How was the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) bewitched?

 

How was the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) bewitched, when Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning): 


“Allaah will protect you from mankind” [al-Maa’idah 5:67]? 


How could he have been bewitched when he was receiving Revelation from His Lord and conveying that to the Muslims? How could he convey it if he was bewitched, and the kaafirs and mushrikeen said: 


“You follow none but a man bewitched”[al-Furqaan 25:8 – interpretation of the meaning]


We hope that you could explain this and clear up these doubts.

Praise be to Allaah.
 

 

It was proven in a saheeh
hadeeth that this witchcraft took place in Madeenah, when the Revelation and
the Message had become well-established and clear, and after the evidence of
Prophethood and the truthfulness of the Message had been confirmed, and
after Allaah had supported His Prophet against the mushrikeen and humiliated
them. Then a Jewish person called Labeed ibn al-A’sam came to him and did
some kind of witchcraft against him, using a comb and the hairs stuck to it
and the skin of pollen of a male date palm. He – the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) – started to imagine that he had done
something with his wife when he had not done it, but his reason, feelings
and ability to distinguish matters remained with him with regard to the
things he was telling the people, praise be to Allaah. So he continued to
speak to the people of the truth which Allaah had revealed to Him. But he
felt that something was affecting him with regard to his wives, as ‘Aa’ishah
(may Allaah be pleased with her) said: “He used to imagine that he had done
something in the house with his wife when he had not done it. So Revelation
came to him from his Lord via Jibreel (peace be upon him), telling him what
had happened. So he sent someone to take that thing [the material used for
witchcraft purposes] out of the well of one of the Ansaar, and he destroyed
it.” Then the effects of that left him, praise be to Allaah, and Allaah
revealed to him the two soorahs of seeking refuge with Allaah (al-Mi’wadhatayn,
the last two soorahs of the Qur’aan). He recited them and all harm left him.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Those
who seek refuge can never seek refuge with anything like them.” Nothing
resulted from this witchcraft that could have harmed the people or
undermined the Message or Revelation. Allaah protected him from the people
with regard to the matter of receiving and conveying the Message. 

But with regard to the
kinds of harm that befell the Messengers, he (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him) was not protected from them, rather some such things
befell him too. He was wounded on the day of Uhud, and his helmet was
smashed on his head and his cheek was cut, some of the rings from his chain
mail pierced his cheeks, he fell in one of the holes that were there, and
they subjected him to intense persecution in Makkah. He suffered some of the
things that the Messengers before him had suffered, and that were decreed
for him, by means of which Allaah raised him in status and multiplied his
hasanaat (reward for good deeds). But Allaah protected him from them, so
that they were not able to kill him or to prevent him from conveying the
Message; they were not able to prevent him from fulfilling his obligation to
convey the Message, so he conveyed it and fulfilled the mission with which
he had been entrusted. May the peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him,
and praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds.