One of the most dangerous thoughts that can enter the heart during hardship is: “Maybe somebody has blocked what Allah intended for me.”
Your marriage is delayed. Your business suddenly struggles. Opportunities disappear. Something you expected to happen simply refuses to happen.
Then suspicion begins: Perhaps someone envied me. Perhaps somebody performed siḥr against me. Perhaps someone has spiritually blocked my destiny.
Islam does not ask us to pretend that siḥr and the evil eye do not exist. They are established in the Qur’an and Sunnah. But there is something greater that a believer must understand:
The hadith that changes the way you see harm
The Prophet ﷺ gave Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما extraordinary advice:
The Prophet ﷺ did not say nobody would ever try to harm you. He taught something far greater: their attempt does not give them authority over Allah’s decree.
But can siḥr really harm someone?
Yes. The Qur’an speaks explicitly about magic and gives us the boundary within which we must understand it:
Notice the precision. Allah does not say that harm can never occur. He says that the harm cannot occur independently of Him.
Two extremes to avoid
- Do not deny every spiritual affliction as though siḥr and al-ʿayn have no basis in Islam.
- Do not become so frightened by them that you treat a magician, jinn or envious person as though they possess a second power beside Allah.
If you need a careful guide to distinguishing spiritual concerns from fear and assumption, read Siḥr and the Evil Eye Are Real — How Do You Know If You Are Afflicted?
What about the hadith of the evil eye and qadar?
The Prophet ﷺ also said:
The sentence is hypothetical: if anything could precede qadar. It emphasises how serious the evil eye can be; it does not place the evil eye outside Allah’s decree.
A cause can be powerful without becoming independent. Fire burns, medicine heals by Allah’s permission, people can oppress, and the evil eye can harm — yet none of these becomes a rival author of destiny.
Can someone block your rizq, marriage or destiny?
Nobody possesses a separate pen with which they can rewrite your Qadar.
A person may plot against you. Someone may lie about you and cost you an opportunity. Envy may exist. Siḥr may occur. Human beings can become causes of hardship.
But causes are not gods.
So when something is delayed, do not automatically conclude: “Someone has blocked my destiny.”
Perhaps Allah delayed it. Perhaps Allah redirected it. Perhaps Allah protected you from something you desperately wanted. Perhaps there are ordinary causes requiring ordinary solutions. And yes, sometimes there may be genuine spiritual affliction.
But none of those possibilities removes you from Qadar. This is why our teaching on marriage delay insists on examining both spiritual and practical causes rather than making siḥr the automatic explanation.
Then why should we use ruqyah and protection?
If everything is already written, why make duʿā’? Why perform ruqyah? Why recite Āyat al-Kursī and the Muʿawwidhāt?
You eat because hunger exists. You seek treatment because illness exists. You lock your door because theft exists. Likewise, you seek Allah’s protection because spiritual harm exists.
Tawakkul does not mean refusing to take precautions. It means taking the means without believing that the means themselves control your destiny.
When fear becomes another spiritual trap
Sometimes Shayṭān does not need to convince you that Allah does not exist. He only needs to convince you that another person has become more relevant to your future than Allah.
When these questions consume the heart, the supposed enemy grows larger in your consciousness while awareness of Allah grows smaller.
This is why constantly searching for a culprit can itself become a trap. Read Who Did Siḥr on Me? and Can a Jinn Tell You Who Did Siḥr? for the danger of turning suspicion or claims from jinn into accusations.
Ruqyah should bring you closer to Allah — not make you obsessed with creation. Protection should increase your tawakkul — not increase your paranoia.
Your Qadar is not in someone else’s hands
Perhaps this is the sentence someone needs today:
Whatever power creation possesses remains beneath the absolute authority of the Creator.
So protect yourself. Recite your adhkār. Seek legitimate ruqyah when necessary. Take sensible practical action. But do not surrender your heart to fear.
What reaches you could never have missed you. What misses you could never have reached you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.
Your task is not to spend your life terrified of who might be blocking you.
Your task is to remain connected to the One in whose hands your affairs have always been.