A neighbour of ours is envious of us even though we show her respect and have never mistreated her, and she did witchcraft against us, by using some clothes of mine that had traces of my sweat. What is really strange is that I had seen her in my dream twice, pouring some kind of liquid over me that I did not know what it was, and I woke up in a panic, feeling afraid. We are a conservative family who love Islam, and we do whatever we can of righteous deeds, but we suffer from some problems and do not always get along, and we have a lot of troubles. Some time ago, I felt that something inside me had changed, and I was no longer happy, energetic and hard-working as I used to be. I began to get angry quickly, and to sleep all day and stay up at night, and I left two jobs for no reason. I can no longer control myself, and I feel as though someone is provoking me to do things. I feel tired and I am only 27 years old, and I have started to feel fed up. I have not been to see a raqi (one who does ruqyah) because I hope to enter Paradise among the seventy thousand who did not seek ruqyah. I tried to read Soorat al-Baqarah every day for forty days, but I could not do it. I tried several times, but every time I tried, I would see frightening dreams. I call upon Allah in my prayer, asking Him to cancel out this witchcraft. I feel that everyone in my family has been bewitched, and I do not know what to do; please advise me.

Praise be to Allah

The effect of magic or jinn
possession on people is something real and cannot be denied, but the Muslim
should not blame all the problems that happen to him in his life on
witchcraft or jinn possession, thus living in a world of illusion and
imagination that gets worse day after day. 

He should examine his situation
first of all: obedience to Allah and His Messenger come first and foremost,
and they are the means of attaining all that is good, whereas disobedience
towards Allah is the cause of all evil. So the Muslim should strive to obey
Allah and avoid disobeying Him, for the good life is only for the believers
who do righteous deeds:

{Whoever does righteousness,
whether male or female, while he is a believer – We will surely cause him to
live a good life, and We will surely give them their reward [in the
Hereafter] according to the best of what they used to do.}
[16:97]. 

And a life of misery and
wretchedness is for those who turn away from the reminder or remembrance of
Allah , may He be exalted:

{And whoever turns away from My remembrance – indeed, he will have a
depressed life} [Ta-Ha 20:124]. 

The more extreme the
disobedience and turning away, the more severe that hardship and difficulty
will be. 

After that comes taking positive
measures, by looking for work and not being lazy, and bearing with patience
some of what one experiences of difficulty in work and so on, until Allah,
may He be exalted, helps him and grants him provision from where he does not
expect. 

Similarly, with regard to what
you mention about there being a lot of problems among the members of the
family, each person should check himself and strive to acquire good
characteristics, and try to be more patient and forbearing, and respond to
mistreatment in the way that is better, and try to look for the causes of
these problems, which are usually causes that do not deserve to be
discussed. But if there are genuine causes, then it is essential to discuss
them in a calm and loving atmosphere, so that you can overcome them. In
addition to all of this, you should not refuse to go to a trustworthy raqi
who can help you to overcome this witchcraft – if applicable. This is what
we advise you to do. 

You should also be firmly
resolved to read Soorat al-Baqarah, no matter how difficult that is for you.
That is a very important part of the remedy and solution, which you should
not ignore or fall short in, and then complain about witchcraft, hardship
and problems, and so on. 

With regard to the hadith about
the seventy thousand, those seventy thousand are not the best of people, and
they will not be the highest of the people of Paradise in status. A person
may be brought to account and enter Paradise, and be of a higher status than
these seventy thousand, as was stated by Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may
Allah have mercy on him). 

These seventy thousand will not
deserve that honour, which is admission to Paradise without being brought to
account or being punished, because of refraining from asking for ruqyah
only; rather they will deserve that because of their perfect Tawheed
(affirmation of Allah’s Oneness) and their trust in Allah, may He be
exalted. Perfect Tawheed and trust in Allah are their way of life in all
their affairs. 

Moreover, asking for ruqyah is
not haram (impermissible) or makrooh (disliked); rather some of the scholars
stated, with regard to the meaning of the hadith, that the ruqyah that they
did not seek or do in this case is the ruqyah of the Jahiliyyah (days of
pre-Islamic ignorance) and incantations of the sorcerers, and so on. As for
shar‘i ruqyah, which is done by reciting Quran, or by remembering Allah
(dhikr), that is not forbidden, even if it is done at the request of the
sick person. 

Al-Qastalani (may Allah have
mercy on him) said: 

“They are the ones who did not
seek ruqyah” i.e., they did not seek it at all, or they did not seek the
ruqyah of the Jahiliyyah.
End quote from Irshad
as-Sari (9/271) 

See also: Fath al-Bari by
Ibn Hajar (11/410). 

Based on this view, if a sick
person seeks ruqyah, i.e., asks for shar‘i ruqyah, that will not exclude him
from the seventy thousand. 

It is not wise for a person to
refrain from seeking ruqyah so that he may be among the seventy thousand,
then remain anxious, distressed, confused and worried, filled with doubts
and lacking patience. None of these are attributes of the seventy thousand.
Rather what you should do in your situation is go to a raqi and strive hard
in obeying and worshipping Allah, may He be exalted, and avoid disobeying
Him, in the hope that you will not be deprived of the virtue of the seventy
thousand. 

If it so happens that you are
not one of them, the grace of Allah is vast, and perhaps Allah will bless
you with a status in Paradise that will compensate for what you missed out
on of this particular virtue.

May Allah, may He be exalted,
help and guide you. 

And Allah knows best.