Hadith: A man from the Banu Zurayq, whose name was Labīd ibn al-A‘sam, performed magic on the Messenger and he began to imagine that he had done something that he had not done

عن عائشة رضي الله عنها قالت: سَحَرَ رسولَ الله صلى الله عليه وسلم رجلٌ من بني زُرَيق، يقال له لَبِيد بن الأَعْصَم، حتى كان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يُخَيَّل إليه أنه كان يَفْعل الشيء وما فَعَله، حتى إذا كان ذاتَ يوم أو ذات ليلة وهو عندي، لكنه دَعا ودَعا، ثم قال: «يا عائشة، أَشَعَرْتِ أنَّ اللهَ أفتاني فيما استَفْتَيْتُه فيه، أتاني رجلان، فقَعَد أحدُهما عند رأسي، والآخر عند رِجْلي، فقال أحدهما لصاحبه: ما وَجَعُ الرجل؟ فقال: مَطْبوب، قال: مَن طَبَّه؟ قال: لَبِيد بن الأَعْصَم، قال: في أي شيء؟ قال: في مِشْطٍ ومُشَاطة، وجُفِّ طَلْعِ نخلةٍ ذَكَرٍ. قال: وأين هو؟ قال: في بئر ذَرْوان» فأتاها رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم في ناس من أصحابه، فجاء فقال: «يا عائشة، كأنَّ ماءَها نُقَاعَة الحِنَّاء، أو كأنَّ رءوس نخلها رءوس الشياطين» قلت: يا رسول الله: أفلا استخرجتَه؟ قال: «قد عافاني الله، فكرِهتُ أن أُثَوِّرَ على الناس فيه شرًّا» فأمر بها فدُفِنَت.
[صحيح] - [متفق عليه]

‘Ā'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) reported: A man from the Banu Zurayq, whose name was Labīd ibn al-A‘sam, performed magic on the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) and he began to imagine that he had done something that he had not. One day, while he was with me, he supplicated to Allah, the Almighty, and he supplicated for a prolonged period and then said: ‘O ‘Ā'ishah, do you know that Allah has told me regarding the matter I asked Him about? Two men came to me, one of them sat near my head and the other sat near my feet. One of them asked his companion: “What is wrong with this man?” The other replied: “'He is under a magic spell.” The first one asked: “Who performed magic on him?” The other replied: “Labīd ibn al-A‘sam.” The first one asked: “What did he do it with?” The other replied: “With a comb and the hair stuck in it, and the skin of a male date palm pollen.” The first one asked: “Where is it?” The other replied: “In the well of Dharwān.”’ The Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) went with some of his Companions to the well. He returned to me and said: ‘O ‘Ā'ishah, by Allah, the water in that well was (red) like a Henna leaf infusion, and the date palms were like the heads of devils.’ I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, should you take (those things) out (of the pollen skin)?’ He said: ‘No. Allah has healed me, and I was afraid that I would spread evil among the people.’ He then ordered the well be filled with earth, and it was filled with earth.”
[Authentic hadith] - [Narrated by Bukhari & Muslim]

Explanation

‘Ā'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said that Labīd ibn al-A‘sam, a Jew from the tribe of Banu Zurayq, cast a spell on the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and he imagined that he had done something that he had not. One day, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) was in ‘Ā'ishah's house, but he was paying her no attention as he was totally engrossed in supplicating repeatedly to Allah, the Almighty, to reveal to him the reality behind this issue. Then, the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) told her that Allah, the Almighty, had answered his supplication and sent two angels to him; one of them sat by his head and the other by his feet. One of them said to the other: “What is wrong with this man?” referring to the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him). The other said: “He is under a magic spell.” He asked: “Who has bewitched him?” The other said: “Labīd ibn al-A’sam.” He asked: “With what?” meaning: what was used to create this magic spell? The other said: “With a comb and the hair stuck in it, and the skin of a male date palm pollen.” He asked: “Where is it?” The other said: “In the well of Dharwān.” This was a well-known well in Madīnah. The Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) went there with some of his Companions and took it out. Then the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) came back and told ‘Ā'ishah that the water of the well was red like a Henna leaf infusion (either because the water of that well itself was bad or due to what had been thrown into it), and the date palms were as hideous and ugly as the heads of devils. ‘Ā'ishah (may Allah be pleased with her) asked: "Should you take it out?" meaning: should you take those things out of the pollen skin and show them to the people so they know what had happened? The Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No. Allah has healed me and I was afraid that I would spread evil among the people," meaning: Allah has healed me, and I feared that spreading this among the people might bring evil upon them, as it would attract the hypocrites’ attention to the harm that magic can cause, and may encourage them to learn it to harm the believers. Therefore, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) gave up this benefit due to fear of its evil consequences. So the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) ordered that the well should be filled with earth, and it was. Some people have denied the story of magic being done to the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) claiming that it casts doubt upon his infallibility. They argued that, accepting the story means that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) might have imagined that he was seeing Jibrīl when he was not there, and that something had been revealed to him when nothing had been revealed. However, all of this is to be rejected, because the evidence that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) was infallible in what he conveyed from Allah, the Almighty, and that he was infallible in his manner of conveying it is well established. The harm that afflicted him due to the magic did not include any deficiency regarding conveying the Message. Rather, it was the sort of illness and troubles that normally afflict human beings. The effect of the magic that was performed on the Messenger of Allah (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) was explained in other narration, which stated that he (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) imagined that he had had sexual intercourse with his wives, when he had not done so.