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The following are excerpts from an Al-Jazeera TV report about Afghan healing methods
Reporter:Do you suffer from an illness, economic hardship, or do you have family problems? Afghan fortune tellers say they to have a solution. All you need to do is to reveal all your secrets to the fortune teller, and he will start working on talismans. If your problem is severe, he will heal you with witchcraft, a sword, or a whip. Fortune tellers use vague mathematical calculations to see into the future.
Sayyed Agha, Fortune Teller: Economic problems are the main reason people come to us. If their economic situation improves their standard of living will improve as well.
Reporter:Although clerics warn not to confuse religion with superstition, the Afghan clerics differ in opinions on talismans.
Abd Al-Qayum Al-Shami, Fortune teller: In Arabic, ta'wiz means to protect someone using words, and this is permitted in Islamic law. But the Afghan t'awiz, which is called ruqa in Arabic, or rather tamaim (talismans), is forbidden in Islamic law, because Allah's messenger said, "witchcraft, talismans, and love-spells are polytheism."
Muhammad Sarour, Afghan cleric: Healing with talismans is permitted according to the Koran and the Sunna, whether by reciting or by writing the words on a piece of paper and swallowing it or dissolving it in water and drinking it.
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