

About the Sheikh. Sheikh Kamal Elhidi is a practitioner of traditional ruqyah and spiritual diagnosis. Every article on this guide is written with his direct guidance and reviewed with him before publishing. Learn more about the Sheikh and how he works.

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