Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Fetishes and Charms in Folk Islam (Pt. 1)
Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on the fetishes and charms in Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the uses of fetishes and charms in folk Islam, from the Qur’anic magic, and other mechanics of fetishes and charms.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Fetishes and Charms in Folk Islam (Pt. 1).
Alright. This is lecture 31, I guess, and good to be with you again. We’re talking, still talking about forces now in unit 3, not just, because we just started it. But, the today is specifically the fetish fetishes and charms, and we keep referring, don’t we, to surahs 113 and 114, and I thought, maybe I should read those 2 short Suras. These are, as we’ve said before, are used for magical purposes.
The the first one, 113, is, the daybreak. Say, I seek refuge in with the lord of the dawn, from the mischief of created things. See? That sounds very folkish, doesn’t it? From the mischief of darkness as it overspreads, from the mischief of those who practice secret arts, and, from the mischief of the envious ones as he practices envy.
I mean, this is really when you think about it and listen to it carefully. And then 114, say, I seek refuge with the lord and cherisher of mankind, the king or ruler of mankind, the god or judge of mankind, from the mischief of the whisperer of evil who withdraws after his whisper, the same who whispers in their hearts into the hearts of mankind, among jinns and among men. I mean, this is really something. But before we, get too hard on the, Muslims and Islam folk stuff, let’s just back up a little bit and let me remember. Let us just remind ourselves about the Jews.
The Jews of the dispersion used book, in other words, used the book, the holy book, in other words, the Torah, to lighten childbirth, and the specific reference there was Genesis 21 and verse 1. That’s about Sarah having a, a baby and I guess if Sarah could have a baby at age 90, I it would give, the Jews. But notice that it’s in the dispersion, so you get the strong impression that they must have picked it up from their, their neighbors. Divining rod, Genesis 24 and verse 2, that has to do with Abraham when he was finding a wife for his son, Isaac, which, you know, it makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, this is you’re going out on a limb when you do that, but you’re going out on a limb when you get married anyways.
So and then against danger on the road. That one is Genesis 3231. And, you know, when Jacob, he, I guess, sets out on his trip. There’s a lot of danger and so that one, but also the fact, I suppose, that Jacob limps quite a bit of his life. Now Genesis 49 and verse 18, interesting there why that would protect against the against the mad dog.
I’m not exactly sure what the reasoning is. 49 and, verse 18. Here it is. It says that, I look for your deliverance, oh lord. Well, you certainly would be deliverance from a mad dog, and then I suppose Genesis 17 and verse, 16 to help in the case of bleeding would be similarly, somewhat difficult to understand, but that’s 17 and verse 16, if I can find the verse.
And it says that, I will bless her and surely give you a son by her. I’m not sure exactly, as I’ve said before, what, you know, how they they they they choose these verses because some are more plain than others. But, Zweimer, who Samuel Zweimer, who was no fool, said this, quoting and and pulling his sources out of the Jewish encyclopedia, that this is the what the Jews did. And so pointedly and notably, the Muslims, it looks like, have picked up some things from the Jews in this folk stuff. Now when we’re talking about fetishes and charms, of course of course, we’re talking about the Quran.
And the fact that, Muslims think that their safety, security, well-being, and defensive measures by using the Quran. Defense against what? Against defense against harm, bad or, you know, bad luck or or things that could go wrong. We’ve mentioned this before too that the Quran admits or acknowledges that it is a kind of deception, but, nevertheless, it seems to contradict itself and it it, says that, you know, this can, this, these kind of things, can can sow discord between a man and his wife. So it it does acknowledge the evil of it, but yet acknowledges, or at least says that it can sow discord.
That’s one of the things. Now, there are various things mentioned here in the PowerPoint and on the class notes, but one of them that Muslims do is they swear on the Quran. Now this is not necessarily magic, is it? Because, people have doing been doing that with the holy books for years. I think the first time it happened with the Quran for a US senator was a few years ago when, I think maybe was his name, senator Ellis Ellison, swore on the Quran, which surprised Americans since they’ve always been swearing in the Bible.
Now, but this, is seen quite clearly through how the Quran is handled. And if you drop the Quran, if you, if you have any accidents with it, then you’re in, you know, in serious trouble. So if you, by any chance, any misfortune of dropping the Quran in the presence of Muslims, then, you apologize profusely and hope that, it will all end well. It hasn’t, it doesn’t always. I I I don’t know whether I told this story or not, but I certainly have told it in class, of incidents I know of where people dropped a Quran, for instance, a very wealthy influential woman in Pakistan that I knew of.
Didn’t know her personally, but read about it in the papers that she somehow dropped a Koran out of her purse into a a, a a ditch. And, I’m telling you, had she not been wealthy and influential, she could well have suffered harm from the local people. But another person whom I heard about, was having his devotions just like we do. In the morning, by a little fire, he would make some tea and, and then he would read his Quran. And, one day, one morning, inadvertently, the Quran fell into the fire.
Now whether he had gone and left or something, done something else, but he came back and the Quran was on fire. So he panicked, and he shouts out, I suppose, which was the thing to do to show your, how much you you you you dread this, and he said the Quran is on fire. The Quran is on fire. And a woman, just a neighbor neighborly well, not a neighborly woman, but some neighbor woman who didn’t like him shouted out and said, this, this man has burned the Quran. And so people gathered, and they were beating him up.
The police came and rescued him as they often do, rescue you by putting you in, in jail, but it didn’t help because, by that time, the people were so angry that they assembled, broke down the jail, took that old fellow, and he wasn’t young, but he was someone who read the Quran and probably had even memorized it, tied him up or and tied him onto a motorcycle cycle, dragged him around town to kill him because, they had accused him. They accused him of misusing the Quran. Well, these are sad stories, but they do show you, this how the Quran is, I guess, worshiped really. It’s, now, Muslims too would write, use the Quran to, in in other words, write verses, in mini buses or on other buses, ordinary buses, their calligraphy pages, of the Quran, in other words, water poured over pages of the Quran and then drunk to protect from the the witch, and on and on and on. These are the kind of things that are done.
Now memorizing holy books, of course, is considered to be a good thing, and we memorize the bible too. But I keep thinking that the emphasis on memorizing the Quran in Islam is not all good because it seems to me that they’re memorizing it in order oftentimes to for magical purposes. In Egypt, for example, it says that Satan, Shaitan, never enters the house where the Quran is recited daily. So the Quran is used oftentimes for for personal benefit and those 2 sunas that we’ve just read, the last 2 in the Quran, put under a pillow are supposed to make for an easy delivery. In North Africa, boys drink holy water that has been washed off their slates, so that they can, you know, be good at memorizing Quran.
In Iran, the Quran is laid in your lap in New Year for good luck. How’s that? And then then on, not so pleasant a topic is the matter of harming others. In other words, what magic how is the Quran used, to to do magic or harm against others magically? Well, you can do it through, various verses.
One of them is 3 in verse 127. That’s chapter 3, sutra 3 127, and the verse is that he might cut off part of those who disbelieve base so that they should return in failure. Now that’s the verse that they would use. Now for someone’s death, wow. Now that’s pretty wicked stuff, isn’t it?
To want someone’s death, the verse there or verses would be possibly 5 and verse 30 through 33. And if that is repeated 29 times, and if it was written on the face of a plaster, in other words, a plaster masks, not this isn’t necessarily the what we’re talking about, but the best we can do. And, if those verses that I’ve given you are written on that mask plus 29 times, those they are repeated. And the the I’m sorry. The victim’s name is repeated on the back, then a dragger is plunged into it, something like that, then, that’s how it’s possible that someone would want your death.
I I admit that that wasn’t always clear how they do it, but, nevertheless, that’s not the point. The the fact is that they do do. Specific verses, passages for, specific situations. Well, one of the things, of course, is marriage, and, you would want to write on a on a married woman’s garment. Whoever recommends this does it for a good cause.
The verse there, it’s a little bit off to the side, but it’s 485 through 87, and just giving you the the briefest part of that verse, but if that could be written on the woman that is wanted in marriage, on the garment that she wears, then possibly, you can, I’m sorry. I went too far. Then, possibly, then, you can gain her hand in marriage. You know, it’s hard to find a wife. It is really hard to find a wife in many, cultures.