This question itself has some assumptions which have to be challenged first.
- What is magic?
- Is illusionism the same as magic?
- Is there documentary evidence of people attempting to do real magic?
- Is there documentary evidence of people succeeding at achieving their desired effects through magic?
In the Qur’an we know that Harut and Marut were sent to Babel in order to teach people magic as a test, specifically to cause marital discord or divorce. It is something that has no power without Allah’s permission, is a teachable science, and constitutes kufr. According to the Biblical tradition, Babel is where God caused human beings to speak different languages and become unable to understand one another (obviously Islam believes that we were created as different tribes to know one another, not for confusion or animosity).
However, neither the Qur’an nor the Sunnah explicitly tell us what magic is or give us an istilah of it, they simply teach us how to protect ourselves from it, that it is real, what some of the behaviors of magicians are, and that it’s an offense punishable by death. That means, in order to know what it is, we have to look to magicians.
There are many magical texts from the Islamic world and from the East/West. Perhaps the most famous one from the Muslim world is Shams al-Ma’arif. Some of the oldest magical texts actually come from the Jewish tradition, as Jews have had a long history of magic – with some of it even being sanctioned through esoteric traditions such as the Kabbalists.
Magical texts are known as grimoires. The term grimoire originates from the Old French word grammaire, which referred to books written in Latin, and shares common roots with the word grammar. Formal traditions of magic came out of the bookish traditions, and magic was seen as something which was done by people who were very competent at reading and writing. Magic is a science which is very closely associated with language.
Magic is associated with manipulation of symbols in order to achieve goals using esoteric means. It uses symbols, words, or images to change the state of nature into an unnatural form. We see this mentioned in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, with the Qur’an referring to those that “blow on knots.” Even the terminology of magic, such as “casting a spell” can be correlated with “spelling” – just assembling words.
If magic is using words, art, and symbols to change the natural state of things in an esoteric fashion – then the greatest form of magic is being able to make hundreds, thousands, millions, or billions of people think the same thing, at the same time, in the same way. Changing people’s internal state of consciousness to control them and move them towards evil through symbols, words, art is an incredibly power form of magic.
Narrated Abdullah binUmar:
Two men came from the East and addressed the people who wondered at their eloquent speeches On that Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said. Some speech is magic.’
حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ يُوسُفَ، أَخْبَرَنَا مَالِكٌ، عَنْ زَيْدِ بْنِ أَسْلَمَ، عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عُمَرَ ـ رضى الله عنهما أَنَّهُ قَدِمَ رَجُلاَنِ مِنَ الْمَشْرِقِ، فَخَطَبَا، فَعَجِبَ النَّاسُ لِبَيَانِهِمَا، فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم “ إِنَّ مِنَ الْبَيَانِ لَسِحْرًا ـ أَوْ ـ إِنَّ بَعْضَ الْبَيَانِ لَسِحْرٌ ”.
Reference : Sahih al-Bukhari 5767
The general cure to magic in Islam is to utilize spoken words of Qur’an and Sunnah to combat the symbology or speech of magicians. In the Bardic tradition, a Bard can place a curse on you – which might cause you to have a child that has a birth defect or some loss of business. But if a Bard were to compose a satire against you, this could destroy your reputation widely, even in the eyes of your family. If it were very well written, people would remember this satire for centuries.
Serious magicians collaborate with other serious magicians, forming groups, and keeping secrets as to their techniques among themselves. The more powerful they are, the more influence they can exert over a wider swath of people, the stronger their magic – the more important they keep these things to themselves. A low-level magician might be concerned with breaking up a marriage or causing someone to fall ill, but a higher-level magical cult would be interested in global dominance or mass control.
- Illusionism is simply manipulating a person’s perception of relatively normal objects or circumstances in order to trick their mind into focusing on something other than what’s really going on, to astound or amaze them. This is simply a form of entertainment, and is not what we refer to in Islam when we discuss magic. There is an argument that this kind of magic is also prohibited and kufri because it can lead people to believe that Prophetic miracles are simply well-played tricks themselves, which contradicts what we read in about Musa in the Qur’an.
David Blaine and Kris Angel’s public tricks are not what Islam is referring to when discussing magic
- The amount of documentary evidence of people trying to do magic is absolutely overwhelming across history and in our modern era. It is completely ignorant to try to argue that people have not been and are still not trying to do magic. There are entire religious traditions like Voodoo and Santeria that revolve around magic. There are very powerful and large magical organizations like the Ordo Templii Orientis (Thelema, Aleister Crowley) who interact with powerful politicians and themselves have wealthy/powerful members. There are many books of magic in basically every historical tradition and works on it are being penned till this day.
- Is there documentary evidence of people succeeding at using magic?
The historical record is full of magicians hexing or cursing people, but let’s assume that the person is secular minded and thinks that was all hysteria of some sort. Is there modern evidence of people using magic to achieve effects? Yes, without a doubt. If magic is using word, symbols, and art to achieve esoteric effects like causing divorces or leading people astray, then the powerful groups that control the world are the most powerful magicians in human history.
و الله تعالى اعلى و اعلم