Fifthly
Spitting in knots is the work of magicians, and therefore the Almighty recommended to us in Al-Falaq Fortress All that’s Coming to Appearance) to seek refuge in Him “…from those who spit on knots.”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 113, Al-Falaq (All that's Coming to Appearance), verse 4
For more illustration of this we say that ‘to spit’ means ‘to throw’ or ‘to cast’. For example, you say: “Someone spat the spittle out of his mouth”; that is, he threw it. Also, you say: “The snake spat out the venom”; i.e. it cast it into the body of the one who was stung. Accordingly, the statement “those who spit” means “those who throw”, and in this noble verse it refers to the spirits of witches, who have taken witchery as a craft and an occupation.
In this form of magic, knots represent social ties, and this magic relates to the fastening or unfastening of such ties. To work his or her magic, the magician takes some rope or string or a piece of thread from the clothes of the person they intend to bewitch, and then breathe upon this material. At this moment, the magician’s spirit turns towards this person to allow the devil to ride this ray of the magician’s spirit, reaching the victim’s spirit in this way, and having a negative effect on them. This happens because the devil himself is blind and would never be able to reach his target, except by means of this magician. The devil can smell wickedness, and if the victim deserves this treatment due to their evil deeds, the devil will cause harm to come to their relationships. This can relate to friendships, family relations and business partnerships as well as marriages. To bring about separation between a husband and wife is a bad deed. In addition, it makes men and women who are not married to each other meet together, because one of them will have left their partner.
That is the magicians’ craft. It is nothing but sowing division, stirring up discord among people, and driving a wedge between a husband and his wife, a wife and her mother-in-law, or a person and their sibling, their partner, their child, or their parent.
To understand the meaning that is indicated in the statement “those who spit in knots”, we say the following:
The magician, in fact, is an unbeliever who has drawn far from God. They have taken the devil as a consort and as a means to help them to achieve their ends. When they spit over the knot, they direct their spirit towards the one who is to be bewitched, so as to let the devil follow the line of the ray that flows from their spirit and mount it. The devil is blind. The only smell he smells is the smell of malice, so he reaches the spirit of the bewitched one by using the ray of the magician’s spirit, which is directed towards the victim. Thus the devil can find the one to be bewitched and comes to them, but this is only possible if the latter has committed some kind of bad act and is deserving of such treatment. If this is indeed the case, the devil will make them see unreal things and will whisper evil into their chest.
For example, if the magician wants to stir up discord between a bewitched man and his wife by means of the object over which he spits, the devil will make this man disincline to his wife by sending deceptions and insinuations into his chest. So, if the wife is slow in preparing the man’s food, you will find the devil whisper within his spirit that she does not love him; and if she smiles while talking in secret with her mother about something, the devil will fill his chest with untrue misgivings and insinuate in his spirit that they are talking negatively about him, and that their smiles amount to mockery of him. The devil’s work is made up of planting this kind of baseless doubt, which is far from the truth but which sows dissent between the two parties. In this way, the devil keeps control of the bewitched man until disputes and hatred arise between him and his wife and a separation takes place between them. Thus, magicians fulfill their own purpose by using the devil as a means to help them do their work and cause the harm that they intend to inflict.
The Almighty God reveals that by saying, “…they learn from them (the devils of mankind and jinn-kind) what makes them create discord between husband and wife…”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 2, Al-Baqara (The Cow), verse 102
Accordingly, the magician and the devil are both accomplices in causing such damage. The magician drives the devil and leads him towards the bewitched, and then the devil sets about whispering evil things to his victim, throwing misgivings into their mind, and creating false images, until both the magician and the devil get their wish.
This throwing or ‘spitting’ of the magicians takes two forms:
1) Either the purpose of the throwing is positive; that is, it aims to bring two people close together; in this case, the effort fully focuses on making a tie and establishing a relationship;
Or the purpose is negative; that is, it aims to sow division and stir up discord and aversion between one person and another; in this case the effort focuses on untying a tie and unsettling an existing relationship.
We should refer here to something that is done by magicians that causes a husband to become impotent. This form of magic is called ‘holding magic’. The outcome of this deed is division between a husband and his wife.
To understand this inhumane method and its negative results for society, let us pay attention to the following touching story which took place in the country of Egypt.