The Repentant Magician – Part 2: Conditions Set by the Devil
Video 2 develops several of the themes introduced in the first lecture, but moves further into the practical workings of the occult system the speaker says he once practised.
Particular attention is given to talismanic objects, numerical diagrams, dealings with jinn, and the conditions allegedly imposed upon the magician in return for their cooperation.
The lecture centres around three closely connected questions:
How can practices rooted in magic come to be presented as part of religion?
What is the magician required to do in return for the services of the jinn?
What is the role of hujub [amulets], talasim [talismans], awfaq [numerical “magic” squares], bukhur [incense] and other occult preparations?
Through his account, the speaker begins to show how these different elements fit together as part of a wider magical system rather than as isolated practices.
1. Why Magic Keeps Getting Connected to Prophet Sulayman
The speaker begins Video 2 by addressing a recurring theme in occult literature: the association of magic with Prophet Sulayman.
This is important because many talismans, numerical diagrams and occult writings are given names such as Khatam Sulayman [the Seal of Sulayman], creating the impression that they originate from the prophet himself and therefore possess some form of religious legitimacy and authority.
To explain how such an association supposedly arose, the speaker recounts a lengthy story which he himself identifies as coming from the Israiliyyat [reports transmitted from earlier Jewish and Christian traditions].
The details of this narrative are not established by the Quran and should therefore be treated accordingly.
The speaker appears to use the story primarily to explain how occult material came to be falsely attributed to Sulayman rather than an authenticated historical account.
According to the report, Prophet Sulayman would regularly worship Allah, and after his prostrations a plant or tree would grow where he had prostrated. Sulayman would ask the plant its name and the purpose for which it had been created. The plant would identify itself and explain its particular use, after which Sulayman would instruct the humans and jinn around him to record the information.
In this way, a body of genuine knowledge concerning plants and their properties was accumulated under his supervision.
One day, a different tree appeared.
Sulayman asked:
“Who are you?”
It replied that it was the kharubah.
He then asked:
“Why were you created?”
According to the story, it replied that it had been created for the destruction of a particular place of worship.
Sulayman understood this as an indication that a significant change was approaching, including his own death. He ordered the statement to be recorded and the tree to be cut down.
Sulayman then enquired about his own death with the Angel of Death.
When his appointed time drew near, Sulayman ordered the jinn to construct a glass chamber in which he could withdraw and devote himself to the worship of Allah. He entered the structure and instructed the jinn not to disturb him. They were instead to continue working outside on a building project. Once the construction was complete, their chief engineer was to present the finished work to Sulayman and await his instructions.
Sulayman then died while leaning upon his staff.
When the chief engineer completed the building and came to report to him, he found Sulayman still (unmoving), supported by his staff and facing towards the construction. He said nothing.
The engineer interpreted the silence as anger.
He returned to the other jinn and effectively told them:
“Sulayman is displeased. He looked at the building and would not even speak to me. Clearly he does not approve of what we have constructed.”
Fearing his anger, they demolished the entire structure and began again.
They completed another building.
The engineer returned.
Sulayman remained silent.
Again they assumed that he was displeased.
Again they demolished it.
According to the speaker, this continued for a considerable period, with hundreds of structures being built and demolished because the jinn repeatedly misinterpreted Sulayman’s silence.
Eventually a creature of the earth — a termite — consumed enough of Sulayman’s staff for it to break. His body then fell to the ground.
Only then did the jinn realise that Sulayman had been dead all along.
This is where the story intersects with the established Quranic account in Surah Sabaʾ [34:14]. The speaker emphasises that the verse demonstrates the falsehood of the claim that the jinn possess independent ilm al-ghayb [knowledge of the unseen]. Sulayman was dead in front of them, yet they continued labouring because they did not know what had happened.
The Corruption of Sulayman’s Books
The story then takes a turn which explains why the speaker introduced it in the first place.
Once the jinn realised that Sulayman had died, they entered the place and began tampering with the written material that had accumulated during his lifetime.
These writings were purportedly genuine records produced under Sulayman’s supervision, including the information concerning plants and their uses.
The speaker says the jinn then:
removed or concealed many of the genuine books;
left behind some smaller writings;
inserted khurafat [superstitious fabrications], talasim [talismans] and other occult material;
and deliberately left these corrupted writings where humans would later discover them.
The deception was therefore more sophisticated than simply teaching magic openly. It involved mixing occult material with genuine knowledge and then allowing the entire collection to be attributed to Sulayman.
A later generation could then discover the writings and reason:
“These were found amongst the writings of Sulayman, so Sulayman himself must have used them.”
From there, a further justification becomes possible:
“Sulayman was a prophet. If Sulayman practised magic, then magic cannot be prohibited.”
The story continues by saying that one of the jinn assumed human form and approached nearby people. Presenting himself as an ordinary traveller, he told them that he had passed by Sulayman and seen him fallen there and that they should investigate.
When they asked him to accompany them, he declined, insisting that he was continuing his journey. He then disappeared and returned to the other jinn.
The people eventually reached Sulayman, discovered that he had died, and encountered the writings associated with him.
According to the speaker, three broad positions then emerged.
The first group concluded that Sulayman had been both a prophet and a magician.
They saw the talismans, occult writings and strange diagrams and reasoned:
“This explains Sulayman’s extraordinary kingdom. This must be how he controlled the jinn and acquired such power.”
They then drew the dangerous conclusion:
“If a prophet practised magic, magic must therefore be permissible.”
The second group rejected this conclusion.
They argued that Sulayman had not practised magic and that the suspicious material could not genuinely belong to him. They noticed that some of the original books had disappeared and suspected that the surviving writings had been altered.
According to the report, people who had served as scribes during Sulayman’s lifetime were then questioned.
A scribe was asked:
“Did you write for Sulayman?”
“Yes.”
“Would you recognise your own handwriting?”
“Yes.”
When shown a surviving document, he might recognise the beginning as his own work but identify the later passages as additions:
“Yes, this is my handwriting, but I did not write what comes after this point. My writing ended here.”
Similar discrepancies were found in several writings.
For the speaker, this explains how genuine material associated with Sulayman could have become mixed with later occult fabrications while still retaining his name.
The third group went to the opposite extreme.
They saw the magical material and reasoned:
“Magic is disbelief. Sulayman practised magic. Therefore Sulayman was not truly a prophet; he was a magician and a disbeliever.”
The speaker says it is this accusation which Allah decisively rejects in Surah al-Baqarah:
“Sulayman did not disbelieve, but the devils disbelieved, teaching people magic…” [2:102]
Whatever one makes of the surrounding Israiliyyat narrative, the Quranic point is clear: Sulayman is innocent of the magic later attributed to his reign.
From the Story to the “Seal of Sulayman”
This is why the opening story is not merely a historical digression. It introduces one of the central themes of Video 2: the way occult practices can be given a religious pedigree.
The speaker turns to objects still circulating among occult practitioners which are presented as remnants of allegedly ancient prophetic knowledge, including:
Khatam Sulayman [the Seal of Sulayman];
the alleged “Seal of Dawud”;
seals attributed to other sacred figures;
awfaq [numerical squares];
occult diagrams;
and talismanic patterns supposedly inherited from other prophets.
He says such material continues to appear in old occult manuals where magical diagrams are presented as inherited spiritual secrets rather than as sihr [magic].
Within the occult system in which he himself was trained, the Seal of Sulayman supposedly possessed a sirr [secret]. Practitioners were taught that someone who acquired this secret could attain extraordinary power resembling the dominion granted to Sulayman.
This, according to the speaker, helps explain why the symbol became so important within occult practice.
He then makes an important correction.
The Quran itself explains the source of Sulayman’s extraordinary dominion: dua.
Sulayman prayed:
“My Lord, forgive me and grant me a kingdom that will not belong to anyone after me. Indeed, You are the Bestower.”
Allah answered his supplication and subjected the wind and jinn to him.
There is therefore no need to invent an occult mechanism.
The Quranic account does not say that Sulayman controlled the jinn through a ring, numerical square or talismanic seal. His authority was a gift from Allah, not the product of magic.
2. The Initiation Continues
Video 2 then returns to the initiation process described in Video 1.
The “Edge of the Preserved Tablet”
After enduring the frightening apparitions during the khalwah [occult retreat], the speaker says he was instructed to close his eyes and then look upwards.
He says he saw the Arabic alphabet written from alif to ya. Beside the letters were particular numbers and talismanic symbols.
He was instructed to copy what he saw onto the blank paper that had previously been placed inside the retreat.
The entity told him:
“You will need these later.”
He says he was then told that what he had seen was “the edge of the Lawh al-Mahfuz [Preserved Tablet].”
He was led to believe that he would eventually obtain direct access to knowledge from the Preserved Tablet, receive rulings from it, possess ilm ladunni [divinely bestowed esoteric knowledge] and become one of the people of mukashafah [unveiling].
This is significant because the occult knowledge being presented to him was not described as magic. It was being framed as a higher form of spiritual knowledge.
The Talisman as a Personal Link
The speaker then says that after closing and reopening his eyes again, he was shown a small seal: a three-by-three numerical square whose numbers total fifteen.
He was ordered to reproduce it.
Initially he was instructed to engrave it onto a small plate of gold.
He replied:
“I do not have gold.”
Another material that would not corrode was suggested, but again he said he did not possess it.
Eventually he was instructed to travel to an area called Ardib, where he would find bones beneath a particular tree. He was to take a suitable flat bone — apparently something resembling a shoulder blade — and use that instead.
The speaker objected:
“That place is far away. How can I go there now and return?”
The being replied that he had now become one of the ashab al-khutwah [people of the miraculous step].
When he asked what this meant, he was told that he could cross enormous distances in a single step.
Ardib, he says, was around forty-four or forty-five kilometres away.
The entity instructed him to stand, raise one foot and then the other. The speaker says that after doing so he suddenly found himself at the distant location.
Someone in the audience asks:
“Were you awake or asleep?”
He replies:
“I was awake.”
He then says he obtained the bone, engraved the talisman upon it at night and buried it.
What follows is particularly important for understanding how he describes his relationship with the jinn.
According to the speaker, the buried talisman became a code or agreed signal between himself and the jinn. He was taught a particular hand gesture together with a sequence of names which he could use when he wanted the entity to appear. He deliberately withholds some of these details from the audience so that they cannot imitate the procedure.
Within his account, therefore, the talisman formed part of a wider system of communication involving the engraved object, particular names, gestures and ritual conditions.
3. How Magic is Commissioned
The speaker then gives one of the clearest descriptions of what happened once this relationship had been established.
If he wanted a particular service performed, he would summon the jinn.
The jinn might then instruct him to:
refer to a particular occult booklet;
consult a specific page;
use a particular tilsam [talisman];
use a Quranic surah or verse in a particular manner;
perform particular ritual acts;
make a prescribed slaughter or offering;
and fulfil any additional conditions demanded.
The important point is that a magical working, as he describes it, was not simply a matter of saying to a jinn:
“Do this for me.”
Instead, there was an established process.
The Conditions Set by the Devil
Continuing his account of the initiation, the speaker says the entity informed him that there were numerous conditions which had to be fulfilled.
One condition had to be performed immediately as proof that he had genuinely committed himself. Other conditions would be imposed later whenever particular services were requested.
Some of these demands, he says, involved explicit acts of disbelief, including insulting:
Allah;
the religion;
the Prophet ﷺ;
other messengers;
or the angels.
The practitioner was permitted to hear alternative conditions and choose between them.
This detail is revealing because, in the speaker’s account, the system does not necessarily begin by demanding the most extreme act imaginable. The practitioner is progressively drawn further in.
Desecration of the Sacred as a Condition of Magic
One of the darkest themes in Video 2 is the speaker’s testimony that the magician is required to deliberately violate things that Islam considers sacred.
He does not present these acts as random obscenities. They are described as conditions imposed upon the practitioner.
Their purpose appears to be twofold: to degrade the human being by drawing him into increasingly vile behaviour, and to demonstrate that obedience to the occult system has taken precedence over obedience to Allah.
This helps make sense of why some occult rituals contain acts that otherwise appear irrational, humiliating or needlessly offensive. The act may have no obvious practical function in itself. Its significance lies in the transgression.
The practitioner is being required to cross a sacred boundary:
something honoured is deliberately dishonoured;
something commanded is deliberately abandoned;
something forbidden is deliberately performed.
The magician is being progressively conditioned to invert the sacred order.
Earlier in the series, the speaker had already described Quranic words being altered, reversed or mixed with strange names and formulas. Video 2 extends this pattern beyond the corruption of sacred words to the corruption of worship and religious boundaries themselves.
One of the conditions imposed upon him personally concerned fasting.
He says he was instructed not to fast because he had reached a spiritual rank at which the ordinary religious obligations no longer applied to him. If he chose to fast, he was told, it would merely be an additional act. If he did not fast, there would be no sin.
The speaker says that for approximately seventeen years while involved in this system, he did not fast.
The same pattern extended to salah [prayer].
The speaker says practitioners could be instructed to avoid Jumuah, stay away from congregational prayer, refuse to lead people in prayer, avoid the front rows, or even pray without valid wudu [ablution].
The speaker says the violations could become considerably more explicit.
He explains that some practitioners were commanded to commit zina [fornication or adultery], including sexual acts with close relatives. He also describes sexual obscenity being incorporated into acts of deliberate desecration.
The process could include the desecration of the mushaf [physical Quran] itself. He describes practitioners being instructed to defile copies of the Quran or particular verses in deliberately degrading ways.
Magic as a Transaction
The speaker’s testimony presents a clearer picture of the relationship between the magician and the jinn.
The practitioner wants a service.
The jinn sets a condition.
The practitioner fulfils that condition.
The service is then performed.
The relationship is therefore transactional, but the magician may ultimately be the more dependent party.
He appears to command the jinn, yet repeatedly finds himself performing whatever the jinn demands in order to secure their cooperation.
The “power” of the magician therefore comes at a price.
4. Other Notable Points from Video 2
Occult Objects
The speaker refers to a range of objects and methods associated with occult practice, including:
tilsam [talisman];
hijab [amulet];
bukhur [incense or fumigation];
mihayah [written material washed or dissolved into water];
awfaq [numerical squares];
rings bearing occult symbols;
and other written preparations.
Although these objects look very different, the speaker presents them as forms that may draw upon the same occult or magical system.
Why He Rejects Treating Magic with Magic
The speaker also addresses nushrah [the removal of magic with magic], specifically the practice of going to another magician to undo an existing sihr [magical working].
His objection follows directly from his own experiences. He does not accept that a magician can simply command or request the jinn to remove magic without first fulfilling the conditions through which their cooperation is obtained. Those conditions themselves involve acts of disobedience, desecration or kufr [disbelief].
For this reason, he rejects the idea that magic can be legitimately treated through another magician.
The “Blessed” Water Jug
Towards the end of the lecture, the speaker describes one of his first supposed karamat [saintly miracles].
When he emerged from the khalwah [retreat], he was instructed to keep his eyes closed. This is because the first thing he sees would supposedly receive barakah [blessing].
He says he opened his eyes. The first object he saw was a clay water jug.
It was immediately announced:
“The blessing has entered the jug.”
From that point, people venerated the object. They kissed it and sought blessing through it.
The speaker then describes further strange phenomena. Other jugs gathered around it, while the “blessed” jug appeared to move by itself, travel to the well, fill with water and return.
To his followers observing this, such behaviour would naturally appear to confirm the shaykh’s exceptional spiritual status.
Looking back after his repentance, however, the speaker interprets the phenomenon very differently. He associates it not with genuine sainthood, but with the same jinn relationship.
5. What Video 2 Reveals About the Speaker’s Practice of Magic
Video 1 largely described the speaker’s initiation into the occult system.
Video 2 gives us a clearer picture of how that system operated once the relationship with the jinn had been established.
The process described by the speaker in this video can be summarised as follows.
Stage One: The Relationship Is Encoded
The practitioner receives or learns various magical components, including:
letters;
numbers;
awfaq [numerical squares];
talasim [talismans];
unfamiliar names;
gestures;
and written diagrams.
These become part of the system used in later dealings.
Stage Two: A Personal Link Is Established
The speaker says he engraved and buried a particular talisman and was taught a gesture and sequence of names through which the jinn could supposedly be summoned.
Stage Three: A Service Is Requested
The magician asks for a particular task or outcome.
Stage Four: Instructions Are Given and Conditions Are Fulfilled
The jinn then directs the practitioner towards:
a particular talisman;
specific writing;
a Quranic passage used in a prescribed manner;
an offering or slaughter;
particular ritual acts;
or another occult requirement.
Stage Five: The Conditions Are Fulfilled
The practitioner carries out what is demanded.
In the speaker’s account, these conditions are central to obtaining the cooperation of the jinn.
Stage Six: The Requested Service Is Performed
Only after the required process has been completed does the jinn supposedly carry out the requested task.
Comments