In my years of sitting across from people, some anxious, some exhausted, others hopeful, I’ve noticed a common expectation. People often expect Ruqya to look like the climax of an action movie. They expect thunder, lightning, and an immediate, miraculous “poof” where all their problems vanish in a cloud of smoke.
While immediate relief does happen, true spiritual healing is usually more like a sunrise than a light switch. It is a process, a journey, and often, a deep cleaning of the soul.
If you have been attending sessions or listening to audio and you’re wondering, “Is anything actually changing?” or “Do I need to keep doing this?”, you are not alone. It is the most common question I get. Let’s walk through what healing actually looks like, stripping away the superstition and looking at it through the lens of a practitioner’s reality.
The Spiritual Detox: Understanding the Mechanism
To understand the signs, you have to understand the mechanism. Ruqya isn’t magic; it is the application of the Qur’an to burn away impurities. Think of your spiritual heart like a vessel. Over time, through trauma, sin, or affliction (sihr, ayn, or jinn), that vessel accumulates layers of grime.
When we pour the clear water of the Qur’an into that vessel, the dirt gets stirred up. This is where the confusion lies. Sometimes, when the dirt is stirred, the water looks muddier than before. That doesn’t mean it’s getting worse; it means the cleaning has begun.
Signs the “Cloud” Is Lifting (Progress)
When Ruqya is working, the signs are often quieter than you might expect. Yes, there are physical reactions during the session, the sweating, the yawning, the shaking, but the real proof is in your day-to-day life between the sessions.
1. The Return of “You.”
The most profound sign I see is the return of personality. When someone is afflicted, they often feel like a passenger in their own body. They feel numb, irritable, or perpetually brain-fogged.
As the Ruqya takes effect, that fog lifts. You might catch yourself laughing at a joke for the first time in months. You might find that the unnatural anger that used to flare up over spilled milk is suddenly manageable. It’s a subtle shift, but a powerful one: you start feeling like the protagonist of your own life again.
2. Ibadah Becomes Lighter
Afflictions act like weights on the ankles when you try to walk toward Allah. Prayer feels like climbing a mountain; listening to the Qur’an feels like nails on a chalkboard.
A clear sign of progress is “lightness.” You hear the Adhan, and you get up, no internal war, no dragging your feet. You might even find sweetness in the recitation that used to irritate you. This is the spiritual immune system kicking back in.
3. Changes in Dreams and Sleep
Sleep is often the battlefield for the afflicted. Progress usually looks like a transition. You might move from having terrifying nightmares of being chased or falling, to having dreams where you are fighting back and winning. Eventually, the nightmares fade into normal, restful sleep. Waking up rested, actually rested, is a massive indicator that the heavy energy is dissipating.
When the Battle Isn’t Over: Signs You Need More Sessions
Now, let’s talk about the other side of the coin. Sometimes, a client will have one great session and think, “I’m cured!” only to crash a week later. This isn’t a failure; it’s a sign that the root hasn’t been pulled yet.
We have to be realistic here. If an affliction has been sitting in your system for ten years, it is unlikely to leave quietly in ten minutes.
The “Yo-Yo” Effect
If you feel amazing for two days after a session, but by day three the heaviness, depression, or physical pain returns with a vengeance, you need more sessions. This indicates that we have weakened the affliction, but it is regenerating or reconnecting. Consistency is the only way to break that cycle.
Intense Reactivity (The “Stirring”)
Sometimes, things get louder before they get quiet. If you start a Ruqya program and suddenly your symptoms spike, you get angrier, you feel unexplained pain moving around your body, or you feel an intense aversion to the raqi (healer), do not stop.
This is what we call Jinn Confrontation. The entity or the energy is being cornered. It is reacting out of desperation, not strength. If you stop now, you allow it to settle back in. If you push through, you break its hold. Think of it like a fever breaking; the temperature spikes right before the illness leaves.
The “Hidden” Blockages
There are times when a client feels nothing during a session. No shaking, no crying, just boredom. Yet, their life is falling apart.
Counter-intuitively, this numbness often means you need more intense sessions, not fewer. The affliction might be deeply buried or “shielded.” We often need to peel back layers of emotional trauma or psychological barriers before the Ruqya can reach the spiritual root. In these cases, patience is your strongest weapon.
Navigating the Gray Area
So, how do you distinguish between “I’m healing” and “I’m stuck”?
The Healing Trajectory:
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Good Sign: Symptoms are changing (e.g., pain moving from chest to foot).
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Good Sign: You have more good days than bad days compared to last month.
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Good Sign: You react less violently to the Qur’an and more with tears of relief.
The “Need More Work” Trajectory:
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Sign: Symptoms remain exactly the same with zero shift after multiple sessions.
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Sign: You are physically better, but spiritually you have stopped praying entirely (this is a trick of the Shaytan to make you think you are “fine” so you leave the cure).
A Final Reflection
Ruqya is a partnership between you, the practitioner, and your trust in Allah. It is rare for the path to be a straight line. There will be peaks and valleys.
If you are seeing signs of lightness, say Alhamdulillah and keep going to solidify the cure. If you are feeling resistance or seeing the symptoms flare, say Alhamdulillah and keep going, because it means you have woken the enemy up and it is afraid of you.
Don’t be discouraged by the time it takes. You didn’t get sick in a day, and sometimes, you won’t heal in a day. But with consistency, the clouds always, always, eventually run out of rain.
