The jinn say: “We used to sit there in positions for hearing,”
“but whoever listens now will find a burning flame lying in wait for him.”
The Prophet ﷺ explained: devils catch a word from the sky and pour it into a fortune-teller's ear.
Then the fortune-teller adds a hundred lies of his own to it.
And they followed what the devils had recited during the reign of Sulaymân.
Sulaymân did not disbelieve, but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic.
Ibn Kathîr cites a report from as-Suddî: Sulaymân gathered the books of magic and buried them under his throne.
After his death, the report goes on, devils showed people the books and said: this was his secret.
The Qur'an answers: Sulaymân did not disbelieve. His kingdom was a gift from Allah, not magic.
and what was sent down to the two angels at Babylon, Hârût and Mârût.
They teach no one without first saying: “We are only a trial, so do not disbelieve.”
Many early scholars held that they were two angels sent as a trial. Some commentators read the verse otherwise.
Testing with something within reach is a way of Allah. Âdam (peace be upon him) had the whole Garden, except one tree.
And believers in ihrâm were tested with game within reach of their hands, to show who fears Allah unseen.
And they learn from them that by which they cause separation between a man and his wife.
But they do not harm anyone through it except by permission of Allah.
So magic can harm: the verse says it. But it harms no one without Allah's permission.
And to Mûsâ (peace be upon him), facing Pharaoh's magicians, Allah said: “The magician will not succeed.”
And the people learn what harms them and does not benefit them.
And they knew that whoever bought it would have no share in the Hereafter.
The verse speaks of buying and selling: “Wretched is what they sold themselves for.”
You may hear this story: two angels given human desires, a beautiful woman, wine, then Venus.
It is not a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. Ibn Kathîr traces it to the reports of the Children of Israel.
It also clashes with the Qur'an: angels never disobey Allah (66:6). So this book leaves it aside.
Two names in the Qur'an have drawn many strange stories: Hârût and Mârût.
What does the verse really say about them?
The verse names the danger, then its limit: nothing harms without Allah's permission.
Tonight, read 2:102 with its meaning, then seek refuge in Allah with Sûrat al-Falaq.