Magic isn't what Hollywood shows you. There are no wands, no mystical energy bolts, no supernatural powers flowing from human hands.

Magic (sihr) is actually very simple when you strip away the mysticism: It's a business transaction between a human and a demon, where both parties get what they want.

Let's break down exactly how this works.

The Two Worlds That Should Never Meet

Allah created two distinct worlds:

1. The world of humans (visible, material)
2. The world of jinn (invisible, energetic)

These two worlds were meant to remain separate. Each operates in its own sphere with its own rules.

Magic is what happens when these two worlds intersect. It's an unnatural crossing of boundaries that were meant to stay closed.

The Origin: Harut and Marut in Babylon

Magic didn't develop naturally. It was taught.

According to the Quran, Allah sent two angels - Harut and Marut - to the ancient city of Babylon thousands of years ago. Their mission was to test humanity.

These angels explicitly warned people: "We are a trial from Allah. Do not come close to us. This is kufr (disbelief). Do not disbelieve."

They were like warning signs on radioactive material: "DANGER - DO NOT APPROACH."

But what were they testing people with? The knowledge of how to communicate with jinn.

They explained the methodology - how to call upon jinn, how to make contact, how to establish communication. And they clearly stated: If you follow this path, it is disbelief in Allah.

Mankind, of course, didn't care. They wanted the power. And thus magic began.

What Each Party Brings to the Table

To understand the transaction, you need to understand what each party has and what each party wants.

What the Jinn Has:

1. Physical abilities humans don't possess
2. Invisibility
3. Super speed (potentially speed of light)
4. Ability to pass through physical barriers
5. Extended lifespan (thousands of years)
6. Ability to possess bodies
7. Knowledge of hidden things
8. The capacity to cause physical disturbances

What the Jinn Wants:

1. Superiority over humans
2. To be worshipped
3. To see humans degrade themselves
4. Recognition and status
5. To feel powerful

What the Magician Has:

1. Willingness to degrade themselves
2. Ability to perform rituals
3. Access to the human world
4. Money (from clients)

What the Magician Wants:

1. Money
2. Reputation as "powerful"
3. Control over outcomes
4. Ability to harm enemies or help allies

The Transaction: Step by Step

Here's exactly how magic works:

Step 1: A Client Approaches the Magician

Someone comes to the magician with a request:

1. "Break up this marriage"
2. "Make this person love me"
3. "Harm my enemy"
4. "Make my business succeed and my competitor fail"

The client pays money - cash, credit card, whatever currency. Let's say $100, $500, $1000. The amount varies.

Step 2: The Magician Performs Degrading Rituals

The magician now needs to contact the jinn. But the jinn won't help for free. The jinn wants to see the magician worship it.

So the magician performs rituals like:

1. Going to a graveyard at 3 AM
2. Performing tawaf (circling) around graves
3. Collecting disgusting items: blood of animals, body parts, filthy substances
4. Reciting prayers backwards or insulting holy names
5. Performing acts of shirk (associating partners with Allah)
6. Defiling themselves in various ways

None of these acts have inherent power. They're not "ingredients" for a spell.

The jinn demands these acts purely to humiliate the magician. It wants to watch the human degrade themselves. "Go to the graveyard at 3 AM and do tawaf around the grave." Who would do that except someone who has completely sold themselves?

The jinn sits back and watches: "Look what I can make this human do. I control him completely."

Step 3: The Jinn Performs Its Service

Once the magician has sufficiently humiliated themselves and proven their worship, the jinn holds up its end of the bargain.

The jinn does something that's actually very easy for it:

1. Goes to the target's house invisibly
2. Possesses the target's body
3. Causes physical disturbances
4. Plants suggestions in minds
5. Creates barriers during intimacy
6. Causes unexplained anger or fear
7. Hides objects or moves things
8. Creates nightmares

For the jinn, these acts are trivial. It's like asking a horse to gallop or a bird to fly - these are natural abilities. The jinn isn't straining or struggling.

Step 4: The Magician Keeps the Money, the Jinn Keeps the Worship

The transaction is complete:

1. The client paid money and gets the harmful result they wanted
2. The magician keeps the money and maintains their reputation
3. The jinn gets worship, feels superior, and dominates a human

Everyone gets what they want, except the victim who was targeted.

The Mafia Structure

Here's where it gets more complex: Magicians don't usually deal with just one jinn.

Think of the jinn world like organized crime:

The Godfather (Don): A very powerful jinn at the top. The magician establishes contact with this entity.

The Worker Jinn: Thousands of lesser jinn under the godfather's command. These are the ones actually sent to do the work.

When a magician makes a request, the godfather doesn't personally go possess someone or break up a marriage. That would be beneath its status. Instead, it sends a worker jinn to do the job.

The worker jinn goes because:

1. It gets recognition or reward from the godfather
2. It's terrified of the godfather and doesn't dare refuse
3. It might get status or benefits in the jinn hierarchy

During one ruqyah session, a jinn was asked: "Why don't you just leave?"

The jinn replied: "I can't. If I leave, he will kill me. The one who sent me here - I'm scared of him."

Even the jinn doing the actual magic are trapped in a system of fear and hierarchy.

Why the Bizarre Rituals?

People often ask: "Why does magic require such strange things? Eye of newt, blood of a donkey, graveyard dirt at midnight?"

The answer is simple: The jinn wants to see you humiliate yourself.

There's no magical property in donkey blood. There's no special power in graveyard dirt. These items are meaningless.

But convincing a human to go collect these things at absurd hours while performing degrading acts? That proves the human has become the jinn's slave.

The more disgusting, sacrilegious, and degrading the ritual, the more the jinn feels its superiority confirmed.

The Economic Model

Let's follow the money and worship:

Client → Magician: Money flows from client to magician

Magician → Jinn: Worship and degradation flow from magician to jinn

Jinn → Victim: Harm flows from jinn to the target

Jinn → Magician: "Power" (really just jinn performing its natural abilities) flows to magician

The magician operates as a middleman in a spiritual black market. They broker deals between humans who want supernatural harm done and jinn who want worship.

The Magician's Delusion

Here's what magicians fail to understand: They don't control anything.

The magician thinks: "I have power. I command jinn. I am mighty."

The reality: "I am a slave. I worship demons. I have sold my soul for money. The jinn controls me completely."

How can a human control a jinn? With what? Physical chains? The jinn passes through walls. Threats? The jinn is stronger and faster. Magic spells? That's circular - you'd need magic to control the magic.

The only human ever given power over jinn was Prophet Sulaiman, and that was a unique gift from Allah that no one else possesses.

Every other human who thinks they control jinn is delusional. The jinn allows them to believe this lie because it serves the jinn's purpose.

Why People Keep Doing It

Despite the spiritual cost, people continue practicing magic for simple reasons:

For magicians:

1. Money (sometimes lots of it)
2. Reputation and fear from others
3. Sense of power (even if false)
4. Ability to harm enemies

For clients:

1. Desperation (wanting something they can't get legitimately)
2. Jealousy (wanting to harm someone's success)
3. Desire (wanting to force someone to love them)
4. Revenge (wanting to hurt someone who wronged them)

Both parties are willing to engage in shirk (associating partners with Allah) for worldly gains.

The Religious Reality

From an Islamic perspective, magic is:

Kufr (Disbelief): The angels Harut and Marut explicitly said learning this is disbelief

Shirk (Associating partners with Allah): You're worshipping jinn instead of Allah

Oppression: You're harming innocent people

The magician has sold their akhirah (afterlife) for dunya (worldly gain). They've traded Paradise for dollars.

The Victim's Perspective

The person targeted by magic didn't ask for this. They're collateral damage in someone else's transaction.

A worker jinn gets assigned to them and will:

1. Live in their house for years or decades
2. Cause persistent problems
3. Resist leaving out of fear of its boss
4. Make their life miserable

The victim suffers because someone paid money, a magician worshipped demons, and a jinn wanted to feel superior.

The Bottom Line

Magic is not mystical or supernatural in the Hollywood sense. It's a straightforward transaction:

1. Human pays magician money
2. Magician worships jinn through degrading rituals
3. Jinn performs easy tricks using its natural abilities
4. Everyone gets what they want except the victim

The magician thinks they have power. The jinn knows the truth: the magician is a slave.

The client thinks they've found a solution. Allah knows the truth: they've bought temporary worldly gain at the cost of eternal loss.

And the victim? They can break free by turning to Allah, because the One who created the jinn has absolute power over them.

Magic is real. But it's not powerful. It's just a business transaction between slaves and demons, and it falls apart the moment genuine faith enters the equation.