Evil Eye

DaughterOfEmanuel

Hello everyone
I was wondering about the Christian perspective on the “bad/evil” eye. It’s an existent superstition in many cultures. Does the so called “evil-eye” have any Biblical source whatsoever? I know many Copts who believe in the evil eye... especially older women. By “evil eye” I mean that when you succeed or something good happens to you and someone is envious they might give you an “evil eye” and consequently something could go wrong with you success. Is this simply a culture thing? Is it the devil?
Thank you

joeg

It's a lot of superstitious nonsense. It has no grounding in Bible teaching and is an old cultural thing.

lightening

culture and spirituality cannot and should not be separated from each other as they exert mutual influence.
also it is important not to underestimate the power of evil. in some cultures, witchcraft and related practices are spiritual realities and if one is subject to such attacks some 'damages'  should be expected. if, on the other hand, the case involves just personal hatred, envy, and jealousy, without invoking evil spirits, this has nothing to do with so called 'evil-eye'. we get these from almost every other 'colleague' and nothing happens, until they start telling our boss lots of lies. :)

lack of clarity on this subject has allowed superstition to fill the void.

mabsoota

i agree, it is a load of rubbish based on pagan religion, and it is very bad to wear 'evil eye' charms or worry about it. there are many evil spirits who want us to fail and be afraid, but most humans (even 'bad' ones) do not have the power to make the spirits harm us.

the evil spirits want us to 'protect' ourselves from them using charms, pictures of the evil eye or superstitions, so that we stop trusting in God. so both the idea of the evil eye and the 'protection' against the evil eye are from the devil, and haram, forbidden, we must not get involved with this superstition.

the only one who truly protects us is God. so, when we trust in God and faithfully pray and study the Bible and go to church to receive the Holy Communion, we can be sure that whatever happens is God's will.
if we fail at something, maybe God is teaching us to work harder, or to not be proud, or to be kinder to other people who fail and understand them better. our response should be to praise God and to love Him more and to love other people as well.
if we waste our time trying to think who has envied us and sent spirits to us, then this makes us stop being friends with this person, and it means we no longer work hard on our spiritual life. we need to work at being more like Jesus, not waste our time with foolish superstition.

if you have spare time, eg. if you are retired or disabled or unemployed, or whenever you have time, it is God's will for you to learn more about Him and spend time praying for others, not to go around gossiping and worrying about other peoples' success.
1 timothy 5: 3-15 warns about what happens when people (in this example, widows who do not have work or children to look after) waste their time and get caught up in wordly things.

so, it is haram.
instead you must say 'if it is God's will, i will be successful, and i wish success for the other people as well, may God bless them'. if someone envies you, pray for them, that they will know God and His love. if you are envious, repent, and ask God to give the other person success.
let all your thoughts and prayers be full of God's love (2 corinthians 10:5). see philippians 1 for an example how to pray for people.
may God bless you  :)

DaughterOfEmanuel

Thank you all for your responses. The issue is clearer to me now!  :)
God bless you all, I love the way we can post any issues/concerns we may have in this forum and shortly get a legitimate response. This is a great online community, may God bless it.