The Repentant Magician – Part 1: How I Learned Magic
- Admin
- 5 days ago
- 14 min read
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This article forms part of a seven-part review of a video series presented by a former magician. The speaker is Hamid Adam, a Sudanese man who became widely known as al-Sahir al-taib [the repentant magician]. The speaker devoted almost twenty years practising sihr [magic].
Since his repentance, Hamid has become known for public lectures and media appearances in which he recounts his experiences, explains the methods of magicians, warns against sihr and other occult practices, and discusses protection and treatment through ruqyah shariyyah [legitimate ruqyah].
This background is important when approaching the material. The video series provides valuable insight into sihr [magic], or at least into the particular forms of magic that the speaker practised. His account carries significant weight as first-hand testimony from a former practitioner, while recognising that some of the finer details expressed in the videos are his own interpretation of his personal experiences.
1. His Original Goal Was Religious, Not Occult
The speaker says he left his home in South Darfur while still young with a very different objective: he wanted to memorise the Quran, become knowledgeable and become one of Allah’s awliya [saints].
He travelled through Sudan studying under different shaykhs [spiritual guides]. As he progressed, he says he was moved from one teacher to another and advanced through a hierarchy of spiritual ranks in his Sufi tariqah [spiritual order]. Eventually he was sent beyond Sudan to teachers of an even higher rank.
Among the titles he describes are:
the shaykh of the khalwah [spiritual retreat or seclusion];
the shaykh of the teaching circle;
the awtad [regional spiritual pegs];
and ultimately the aqtab [four spiritual axes or poles, each associated with one of the four directions]
Within that worldview, the awtad were imagined as spiritually “stabilising” particular regions, while the four aqtab corresponded to the four directions.
The speaker also says that advanced members were promised extraordinary experiences such as a hadrah nabawiyyah [meeting with the Prophet], and even a hadrah ilahiyyah [a direct encounter with Allah].
2. The System of Blind Obedience
The speaker says that one condition of progressing in the tariqah [spiritual order] was complete submission to the shaykh [spiritual guide].
The disciple was expected to place himself before the shaykh “like a dead body in the hands of the person washing it.” He was not to argue, question or object. Even if the shaykh ordered something apparently irrational, resistance was treated as evidence that the disciple was unfit for spiritual advancement.
The promise attached to this obedience was wusul [spiritual ascension to Allah].
What would the disciple supposedly “ascend” to?
The speaker says they were promised the rank of al-insan al-kamil [the Perfect Man], kashf [unveiling], access to the Lawh al-Mahfuz [Preserved Tablet], encounters with the Allah and the Prophet, and secret knowledge.
Terms such as:
ilm al-asrar [knowledge of secrets];
ilm al-mukashafat [knowledge obtained through unveilings];
ilm ladunni [directly bestowed esoteric knowledge];
ilm al-batin [inward knowledge];
were contrasted with ordinary ilm al-zahir [outward knowledge].
The danger in such a system is obvious once the distinction becomes absolute. If ordinary Islamic law is merely “outward knowledge,” while the shaykh supposedly possesses a higher hidden reality, then almost any objection can be dismissed by saying: “You only understand the surface.”
For a reader unfamiliar with Sufi occultism, it is important to understand what is happening here:
The culture of the Sufi tariqah strongly shaped the speaker’s goals and behaviour. Distorted or false ideas around wilayah [sainthood], karamat [saintly miracles], hidden knowledge, spiritual ranks and unquestioning obedience to the order’s spiritual guides made increasingly unusual practices easier for him to accept. What appeared strange or contrary to the Shariah could be explained away as a higher spiritual reality understood only by the spiritually advanced.
3. Quranic Recitation Becomes Deliberately Corrupted
After more than five years of serving his shaykh [spiritual guide] without questioning him, the speaker says he was told that he had become worthy of an advanced method of wusul [spiritual ascension].
A position among the four aqtab [spiritual axes] had supposedly become vacant after one of them died, and his shaykh told him that he was among the few people deserving and ready to replace him.
He was delighted.
Again, the emotional context matters. He believed he was about to reach an extraordinary degree of closeness to Allah.
His shaykh then instructed him to select Quranic passages for a special dhikr [ritual remembrance]. He chose five verses, which coincidently contained a particular repeated letter. The shaykh praised his choice and told him that the verses possessed hidden “secrets.”
According to the speaker, his teachers taught him several methods of reciting the Quran. The speaker limits his explain to three methods:
Method One: Inserting Foreign Words into Quranic Text
The first technique was to “stuff” the Qur’anic wording with other names and expressions.
The speaker uses the basmalah as an example — Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim [In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful].
Instead of leaving it intact, additional appeals, names and strange expressions were added to the basmalah. These included names of prophets and angels alongside unfamiliar names which the speaker associates with jinn or occult entities.
The important point is not the exact formula, which there is no benefit in reproducing.
The structural process he describes is:
1. begin with a recognisably Islamic text;
2. insert foreign names and invocations into it;
3. present the resulting formula as the “secret” of the verse;
4. repeat it as a special devotional practice;
5. eventually use it during occult retreat [khalwah].
Method Two: Reversing the Order of Quranic Words
The second method was to read the words of a Quran deliberately in reverse order.
Again he uses the basmalah as an example. Rather than saying the words in their authentic and revealed sequence, the disciple intentionally begins at the end and reverses them.
An important distinction is intention. Accidentally misreading something is one matter. Deliberately reorganising revelation in order to produce an occult effect is another.
Within the speaker’s account, this reversal is not merely meaningless experimentation. It marks a transition from reciting the Quran as revelation to using its letters and words as raw ritual material.
That distinction becomes even clearer in the third method.
Method Three: Reversing the Letters Themselves
The third technique was to reverse the individual letters of Quranic words.
Once letters are reversed, recognisable Quranic language turns into strange combinations of sounds. The disciple is then told that these formations are the “secrets” of the verses or the names of hidden spiritual beings.
The speaker says these distorted forms were repeated through the night during prolonged retreats.
This gives us a clearer picture of the logic he is describing.
The process is approximately:
Quranic text → deliberate distortion → unfamiliar syllables → interpretation as secret names → prolonged repetition → claimed contact with jinn or spiritual entities.
That sequence helps explain why he later views the practice as a trap.
The student thinks he is discovering deeper layers of Quranic spirituality.
According to the speaker’s later interpretation, he is actually being trained to corrupt revelation until the resulting formula becomes part of an interaction with jinn.
For a raqi, this point is particularly relevant when examining written magical material.
Some talismans do contain Quranic fragments alongside:
· reversed letters;
· disconnected letters;
· strange names;
· numerical arrangements;
· symbols;
· invocations to unknown beings.
The presence of Quran therefore does not by itself make an object or written formula legitimate.
One must examine what has been done to the Quranic material and what accompanies it.
4. The Occult Retreat
The next major section describes the khalwah [retreat] through which the disciple was supposedly prepared to meet the entity that would later serve him.
The speaker emphasises that his retreat only looked superficially like religious seclusion [itikaf].
It took place away from the mosque and far from people. A small hut was constructed several kilometres outside the settlement. It had no windows, and openings were sealed so that no light would enter.
A fixed period was then chosen.
The speaker chose a forty-one-day period from among several options offered to him.
The amount of daily recitation depended on the length of the retreat: a shorter retreat meant more recitation of formulaic incantations each day, while a longer retreat distributed the same number of required repetitions over a greater number of days.
Before entering, the speaker says his shaykh repeatedly frightened him about breaking the retreat.
If he committed himself to a fixed number of days and then left early, he was told that he might lose both this world and the Hereafter and even become insane.
The instruction was essentially: choose a period you can withstand, because after entering you must complete it.
He nevertheless insisted on forty-one days.
The psychological effect is obvious. Once something terrifying happens inside the retreat, the person has already been conditioned to believe: If I leave, I will be ruined.
That belief makes him much more likely to remain. This is not incidental. It is part of the structure of initiation described throughout the video.
There was also a particular day on which he was required to enter. The speaker explicitly says: “I am deliberately not explaining every detail, because I do not want someone to learn the procedure and go and attempt it. It was a particular day connected to their system, and entry took place late at night after people had gone to sleep.”
Food was tightly controlled. He says his forty-one-day retreat was supplied with only three large dates per day: one in the morning, one around midday and one in the evening.
For forty-one days, this meant exactly 123 dates.
Water was also measured.
Blank sheets of paper and a prayer skin or mat were placed inside the retreat because they would later be needed for the ritual.
This is worth pausing over.
Within the speaker’s own narrative, the retreat combines several powerful elements at once:
prolonged isolation;
darkness;
restricted food;
repetitive incantation;
expectation of supernatural encounters;
fear-inducing warnings;
disrupted normal routines;
complete submission to the shaykh.
Even before discussing jinn, such conditions can profoundly intensify a person’s psychological and perceptual experience.
Fear as the First “Test”
The speaker says he was told that Allah would test him during the retreat and that the first examination would be fear.
He was repeatedly warned: Whatever you see, do not flee.
The speaker digresses and gives his own views about extreme emotional states and physical conditions. He says that, according to what he had learned, the devil enters a person through a number of openings such as extreme fear, extreme anger, intoxicants, and so on.
What matters for the video’s internal logic is that fear is treated as the gateway to the next stage of initiation.
Later, he describes what he believes happened.
According to him, the jinn assigned to a disciple first learns what the person fears through their qarin [jinn-companion] and then produces terrifying experiences centred around that fear.
He gives examples such as frogs, scorpions, bugs, etc.
The speaker describes entering a state “between wakefulness and sleep.”
He says the disciple may suddenly experience himself as if he were somewhere entirely different, almost like an extremely vivid dream while still conscious.
The feared creature then appears in grotesquely exaggerated size.
A frog might appear as large as a bus. A scorpion may appear enormous, with a sting like a pillar.
The scene develops dramatically: the creature attacks people, the disciple sees and hears the violence, everyone runs away, and eventually he finds himself alone with the creature turning towards him.
The intended test, according to his account, is simple: Will he continue?
He says similar frightening scenes repeated through subsequent retreats and gives a lengthy example involving a sequence of animals devouring one another, each new creature larger and more frightening than the last.
From the perspective of the speaker, these were manifestations produced by jinn.
What is clear is that the experiences served an initiatory function.
The disciple was being trained not to flee when confronted by frightening and unnatural phenomena.
Before the encounter, the speaker says he was taught that the being who would eventually appear is a ruhani [spiritual being].
He explains that the ruhani referred to here is a high-ranking jinn.
He then strongly warns against the claim: “I only work with Muslim jinn.”
His argument is that religious language can be used to make prohibited interaction with jinn appear safe and reasonable.
A practitioner claiming to have a helpful Muslim jinn who should not automatically become more trustworthy simply because the jinn is labelled “Muslim.”
The label is itself part of what must be scrutinised.
Video 1 shows exactly how such religious reframing allegedly operated in the speaker’s own initiation: the entity was not introduced as “a devil who will cooperate with you.” It was introduced as a special spiritual servant sent by Allah.
The Second “Test”: Accepting Forbidden Conditions
The second stage was more serious.
The speaker says the practitioner was given a number of conditions. At least one had to be carried out in front of the entity, while others might be demanded later whenever its service was required.
The difficulty was obvious: some conditions were plainly forbidden according to Islamic law.
How were they justified?
The same doctrine appeared again:
You have left ilm al-zahir [outward knowledge]. You have entered ilm al-batin [inward knowledge]. Ordinary people cannot understand it.
This is like Musa and Khidr, in which khidr carried out actions that appeared outwardly objectionable and whose reasoning Musa did not initially comprehend.
If the practice looked wrong, that was supposedly proof that the outsider simply lacked sufficient spiritual understanding.
One of the conditions the speaker describes is shocking. After entering the retreat, the shaykh instructed him to remove all his clothing and perform two units of prayer completely naked.
The shaykh even gave him a distorted religious argument for doing so:
Allah can see a person whether clothed or unclothed, so clothing does not conceal one’s nakedness from Him. Clothing is needed to cover the body from the sight of other people, but since no one else is present inside the sealed hut, he argued that there was no reason to remain clothed. The person should therefore present himself before Allah as he entered the world — naked.
This is a recurring technique throughout the video: a piece of religious truth is detached from its proper context and then used to legitimise something prohibited.
After the naked prayer, the speaker says another offensive formula was recited, which he deliberately refuses to repeat.
He then continued the altered dhikr until the final night.
The Forty-First Night and the Arrival of the Jinn Leader
After enduring a series of frightening experiences and persevering with the prescribed incantations, the disciple eventually reaches the final stage of the initiation.
The speaker says that, very late on the final night, after midnight, the entity finally appeared to him. He describes it as having a composite form: the upper part resembling a human being and the lower part resembling an animal.
Before the encounter, the speaker had been instructed not to respond immediately to the entity’s greeting. He says the being would repeatedly whisper “alaykum”, and only after the fourth time was he to reply with “alaykum”, rather than the normal Islamic greeting.
The entity identified himself as Sahubi, whom the speaker describes as a powerful leader over a large contingent of jinn.
The entity then gives the speaker what he understood at the time as extraordinary glad tidings.
It tells him that his past and future sins have been forgiven, that he has become one of Allah’s righteous awliya [saints], and most dangerously, that religious obligations [takalif shariyyah] have been lifted from him.
He supposedly no longer has to pray or adhere to the normal Islamic obligations. If he performs them, he earns extra reward; if he leaves them, he is not accountable.
The explanation given is that, through his prolonged dhikr, asceticism and retreat, he has “purchased himself from Allah” and is no longer a slave but free.
From Initiation to Talismans
After this, the speaker says he was shown letters written across the sky in green.
Beside those letters appeared various occult symbols and talasim [talismans].
He describes numerical arrangements resembling what are often called awfaq [numerical or letter-based grids or magical squares], including a three-by-three arrangement in which numbers were arranged to produce a fixed total when added in different directions.
This is where the blank sheets of paper placed inside the retreat become significant.
According to the speaker, he was expected to copy:
letters;
associated symbols;
numerical patterns;
talismanic forms;
and other writings.
Each letter could have a corresponding talisman.
The resulting collection would later function as part of his working occult material.
5. The Process Described Thus Far
The speaker’s initiation can be reconstructed as a gradual process in which each stage prepares the disciple for the next:
1. Establish spiritual authority
The shaykh [spiritual guide] is presented as a man of karamat [miraculous gifts], sainthood and access to secret knowledge. Extraordinary experiences are used to strengthen confidence in his spiritual rank.
2. Train unquestioning obedience
The disciple is taught not to question or challenge the shaykh. Objection is portrayed as a barrier to spiritual advancement and wusul [spiritual ascension].
3. Introduce esoteric concepts
Ideas such as kashf [unveiling], ilm ladunni [directly bestowed esoteric knowledge], ilm al-batin [inward knowledge] and wusul are presented as higher realities that ordinary people supposedly cannot understand.
4. Reinterpret obvious wrongdoing as “hidden knowledge”
The distinction between outward and inward knowledge is then used to neutralise normal religious objections. Practices that appear forbidden according to the Shariah are presented as possessing a deeper meaning known only to the spiritually advanced.
5. Begin altering Quranic material
Quranic words and letters are manipulated: foreign expressions are inserted, words and letters are reversed, producing altered sequences and sounds. These are presented as the hidden “secrets” of the verses.
6. Prepare the khalwah [isolated retreat]
The disciple is placed in a secluded location away from people and society. The retreat is carefully prepared with limited supplies, including measured food and water, a prayer mat or skin, and blank paper that will later be used for talismanic material.
7. Fix the duration and bind the disciple to completing it
A set number of days is chosen. The disciple is warned that once the retreat begins he must not leave before completing the prescribed period, creating both psychological pressure and fear of abandoning the process.
8. Restrict food, light and normal activity
Food is severely limited, light is excluded and ordinary social contact is removed. Combined with prolonged isolation and repetitive ritual practice, the environment becomes physically and psychologically intense.
9. Perform prescribed rituals and altered incantations
The disciple repeatedly recites the altered formulas throughout the retreat. The speaker also describes other prohibited ritual acts being introduced, including praying naked.
10. Endure frightening experiences
The disciple is warned beforehand that fear will be one of his tests. He then describes terrifying visions or manifestations that become increasingly intense. The initiate is expected to remain and continue rather than abandon the retreat.
11. Encounter the spiritual being
The being is framed beforehand as something good—an angelic or righteous servant sent by Allah. This framing is important because it makes the eventual encounter appear like the reward for successful spiritual advancement rather than contact with a jinn.
12. Follow the prescribed greeting and interaction
The disciple has already been taught exactly how to respond when the entity appears, including delaying his response and using an altered greeting rather than the normal Islamic salutation. The interaction is therefore ritualised before the encounter even takes place.
13. Accept the entity’s conditions
According to the speaker, cooperation with the jinn involved conditions that had to be fulfilled. Some were introduced during the initiation itself, while others could later be demanded when the practitioner wanted a particular service performed. Normal Shariah objections were dismissed as belonging merely to “outward knowledge.”
14. Be given a new spiritual status
The entity then supposedly announces that the disciple has become one of the awliya [saints], has reached a special rank and is no longer bound by ordinary religious obligations. This effectively completes the ideological break from the Shariah.
15. Receive talismanic knowledge
The disciple is shown letters, symbols, numbers, talismans and awfaq [magic squares]. These are copied onto the blank paper and retained for later occult work.
16. Enter an ongoing working relationship with the jinn
The initiation does not end with a single encounter. According to the speaker, it establishes an ongoing relationship in which the practitioner later requests services from jinn, while fulfilling the conditions attached to that cooperation.
This is probably the single most important practical insight in Video 1. The speaker presents magic not as one isolated ritual, but as a progressive system of initiation.
6. The Jinn Hierarchy
The speaker also provides a picture of how he says cooperation between magicians and jinn operate.
According to him, the jinn can organise themselves under chiefs and subordinates. A subordinate sent to serve a magician might not necessarily be doing so willingly; it could be acting because it feared punishment from its own leader.
The magician makes requests.
The jinn sets its own conditions.
Services are then exchanged under an ongoing arrangement.
Again, this should not be elevated into a definitive map of the unseen world. But it is useful for understanding the speaker’s conception of magic.
Magic, in his account, is not merely “the magician commands a jinn.” It is closer to a relationship of reciprocal obligation.
The human carries out prohibited acts, ritual conditions or acts of submission, while the jinn performs certain services.
This is also why the speaker reacts so strongly to claims that a practitioner simply has a friendly “Muslim jinn.” Within his account, the relationship is rarely neutral. There are conditions attached.
7. Information Obtained Through a Hidden Channel
The final major subject in Video 1 concerns how practitioners may apparently know things they should not ordinarily know.
The speaker says that during his former practice he could sometimes tell a client remarkably specific information:
where he came from;
his relatives’ names;
details of stolen property;
where an item had allegedly been taken;
what happened on a particular day;
or things the client had recently done.
The speaker says this apparent accuracy was one of the things that drew people towards practitioners like him.
The mechanism he describes is communication through the qarin [jinn-companion assigned to every human being].
The speaker says that the magician’s jinn communicates with the client’s qarin, thereby gaining information about:
the person’s identity;
things he has done;
people around him;
and even certain internal thoughts or whisperings.
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