Does Black Magic Real?

Spiritual powers, occult rituals, black magic, Satan worship, jinn‑ghosts, ruqyah – Islam’s box of superstitions

At that time I was in class seven, the school was closed for a few days for the summer vacation. This is the story of a remote village in Kalai, Joypurhat. One evening suddenly there was a commotion in the yard. Our neighbor, teenage Rina apa, came back from the edge of the bamboo grove and collapsed on the ground. Her hair was loose, her eyes had rolled up, her body was shaking. Her voice had changed, in a heavy tone she was saying, “I will not let go!” She had been doing this for a few days.

The villagers gathered. Someone said, “A jinn from the bamboo grove has possessed her.” Someone said, “Someone’s black magic.” News went to Razzak Huzur in the neighboring village, he was the area’s great occultist, famous in ten–twenty villages. As night fell, Huzur arrived with his two disciples. Smoke of loban, burning dried chilies, beating with a broom, and loudly chanting incantations. Rina apa was crying, screaming, sometimes fainting. I was frozen with fear, watching from behind the door. In the end Huzur declared, “The jinn has been driven out, but sadaqah must be given at the shrine.” As the family had no cash in hand, they gave their only goat to Huzur.

The next day Rina apa became normal. Everyone said, it was the power of the exorcist’s incantations. But much later I came to know that a few days before that incident, her marriage had been fixed without her consent, and she did not agree to that marriage, she had a boy she liked. After the “driving out of the jinn,” the marriage was postponed for some time, and eventually the groom’s side broke off the marriage saying the girl was possessed by a jinn. Since then one question has been circling in my mind: that day what actually came down, and what went away?

When I was little, in Jhenaidah and Magura there were two men (one of them possibly an Ansar) who would give people “blessed oil.” People from our area would reserve a bus and set off in the middle of the night to get that blessed oil. People would stand on both sides of the road with oil in their hands and the herbal healer would walk down the middle of the road muttering under his breath. That oil supposedly cured people’s illnesses!

There are many more stories of occult rituals, magic, spells, and curses scattered across Bangladesh. Many people who have studied various branches of science, such as doctors and engineers, also sit believing these things. In many places in the Qur’an and Hadith there are mentions of jinn, ghosts, magic, spells, curses, and black magic. The Prophet Muhammad also believed in these things, it is said that he himself was bewitched! Since these are in the Qur’an and Hadith, and Muhammad said them, the believing brothers accept all these superstitions as truth.

Occult rituals, black magic and worship of Satan: do they work?

The straightforward answer is, no reliable evidence of their effectiveness has been found to this day. No one has ever shown in controlled experiments that someone was made ill, destroyed, or enslaved by reciting incantations. In science, the burden of proof lies on the claimant. Whoever says that incantations have power must provide the proof. Yet for many years in many countries, prizes have been announced for proving “supernatural powers,” and no one has ever won them.

The ‘Science and Rationalists’ Association of India’ has a well-known open challenge and announcement of a financial reward. The amount of money or prize announced for this challenge is 5 million Indian rupees (₹50,00,000 / 50 Lakh INR). (It is noteworthy that when this challenge’s prize money was first introduced in 1985, it was 20,000 rupees, which over time was increased to 100,000, then 500,000, then 2,500,000, and later raised to 5,000,000 rupees.) The organization’s founding president, the late Prabir Ghosh, initiated this open challenge against claims of supernatural powers or fraud.

• For whom: Any saint, occultist, astrologer, claimant of supernatural powers, or fortune-teller who claims to possess some special supernatural, God-given, or ghostly power.
• Condition: The claimant must demonstrate and prove his supernatural power or supernatural event as true in front of rationalists and scientists under controlled and scientific conditions.
• Outcome: If anyone can prove any supernatural power through scientific testing, the association will immediately award him this cash prize of 5 million rupees.

To this day, no occultist, astrologer, or claimant of supernatural powers anywhere in the world has been able to prove their claims as true in front of the association or a scientific panel and claim this prize money.

Then why do some people “see results” from these occult rituals and magic?

There are several psychological reasons for this.

• Nocebo and placebo effects: If someone believes that black magic has been done on them, that fear alone ruins their sleep, raises their blood pressure, causes stomach pain and headaches. The body truly becomes unwell, but the cause is not the spell, it is the fear. Conversely, the “feeling better” after exorcism is also an effect of belief.
• Selective memory (confirmation bias): Out of ten predictions, if one comes true, that is what we remember, and we forget the other nine. The business of astrologers and herbal healers stands on this weakness.
• Coincidence of timing: Most illnesses get better on their own. We tend to think that whatever we did just before recovery is the cause of the cure.
• So-called “worship of Satan”: This is mainly a cultural and symbolic practice. Across the world, a large portion of its followers actually do not literally believe in Satan. No supernatural power of it has been proven.

Ruqyah and bodily reactions: why do they happen?

During ruqyah many people cry, scream, shake, faint, and change their voice. These events are real, people are not making them up. But their explanation is found in psychology, and yes, mental stress plays a major role behind them.

1. Dissociation
Under intense mental stress, the brain sometimes becomes temporarily “detached” from its own identity and consciousness. In the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5, “dissociative trance” and “possession-form” disorders are recognized. That is, the person truly feels that “someone else” has entered inside them. How this “someone else” will behave is determined by the beliefs of that society. In Bangladesh it appears as “jinn” or “possession,” in the West it once appeared as “devil possession.”

2. Suggestion and expectation
The environment of ruqyah itself is a powerful psychological stimulus: semi-darkness, loud recitation, the anxiety of the whole family, and the expectation that “there will be a reaction.” People then unconsciously begin to show exactly those “reactions” that they have previously seen or heard about.

3. Rapid breathing and physical causes
Under emotional pressure, when hyperventilation occurs, the level of carbon dioxide in the blood drops. This causes numbness and stiffness in the limbs, tingling, dizziness, and even fainting.

4. A real illness may be hiding
Epilepsy, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, severe depression, panic attacks, or sleep paralysis are often mistaken as “jinn possession.” As a result, treatment is delayed and the illness becomes more complicated.

5. Group psychological contagion
In some garment factories in Bangladesh, incidents of many female workers fainting together have occurred repeatedly, some of which were publicized as “ghost attacks.” Researchers have explained these as “mass psychogenic illness.” Long working hours, fear, and rumors combine so that one person’s symptoms spread to others.

Religion, superstition and the business of belief

Here one distinction needs to be made clear. Reciting the Qur’an or making supplication to find peace of mind, sitting beside a dying or anxious person and praying—these are matters of religious belief and mental comfort. Research also shows that practices like prayer and meditation can help reduce anxiety. Belief in jinn and the unseen is a matter of faith; science does not take responsibility for proving them, because science does not claim them. Those who make the claims bear the responsibility of proof, although none of these things have yet been proven anywhere. But the problem begins when someone uses this belief as capital to set up a business.

Such scenes are not rare in our society:

• Pirs, exorcists, or “huzurs” take money in the name of amulets, blessed water, and exorcism.
• In the name of that “treatment,” beating, chaining, or intimidation occurs. Sometimes patients have even died.
• There have repeatedly been allegations of sexual abuse of women and teenage girls in secluded rooms under the guise of “treatment.”
• Instead of going to a doctor, “exorcism” continues for months, and cancer, epilepsy, or mental illness gradually worsens.

One point is noteworthy here. Many Islamic scholars have opposed fortune-tellers, astrologers, and shirk-tainted amulets and charms, and have criticized ruqyah businesses that do not follow proper rules. This hypocrisy in the name of religion, however, arises from various elements within religion itself. In history, rationalist currents like the Mu‘tazilites were skeptical about the idea of jinn possession.

Why scientific thinking is essential

It is human nature to fear what we do not understand. Long ago, lightning or epidemics were called the wrath of gods. Today we know their causes. In the case of mental illness, we must choose the same path. Instead of spending years thinking it is jinn possession, going to a psychiatrist or doctor is entirely dignified and effective. A religious believer can both seek medical treatment and pray at the same time; the two are not mutually exclusive.

Final words

I still have not forgotten that evening with Rina apa. The solution to her problem was not in the exorcist’s broom or smoke. What she needed was someone to listen to her, to understand her fear and pressure. Occult rituals or black magic have no real power, but belief in them does have power, and that belief itself makes people ill, deceives them, and sometimes even takes their lives. The path to freedom from superstition is to ask questions, seek evidence, and face human suffering not with fear, but with empathy and treatment.

The references that show Prophet Muhammad was superstitious:
https://www.hadithbd.com/hadith/tirmidhi/2056
https://www.hadithbd.com/hadith/muslim/5612
https://www.hadithbd.com/hadith/muslim/5620
https://www.hadithbd.com/hadith/abu-dawud/3887
https://www.hadithbd.com/hadith/abu-dawud/3884
https://www.hadithbd.com/hadith/muslim-ifa/5515
https://www.hadithbd.com/hadith/bukhari/3860
https://www.hadithbd.com/hadith/bukhari/1144
https://www.hadithbd.com/hadith/mishkat/1221