The evil eye is a look that harms: a person looks at something, is impressed with it, and harm befalls it by Allah’s permission. Two questions are asked about it. Is it real? And how is a believer protected from it? This page gathers what the books in my library teach on both: what it is, the Qur’an’s words about it, the protection taken before it strikes, and the remedy after it has struck.
The passages below come from Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen’s Commentary on Kitab at-Tawheed, from Tafsir as-Sa’di and the Abridged Tafsir Ibn Kathir on the verses that mention the eye and the envier, and from Hisn al-Muslim [Fortress of the Muslim] for the daily remembrances. Their words are quoted word for word. Everything else is my own summary, and the references at the end show where each passage stands. The evil eye is a separate question from the jinn and Shaytan, which have their own page on this site, What Are the Jinn and Shaytan? Magic [in Arabic, sihr] is likewise a different subject, and it is not treated here.
What the Evil Eye Is
Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen defines the evil eye while explaining the Prophet’s ﷺ words that there should be no ruqyah [recitation over a sick person for cure] except for the evil eye or a bite. The commentary records the other names people use for it, and then describes what it is:
His saying: except for evil eye; the rank and file of the people today refer to it as an-Nuhaatah (shavings) and others call it an-Nafs (spirit) while some call it al-Hasad (envy). It is a look from an envious person with a corrupted heart, able to change into a specific form which brings about something that may afflict others.
Hisn al-Muslim carries a footnote on the evil eye that adds a second side to the picture, and the two are kept side by side on this page, each in its own words:
The Evil Eye: To look at something and be impressed with it, causing harm to befall it. This “looking” may or may not involve jealousy, and can occur unintentionally, indeed be part of a person’s nature! A person can even inflict harm on himself.
So the harmful look is not always envy at work: it can harm without jealousy behind it, without the person meaning it, and even against oneself.
The Evil Eye Is Real
The Qur’an itself speaks of the hostile look. In Surah al-Qalam, Allah describes the disbelievers who heard the Reminder and nearly made the Prophet ﷺ slip with their eyes (Qur’an 68:51). Ibn Kathir gathers the explanation of that verse under a heading of its own:
The Effect of the Evil Eye is Real. This Ayah is a proof that the effect of the evil eye and its affliction by the command of Allah is real.
The same passage records the Prophet’s ﷺ own words, which Muslim recorded in his Sahih from Ibn Abbas:
The evil eye is real. If anything were to overtake the divine decree (and change it), then it would be the evil eye. And if you perform Ghusl (to remove the evil eye) then wash well.
As-Sa’di explains the verse from the other side: the Prophet’s ﷺ enemies aimed their looks at him, and Allah protected him from them.
They were even keen to strike him down with their malicious stares, because of their envy, rage and resentment. This was the most that they could do in terms of physical harm, but Allah protected and supported him.
The eye harms only by Allah’s command, and Allah protects whom He wills: the effect is real, and it is never outside His decree.
The Evil Eye and Envy
Envy [in Arabic, hasad] is the heart’s wish that a blessing be taken away from the person who has it. The two are related, and the relation has to be stated as the books state it. Allah commands refuge “from the evil of the envier when he envies” (Qur’an 113:5). As-Sa’di explains who the envier is, and where the evil eye stands in his explanation of this verse:
The envier is the one who would like the blessing to be taken away from the one whom he envies, so he strives to cause it to be taken away by whatever means he can. Therefore there is a need to seek refuge with Allah from his harm and mischief, and to foil his plan. The word translated here as ‘envier’ also includes the one who puts the evil eye on others, because the evil eye only emanates from an envier who is evil in nature.
That is as-Sa’di’s explanation of this verse, and it is not a claim that every harmful look is envy: the Hisn al-Muslim footnote above says plainly that the look may or may not involve jealousy. The protection taught below is taken either way.
Protection Before It Strikes
The first protection is on the side of the one who looks: whoever sees something impressive in his brother, in himself, or in his wealth should invoke Allah’s blessing on it at once. Hisn al-Muslim gives the instruction:
If you see something from your brother, yourself or wealth which you find impressing, then invoke blessings for it, for the evil eye is indeed true.
‘O Allah, send blessings upon him.’
‘[This is] that which Allah has willed, there is no power except with Allah.’
Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen gives the same point from the incident of ‘Amir ibn Rabi’ah, who stared at Sahl ibn Hunayf: when a man sees something that astonishes him, he should ask Allah’s blessing on it, saying Baarakallahu ‘alayk [may Allah’s blessings be on you]. The Prophet ﷺ himself taught this in the incident, as the remedy section below shows.
The second protection is the believer’s own daily remembrances. Hisn al-Muslim, in its chapter on the remembrance said in the morning and evening, lists Surah Al-Ikhlas, Surah Al-Falaq, and Surah An-Nas, each marked “[three times]”, and its footnote states the promise attached to them:
Whoever says this three times in the morning and evening, it will suffice him of all else.
The three surahs are printed in that book in Arabic, and their Arabic is not reproduced here, as on the rest of this site; the instruction and the promise above are its English words.
The third protection is for children. Hisn al-Muslim has a section on placing children under Allah’s protection. Ibn Abbas related that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to commend al-Hasan and al-Husayn to Allah’s protection, saying:
‘I commend you two to the protection of Allah’s perfect words from every devil, vermin, and every evil eye.’
A parent commends his children to Allah with these words, following the Prophet’s ﷺ own practice with his grandsons.
Lawful Ruqyah and Its Conditions
Ruqyah is recitation over the sick or afflicted person for cure and protection; in the commentary the word means incantation, that is, recitation. The Prophet ﷺ settled on the two surahs of refuge for it. Abu Sa’id reported, as Ibn Kathir records:
The Messenger of Allah used to seek protection against the evil eyes of the Jinns and mankind. But when the Muawwidhatayn were revealed, he used them (for protection) and abandoned all else besides them.
The book records that at-Tirmidhi, an-Nasa’i, and Ibn Majah recorded this report, and that at-Tirmidhi said it is Hasan Sahih [a sound report]. The Mu’awwidhatayn [the two surahs of seeking refuge] are Surah Al-Falaq and Surah An-Nas. Jibril himself performed ruqyah for the Prophet ﷺ when he was suffering, with words that name the evil eye directly:
“In the Name of Allah, I recite prayer (Ruqyah) over you, from every illness that harms you, from the evil of every envious person and evil eye. May Allah cure you.”
Not every recitation is lawful, and Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen states the boundary and then the conditions. The ruqyah condemned as shirk [associating partners with Allah] is the kind not approved in the Shariah, or that involves shirk; what the Shariah approves, and supplications that involve no shirk, are permissible. The conditions are three:
Conditions for the Permissibility of Ruqyah: First – That it should not be believed that it benefits independently without Allah’s Will. If one believes that it profits on its own without Allah’s leave, then, it is forbidden; infact is an act of Shirk. One should rather have the idea that it is a means which does not benefit except as by Allah’s leave. Second – That it should not be from that which negates the Sharee’ah such as when it entails supplicating to other than Allah or asking for help from Jinns and the like since they are forbidden and in fact Shirk. Third – That it should be known and understandable. If it is a form of talisman and quackery it is not permissible.
The same passage notes that the Prophet ﷺ used the Mu’awwidhaat [the surahs of refuge] before sleep, blowing on his hands and wiping his body, which is also a form of ruqyah and is not limited to the evil eye or a bite.
What Is Not Protection
Objects hung up to avert the evil eye are not a protection Allah has approved, and the commentary is direct about them. An amulet [in Arabic, tameemah] is so named, the Shaykh explains, because people assume it will completely protect against the evil eye. Of the author’s definition of it he says:
At-Tamaaim: the author defined it with his saying, an object hung around children to avert evil eye. It is a form of Shirk because the Law-Giver has not approved that as a means of averting evil eye.
The ruling behind it is wider than the object itself. Whoever takes a means Allah has not approved, whether by His legislation or by reality, has set that thing up as a partner with Allah; and wearing such things is minor or major shirk according to the wearer’s belief about whether the thing acts on its own besides Allah. The Shaykh even names the practice of his own time: people hang a tattered sheath on their vehicles to prevent the evil eye. None of this is protection.
The Remedy After Affliction
When a person has been afflicted and the one whose eye struck him is known, the commentary gives a remedy besides recitation. Reading itself benefits the one struck, by Allah’s will. The Shaykh says:
For the evil eye, another method other than exorcization may be employed; and that is Bathing. This involves the one with the evil eye been brought and asked to make ablution. Then the water drops are collected from his body and then poured on the afflicted. He could also drink from it, and he will be healed – by Allah’s permission.
There is another method which is also approved. That is, to take the part of his cloth that touches his body directly such as his robe, cap, trouser etc. or the earth from his trail when wet. Water is poured on it and it is sprinkled on the sick person or he is given to drink. This is also effective.
This rests on the Prophet’s ﷺ own command in the incident of Sahl ibn Hunayf, where ‘Amir ibn Rabi’ah was ordered to wash and the water was poured over Sahl. It is a cure after an affliction, from a known person; not a daily preventive, and its steps are not widened beyond what the commentary states.
<References
Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Kitab at-Tawheed, with the commentary of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-Uthaymeen, Commentary on Kitab at-Tawheed, Vol. 1: Maktaba Dar-us-Salam, Riyadh, 2014, translated by Abu Naasir Ibrahim Abdur-Rauf (printed pp. 106-107; p. 171; p. 173; pp. 184 and 186; p. 192).
Tafsir as-Sa’di, Vol. 10 (Juz 28-30): International Islamic Publishing House (IIPH), English Edition 1, 2018, translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab (on Qur’an 68:51, printed p. 192; on Qur’an 113:5, printed p. 469).
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged), the ten volumes in one compiled file (on Qur’an 68:51, PDF pp. 5276-5277 of the compiled file; no printed page number is visible in this copy, and the passage is cited by its PDF page for that reason).
Tafsir Ibn Kathir, the piece on Surah Al-Falaq and Surah An-Nas (on seeking protection and the ruqyah of Jibril, printed pp. 5-6 and p. 9).
Sa’id ibn Ali ibn Wahf al-Qahtani, Hisn al-Muslim: Fortification of the Muslim through Remembrance and Supplication from the Qur’an and Sunnah: Second Edition, English, Invitation to Islam (chapter 27, printed p. 65; section 48, printed pp. 102-103; section 125, printed p. 148).
Further Reading
- What Are the Jinn and Shaytan?: the jinn and Shaytan, a separate subject from the evil eye, from the books of Tawheed and the tafsirs.
- Tawheed (Monotheism): the singling out of Allah in His lordship, worship, and names and attributes, the belief this protection rests on.
- Surah Al-Falaq: the surah of seeking refuge, whose last verse names the envier, in summary from the tafsir.
- Surah Al-Ikhlas: the surah recited with Al-Falaq and An-Nas three times in the morning and evening for protection.
- What Is Shirk?: what shirk is and what nullifies Tawheed, the boundary the amulet ruling stands on.
Verified on 2026-10-24 against the books listed above.