Ruqyah and psychological distress

Introduction

Islam teaches us to seek refuge in Allah and to care for people in distress. This episode asks how Qur'anic ruqyah might sit alongside psychological treatment. Ahmad Dadoosh returns to Jerry Marzinsky's interpretation of distressing voices, then considers an Emirati woman's account of psychosis. He says the episode is one part of a larger argument, not a complete demonstration of the origin of every voice.^[1]

The question needs care. An interview establishes what a person reports. It does not, without more evidence, identify the cause of a particular voice or license a diagnosis of someone who has not been assessed. The previous articles on Marzinsky's claims and medicine and the spiritual dimension provide the wider discussion.

A woman's experience of psychosis

The episode turns to an interview with Shaima Ahmed on Nafs Arab Cast, published in November 2025. She describes hearing multiple voices during a period of depression and psychosis, including a frightening command presented to her in religious language. She says she did not act on it. The host and guest discuss the danger of delay in recognising severe symptoms; she says she went seven years before receiving a diagnosis.^[2][3]

Dadoosh hears in the voices a possible spiritual attack and compares the account with other stories he has been told, including anonymous incidents of grave harm. The interview itself does not identify jinn as the source of Ahmed's voices. His additional cases have not been supported here by records or direct interviews, and his theory that devils feed on suffering has not been independently established.^[4]

Ahmed's own public message deserves to remain in view. She wants people to recognise symptoms earlier and seek help. She also says that readers suggesting she is bewitched may mean well, while insisting that her condition calls for psychiatric treatment. An editor should not erase her account by replacing her understanding of it with another person's certainty.^[5]

What does “60% better” mean?

Ahmed reports that after several weeks in a psychiatric facility she felt about 60% improved, and she describes continuing treatment. This is her estimate of a stage in her recovery, not a measured recovery rate for people with psychosis. Dadoosh argues that the incomplete improvement leaves room for a spiritual cause; the number alone cannot establish that conclusion. Nor does continuing medicine mean treatment has failed.^[6]

Her friends had suggested ruqyah, and she says a practitioner told her he found nothing spiritual wrong. Dadoosh asks whether that single practitioner's judgment should settle the matter and warns that practitioners can be unqualified. That is a fair reason to avoid treating one visit as an exhaustive theological test. It is not evidence that this woman was possessed, or that another practitioner would have cured her.^[7]

The National Institute of Mental Health describes psychosis as a cluster of experiences with different possible causes and recommends assessment and treatment. Early care matters, and recovery is possible. Faith, prayer and family support can be present without asking a person to stop clinical care or treating a command voice as divine instruction.^[8]

Access to ruqyah and its religious basis

Dadoosh criticises restrictions on access to practitioners, especially in the Gulf, and discusses posts he attributes to an Emirati religious authority. He contrasts this with licensing in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Qatar's Ministry of Endowments does publish conditions for a ruqyah permit, including an age threshold and an interview on religious knowledge. The particular Emirati social-media exchange, current rules in every Gulf state and allegations about governments' religious motives have not been independently established in this review.^[9][10]

He also objects to making self-ruqyah the only recommended path. In Sahih Muslim 2202, the Prophet ﷺ teaches Uthman ibn Abi al-As a supplication to say over his own pain. In a separate report, Asma asks about seeking ruqyah for Ja'far's children and receives permission. These texts support both supplication for oneself and asking others for lawful help. They do not establish that a given practitioner is qualified, that self-ruqyah is generally weaker, or that ruqyah replaces clinical assessment.^[11][12]

Dadoosh mentions other reports of the Prophet ﷺ reciting over patients and an account of commanding an enemy of Allah to leave. The exact chain, wording and interpretation of the latter account require a separate hadith review. It should not be read as permission for coercive handling of a distressed person.^[13]

Marzinsky and Qur'anic recitation

The episode closes with an excerpt attributed to an interview of Jerry Marzinsky by Michelle DeVrieze. Dadoosh says Marzinsky, who is not Muslim, spoke favourably of Islamic prayers and kept passages associated with protection from jinn. The description links to Shadow People® With Jerry Marzinsky, but YouTube rate-limited the separate automatic-caption download during this review. The exact English exchange and any claimed treatment result therefore remain unverified here; the article reports Dadoosh's presentation of it.^[14]

Dadoosh identifies the protective recitations as the final two surahs, al-Falaq and al-Nas. The Qur'an's final surah explicitly seeks refuge from the whisperer among jinn and humankind. That text grounds a believer's prayer. It does not prove that each voice heard by a person in psychosis is a jinn, nor does an interview provide a clinical trial of ruqyah.^[15][16]

Prayer and treatment need not be enemies. For a person frightened by voices, care means listening without ridicule, taking dangerous commands seriously, and helping them obtain appropriate professional support. Ruqyah may be a spiritual practice within that care; claims of a particular diagnosis or cure require evidence beyond resemblance between stories.

References