Zainab the wife of ‘Abdallah b. Mas'ud told that ‘Abdallah saw a thread on her neck and asked what it was. When she told him that it was a thread over which a spell had been recited for her he took it, cut it up and said, “You, family of ‘Abdallah, are independent of polytheism. I have heard God’s messenger say that spells, charms and love-spells are polytheism.”
She replied, “Why do you speak like this? My eye was discharging and I kept going to so and so, the Jew, and when he applied a spell to it it calmed down.”
‘Abdallah said, “That was just the work of the devil who was pricking it with his hand, and when a spell was uttered he desisted. All you need to do is to say as God’s messenger did, ‘Remove the harm, O Lord of men, and heal. Thou art the Healer. There is no remedy but Thine which leaves no disease behind.”
