Islamic Article | - Innovated way of finding out whether a person is afflicted with the evil eye and treating it

I have a question about the evil eye. In my culture (I am originally
from Morocco), the women treat the evil eyeby this ceremony:
The sick person sits down (on a chair e.g.) while an other person
holds a glass of water above his head.
An other person (this canbe the same one as the one holding the
glass), lights a match and goes around the face of the sick person
with it, meanwhile reciting soerat al Faatihah. Note that the match
doesnt touch the face of the sickperson. After a few seconds, the
match is thrown in the glass of water above the head ofthe sick person
and a second match gets lighten.
This is done seven times.
When done, the person who is doing this, takes the glass of water and
touches all the matches in the glass. When the matches go to the
bottom of the glass, it means that the sick person is afflicted by
theevil eye. They usually count the matches on the bottom to estimate
how sick the person is. The more matches on the bottom, the sicker
heis.
After this ceremony, people assume that the sick person is cured. I
think this is very untrustworthy, because Inever read something about
a glass and matches to treat the evil eye. Can you please tell me
whether this has a basic in islam or not?.
Praise be to Allaah.
The method mentioned of finding out whether aperson has been afflicted
with the evil eye and treating it is an innovated method (bid'ah) and
a reprehensible practice; itis not permissible to do it and it should
be forbidden and warned against. It is more like witchcraft and
devilish tricks than ruqyah as prescribed in Islam or regular medical
treatment.
Islam, praise be to Allah, did not omit anything that concerns people
butit has discussed it and explained it clearly. But the Shaytaan
still manages to mislead some people because of their ignorance of
Islam and the ways of bid'ah (innovation) that they are following.
Ruqya may be done by reciting al-Faatihah, and reciting al-Faatihah as
a remedy for sickness is something that has beenprescribed in
sharee'ah, but not in this innovatedfashion.
See the answer to question no. 21581 and 132386
Believing that something is a means when Allah has not made it a means
– eitheraccording to Islam or thelaws of nature that He has decreed –
is a kind of shirk. An example of that is regarding something as a
sign of healing or sickness, or ofsuccess or failure, when there is no
shar'i or physical connection between the two.
Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
So long as there is no proof that a thing is a means (to an end) –
either according to Islamor natural, physical laws – then it is a kind
of minor shirk. That includes, for example, charms and amulets that
are said to ward off the evil eye, and the like, because this is
deciding that something is a means to an end when Allah has not
created it to be such. Thus he is deciding about something being a
means to an end, which is something that is only for Allah to decide.
Hence this is like an act of shirk.
End quote from Majmoo'Fataawa Ibn 'Uthaymeen, 10/787
To sum up:
The method mentioned is an innovative and reprehensible method that is
more akin to the tricks of the practitioners of witchcraft and
charlatans.
For information on the symptoms of affliction with the evil eye please
see the answer to question no. 125543
For more information onways of protecting oneself from the evil eyeand
treating one who has been affected by it