“There’s no such thing as the evil eye, it’s all superstition!” — we say this quite easily. When someone gets a new job, buys a new car, gets married, has a child, or something suddenly good happens in their life, and someone says “beware of the evil eye,” we often dismiss it as superstition. But does Islam really treat this belief the way we casually brush it off as “village talk”?
Nearly 1,400 years ago, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Al-‘aynu haqq” — the evil eye is real. Hadiths to the same effect are narrated in both Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. Hadith 5595 in Sahih Muslim states: “The evil eye is real; if anything were to overtake destiny, it would be the evil eye.” In the Quran’s Surah Al-Falaq, too, Allah teaches us: “And from the evil of an envier when he envies” (Surah Al-Falaq: 5).
Now let’s look at what science says about the reasoning behind a gaze. When a person looks at someone, it isn’t just the eyes at work. That gaze carries with it feeling, judgment, attraction, envy, fear or even malice. Looking at someone with love and looking at them with envy are not the same thing.
Modern science has long studied this social and psychological human response. In particular, there is significant research on how “social-evaluative threat” — the fear of being negatively judged by others — produces physical reactions in the body.
A 2004 research review by psychologists Sally S. Dickerson and Margaret E. Kemeny found that the fear of being socially evaluated or judged can heighten the body’s cortisol-driven stress response (Dickerson, S. S., & Kemeny, M. E., 2004).
In other words, other people’s gaze or judgment is not always meaningless to our bodies. If someone looks at you in a way that makes you feel judged, you might notice your heart racing shortly after, along with discomfort, sweaty palms or a heavy feeling in your head. Our brains can sometimes treat social threats as real, physical pressure, triggering an actual stress response in the body. Science now understands quite well that the mind and body are not separate worlds.
This is where the “nocebo effect” also comes in. A negative expectation, fear or apprehension can sometimes intensify a person’s actual physical discomfort. In other words, the mere expectation that something will harm us can influence our bodily experience. But the question remains: can it really be entirely denied that a person’s negative feelings, gaze and social behaviour can affect another person?
Sunan Ibn Majah, hadith 3506, records an incident involving the companion Sahl ibn Hunayf (may Allah be pleased with him). Amir ibn Rabiah (may Allah be pleased with him) saw him and praised his beauty and physique. Sahl then fell ill. When this was reported to the Prophet (peace be upon him), he said: “Why does none of you invoke a blessing for your brother?” He then told Amir to perform a ritual washing.
There was no intention to cause harm here. Rather, one person was struck by another’s appearance and praised him. Yet the Prophet (peace be upon him) still taught the practice of invoking a blessing. In other words, caution is warranted even with excessive praise.
The moment we open social media, we look into other people’s lives. Someone’s new house, new car, wedding, child, trip abroad, award or success — all of it is now in front of our eyes. Some of us look on with joy. Some of us look on in admiration. And some of us, without even realising it, look on with envy.
We often think of the evil eye as purely “a problem in someone else’s eyes.” But we should also consider what lies within our own eyes. This is why Islam teaches us to seek refuge from the harm of an envier, and to invoke a blessing when we see something good happen to someone else. Science, meanwhile, is showing us that a person’s social experiences, negative judgments and expectations can produce real effects on the body and mind.
When we see something good in someone’s life, we can choose blessing over envy. Rather than measuring our own shortcomings against another’s success, we can share in their joy. Rather than simply staring at something good in someone’s life, we can say: “May Allah bless them.” Because in the end, perhaps the biggest question about the evil eye is not whether it exists or not. The real question is: what is actually in your eyes when you look at someone else?