Does listening to a recorded ruqyah come under the heading of seeking ruqyah? (Without Ads)
Does one who listens to a ruqyah on his cell phone come under the heading of those who seek ruqyah, or is that only the one who goes to the raaqi (practitioner of ruqyah), as it says in the hadith: “Seventy thousand of my ummah will be admitted to Paradise without being brought to account; they are the ones who did not ask for ruqyah or believe in omens or use cautery, and they put their trust in their Lord”?
Answer
Praise be to Allah.
Firstly:
Muslim (218) narrated from ‘Imraan ibn Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Seventy thousand of my ummah will enter Paradise without being brought to account.” They said: Who are they, O Messenger of Allah? He said: “They are the ones who do not ask others to perform ruqyah for them, or believe in omens, or use cautery, and they put their trust in their Lord.”
It was also narrated by Muslim (220) from Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allah be pleased with him): ““They are the ones who did not perform ruqyah”. The scholars determined that this version was a mistake on the part of the narrator, and that the correct version is “[they] do not ask others to perform ruqyah for them”.
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
He did not say “[they] did not perform ruqyah”; although that was narrated via some isnaads by Muslim, it is a mistake, because the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) performed ruqyah himself, as did others, but he did not ask anyone to do that for him. Asking someone else to do ruqyah is effectively asking someone else to offer supplication. This is in contrast to the one who performs ruqyah for someone else, who is offering supplication for him.
End quote from Iqtidaa’ as-Siraat al-Mustaqeem (p. 488).
And he (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
The difference between the one who performs ruqyah and the one who asks someone else to perform ruqyah is that the latter is seeking it from another person and turning to someone other than Allah in his heart, whereas the one who performs ruqyah is doing good and benefiting others. End quote.
Al-Mustadrak ‘ala Majmoo‘ Fataawa Ibn Taymiyah (1/18).
Based on that, those who meet the description of these seventy thousand are those who do not ask anyone to perform ruqyah for them.
As for the one who does ruqyah for himself, or for someone else, there is nothing disliked about that.
Secondly:
With regard to listening to ruqyah on a tape or mobile phone or other device, what appears to us to be the case is that this does not come under the heading of asking for ruqyah.
Listening to ruqyah in this manner is beneficial, in sha Allah. Many people have benefited from it, although the best is for the individual to recite Qur’an himself, or for someone else to recite it over him.
Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz (may Allah have mercy on him) issued a fatwa stating that the recitation of Soorat al-Baqarah over the radio serves the purpose of driving the Shaytaan away from the house.
Majmoo‘ Fataawa ash-Shaykh Ibn Baaz (24/413).
And Allah knows best.