English Translation

Abu Mu’awiyah told us: al-A’mash told us, from Amr ibn Murrah, from Yahya ibn al-Jazzar, from the nephew of Zaynab, from Zaynab, the wife of Abdullah, who said: Whenever Abdullah came back from some errand and reached the door, he would clear his throat and spit, disliking to burst in upon us doing something he would dislike. She said: One day he came and cleared his throat, and I had an old woman with me who was treating me with a charm for redness, so I hid her under the bed. He came in and sat beside me, and saw a thread on my neck. He said, "What is this thread?" I said, "A thread that a charm was recited over for me." She said: He took it and cut it, then said, "The household of Abdullah has no need of shirk. I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say: ‘Charms, amulets, and love-charms are shirk.’" She said: I said to him, "Why do you say this, when my eye used to discharge, and I used to go to a certain Jew who would recite a charm over it, and whenever he recited over it, it would settle?" He said, "That was only the work of Satan; he would prick it with his hand, and when you had the charm recited, he would stop. It would have been enough for you to say what the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘Take away the harm, Lord of mankind, heal — You are the Healer, there is no healing but Your healing, a healing that leaves no illness behind.’"