--- page_title: "Arabic Spells for Love & Attraction: What the Grimoires Record" summary: "Arabic spells for love and attraction: tahbib and jalb in the Tumtum al-Hindi and the Mujarrabat al-Ruhban, Venus timing, and the 7x7 Venus magic square." html_url: https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/islamic-magic-love-attraction-spells-arabic.html text_url: https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/islamic-magic-love-attraction-spells-arabic.md revised: 2026-10-24 publisher: John Friend Publishing --- An Essay from the Library # Arabic Spells for Love and Attraction: What the Manuscripts Contain By John Friend · May 20, 2026 · 15 min read The Arabic manuscript tradition on *tahbib* (love magic) and *jalb* (attraction) is extensive, operationally precise, and deeply embedded in a cosmological framework that connects desire to planetary power and divine names. Here is what the primary sources actually record. **[The Book of Tumtum the Indian](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/arabic-islamicate-occult-manuscripts/tumtum-al-hindi-the-book-of-tumtum-the-indian.html)** · Tumtum al-Hindi · Vol. VI — Featured Source Formats: - [Read the Translation](https://urlgeni.us/amazon/kei6dT) The Arabic manuscript tradition on love and attraction is vast, specific, and entirely serious. From the major grimoires of the medieval Islamic world to regional collections of tested remedies, the desire to win another person’s heart — or to draw them across a distance, or to strengthen an existing bond — generated a body of operative literature that rivals any other category in scope and operational detail. This article is a scholarly introduction to that body of literature: what it contains, how it is organized, what cosmological principles it invokes, and where English readers can access it today. It is not a practical manual; it is a map of a tradition. For readers searching for Arabic spells, one point of vocabulary comes first. The manuscripts speak of chapters (*bab*), operations, invocations and tested methods rather than “spells” — the English translations of the *Tumtum al-Hindi* and the *Mujarrabat al-Ruhban* never use the word — and they arrange them by purpose. In the *Tumtum al-Hindi*, love and attraction account for roughly two-thirds of the entries in the table of contents. ## The Vocabulary of Arabic Love Magic The Arabic manuscript tradition distinguishes several operative categories within what modern readers would broadly call “love magic.” Understanding these distinctions clarifies the tradition considerably. *Tahbib* (from the root *h-b-b*, love or affection) refers to operations designed to create, strengthen, or direct *hubb* — love, fondness, deep attachment — in a specific person. This is the category of operations aimed at making someone fall in love. The target is the internal emotional state of the person being addressed. *Jalb* (drawing, pulling toward) refers to operations designed to draw a person’s physical presence or attention. *Jalb hawa’i* — “aerial drawing” — is a specific variant in which a prepared substance (incense, perfume, a burned written formula) is released into the wind to carry its operative charge across distance to the person being sought. *Mahabba* is a near-synonym for *tahbib* — operations of love and affection more broadly. In some texts, *mahabba* refers specifically to operations that create mutual love or strengthen an existing bond, rather than imposing desire on an unwilling person — though the manuscripts are not always consistent in maintaining this distinction. *Muhabba* or *tawfiq* operations aim at reconciliation — drawing two people who have been separated or estranged back into harmony. This is a distinct operative category from initial attraction. The word used for “money attraction” in the same manuscripts is typically *jalb al-rizq* — the drawing of *rizq*, which means livelihood, provision, or sustenance — or operations aimed at Jupiter and the Sun, the planets governing wealth, authority, and abundance. Love magic is Venusian; prosperity magic is Jovian or Solar. The Arabic tradition maintains these planetary distinctions rigorously. --- ## The Planetary Framework: Venus and the Venusian System All love and attraction operations in the Arabic manuscript tradition are primarily Venusian. Venus (*al-Zuhara*) governs love, desire, beauty, pleasure, music, and the arts of attraction. This is not a modern astrological convention — it is a consistent inheritance from the Hellenistic astrological tradition absorbed into Arabic learning during the eighth through tenth centuries, and it structures every operative text in the corpus. What “Venusian” means in practice: - **Day**: Friday (*yawm al-jum’a*) — the day of Venus - **Hour**: Operations are begun during a Venusian planetary hour - **Color**: Green or white — Venus’s colors in the Arabic system - **Metal**: Copper — Venus’s metal - **Incense**: Rose, jasmine, or sweet-scented perfumes - **Divine name**: In al-Buni’s system, *al-Wadud* (the Loving) and *al-Latif* (the Subtle) are the divine names most associated with Venusian love operations - **Magic square**: The 7×7 Venus square (*wafq al-Zuhra*), whose rows, columns and both diagonals each total 175 — set out in full in [The Venus Magic Square](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/venus-magic-square-love-harmony-talisman.html) - **Lunar mansion**: Specific mansions of the Moon are favorable for love and attraction operations — this adds a lunar timing dimension on top of the planetary hour framework All of this rests on the preparation every grimoire demands before any operation — the discipline modern readers sometimes file under manifestation techniques, though the manuscripts frame it in terms of ritual purity, correct timing, and the divine names. Those prerequisites are set out in [Manifestation Techniques in Arabic Grimoires: 5 Steps First](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/5-steps-every-grimoire-requires-before-magic.html). --- ## The Mujarrabat al-Ruhban: Love Magic in the Syncretic Tradition One of the most revealing windows into the Arabic love-magic tradition is provided by the [*Mujarrabat al-Ruhban* (Vol. II)](https://urlgeni.us/amazon/zw3MFx) — the “Tested Remedies of the Monks” — a manuscript compiled, in its own words, “from the books of the monks and the sages.” This text is significant for several reasons, but for the purposes of love magic, its significance is this: it shows the operative tradition as a shared cross-confessional practice. The *Mujarrabat al-Ruhban* contains *tahbib* and *jalb* operations that deploy Quranic verses and divine names as operative instruments, and one of its adjurations swears “by the truth of the Torah and the Gospel” and “the Psalms and the Criterion.” The underlying structure of the operations — Venusian timing, inscribed formulas, specific materials — is identical to what appears in the other Arabic grimoires; the operative logic is the same. The title itself answers a common question about monks in Arabic: *ruhban* is the Arabic word for monks, and *Mujarrabat al-Ruhban* means the tested recipes, or remedies, of the monks. Its table of contents includes a *Bab fi Jalb al-Mahabba* (Chapter on Attracting Love), a chapter for attracting women and men (*Bab li-Jalb al-Nisa’ wa al-Rijal*), a chapter on gathering the spirits of love (*Bab Tajmi’ Arwah al-Mahabba*), and the *Tarsil al-Jawalib*, the sending of the attracting spirits. More on the monks the text draws on is in [Christian Monks in Arabic Magic: Mujarrabat al-Ruhban](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/christian-monks-arabic-magic-mujarrabat-ruhban.html). This convergence is historically revealing. It suggests that the Arabic talismanic tradition, including its love-magic component, was understood by practitioners of different confessions as access to the same underlying operative reality — a cosmological framework that transcended any single religious vocabulary. The monks and sages whose books the *Mujarrabat al-Ruhban* gathers were not syncretic out of confusion. They were accessing an operative tradition that the Quran, the Torah, the Gospel and the Psalms were all taken to authenticate. --- ## The Tumtum al-Hindi: The Specialist Love-Magic Text The *Tumtum al-Hindi* (literally “The Book of Tumtum the Indian”) is attributed to a legendary sage associated with India — part of a broader convention in Arabic occult literature of attributing specialist knowledge to Indian, Babylonian, or Solomonic sources as a marker of ancient and therefore authoritative origin. The attribution is almost certainly pseudonymous; the text is a medieval Arabic compilation. But its content is real, substantial, and operationally detailed. That Indian attribution also invites comparison with vashikaran, the Indian name for magic of attraction and control. The *Tumtum al-Hindi* is not a vashikaran manual: its methods are Arabic ones — divine names, Quranic oaths, written squares, fire and pepper — and its operative vocabulary is that of *jalb* and *tahbib*. How the Indian frame and the Arabic content fit together is the subject of [Vashikaran in Arabic Magic? Tumtum al-Hindi, the Indian Sage](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/tumtum-al-hindi-indian-sage-arabic-magic.html). The *Tumtum al-Hindi* contains dozens of *jalb*, *tahbib*, and *mahabba* operations. The operations vary considerably in format and approach: **Written talismans** inscribed on specific materials with specific inks during specific timing windows, to be carried or placed near the target. These talismans combine divine names, Quranic verses, and geometric figures. **Fumigation operations** (*bakhur*) in which a prepared incense formula is burned during a favorable timing window, with the smoke directed — in some variants — toward the direction of the person being sought. **Aerial dispersal operations** (*jalb hawa’i*) in which a written formula or prepared substance is released into a wind blowing toward the target’s location. This reflects a cosmological understanding in which operative power is carried on the air as a physical medium. **Inscription on food or drink** — a category that appears in many grimoires, including the *Tumtum al-Hindi*, and that represents the most materially direct form of love magic in the tradition: introducing a charged substance into the body of the target. > The variety of delivery mechanisms in the *Tumtum al-Hindi* reflects a pragmatic tradition. The manuscripts are not dogmatic about form. If one method suits the situation, use it; if another is more feasible, use that instead. The consistent requirement is the planetary or lunar timing — not the delivery method. ### Arabic Love Spells in the Tumtum al-Hindi: What the Contents Show The table of contents of the English translation bears this out. Nearly thirty chapters are headed “Attraction by Fire” — written on seven leaves, upon a candle, upon an iron sheet, upon a horseshoe, with black pepper, or “Written on the Night of Friday with Pepper,” Friday being the day of Venus. Nine more concern aerial attraction (*jalb hawa’i*), written and hung in the air or upon a tree. Others are headed “Reconciliation between Spouses Written on Parchment,” “Love: Written upon a Bowl or Cup,” “A Magic Square for Love: Written and Carried,” and “Love: Buried at the Doorstep of the Home of the Desired One.” Chapters on livelihood sit beside them — “Opening Sustenance: Written with Saffron and Placed” — the *rizq* operations discussed below. Read as Arabic love spells, in the modern phrase, they are less a single recipe than a repertoire of delivery methods built on the same planetary logic. --- ## Love Magic and Islamic Legal Discussion The presence of *tahbib* and *jalb* operations in texts that otherwise present themselves as legitimate Islamic knowledge raises a question that Islamic legal scholars discussed at length: is operative love magic permitted under Islamic law? The answer in the manuscript tradition is implicitly “yes, within limits.” Operations that work through divine names and Quranic verses, timed to planetary hours, are distinguished in the tradition from *sihr muharram* — prohibited magic, understood as involving demonic compacts or transgression against divine law. The category of “permitted magic” (*sihr mubah* or “ruqya”) is generally defined as operations that work through divine names, prophetic precedent, and legitimate natural means. Love operations that inscribe *al-Wadud* and *Ayat al-Kursi* on clean paper during a Friday hour fall, in the tradition’s internal logic, within the legitimate category. Operations that cross the line — those involving blood from forbidden sources, appeals to explicitly demonic forces, or deliberate harm to a third party — occupy a different legal and ethical category. The manuscripts acknowledge this boundary even when they do not always observe it cleanly. --- ## Love Magic and Prosperity: The Jovian Category The keyword “love and money” that many readers bring to Arabic occult literature combines two categories that the manuscript tradition treats as distinct. Love is Venusian; money and prosperity are Jovian and Solar. The Arabic term *jalb al-rizq* covers the attraction of provision and livelihood, while *tahbib* and its synonyms cover attraction between people. The two are addressed by different operations, at different planetary hours, with different materials and divine names. That said, the manuscripts regularly acknowledge that love and prosperity can be pursued in combination — by a practitioner who works both a Venusian operation on Friday for attraction and a Jovian operation on Thursday for wealth, understanding them as complementary rather than competing goals. Several operations in the corpus aim at both simultaneously, typically through a combined talisman that deploys Venusian and Jovian elements in the same inscribed structure. --- ## Reading the Primary Sources The most accessible entry points to the Arabic love-magic tradition in English are currently the John Friend Publishing translations. The [*Tumtum al-Hindi* (Vol. VI)](https://urlgeni.us/amazon/kei6dT) is the most operationally dense single volume for *jalb* and *tahbib* material. The [*Mujarrabat al-Ruhban* (Vol. II)](https://urlgeni.us/amazon/zw3MFx) provides the syncretic Christian-Islamic perspective on the same tradition. The companion article [Tumtum al-Hindi: The Arabic Love-Spell Grimoire](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/arabic-love-spells-tumtum-al-hindi-indian-sage.html) provides a detailed walkthrough of specific operations from the text. For the broader planetary framework that governs all love operations in the tradition, [Arabic Talisman Making: A Beginner’s Guide to the Manuscript Tradition](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/arabic-talisman-making-guide-beginners.html) covers the planetary hour system, materials, and the role of divine names in talismanic construction. Both volumes sit on a larger shelf of Arabic and Islamic magic books now available in English, from al-Buni’s [*Shams al-Ma’arif al-Kubra*](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/al-buni-manuscripts-collection/shams-al-maarif-al-kubra.html) — whose first chapter is “On the Letters, Love, and What Is Arranged Within It of Secrets and Experiments” — to [*The Tested Remedies of the Monks*, the English translation of the Mujarrabat al-Ruhban](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/arabic-islamicate-occult-manuscripts/the-tested-remedies-of-the-monks.html). ### Related Topics in This Article - [Venus and the 7x7 Venus magic square](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/venus-magic-square-love-harmony-talisman.html) - [The 28 lunar mansions in Arabic magic](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/28-lunar-mansions-arabic-magic-manazil-al-qamar.html) - [Love spells in the Mujarrabat al-Ruhban](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/mujarrabat-tested-love-spells-medieval-arabic.html) - [Jalb and tahbib in the Tumtum al-Hindi](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/arabic-love-spells-tumtum-al-hindi-indian-sage.html) - [Al-Wadud and the Friday night practice of Venus](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/shams-al-anwar-magic-squares-planetary-days.html) - [Spiritual science versus sorcery (sihr) in the manuscripts](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/difference-between-spiritual-science-sorcery-arabic.html) - [The planetary hours, including the hour of Venus](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/picatrix-left-out-planetary-hour-system.html) - [Bakhur: planetary incense and fumigation](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/incense-recipes-arabic-grimoires-planetary-fumigation.html) - [Cooling a hostility: the 3x3 square of Surah al-Kawthar](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/sour-jar-curse-arabic-grimoires-kawthar-square.html) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is tahbib in Arabic magic? Tahbib (from the Arabic root h-b-b, love or affection) refers to love-inducing operations in the Arabic occult tradition — designed to create or strengthen affection in a specific person. It counts among the most common operative categories in medieval Arabic grimoires, appearing in texts from the Mujarrabat al-Ruhban to the Tumtum al-Hindi. ### What is jalb in Arabic magic? Jalb means 'drawing' or 'attraction' in Arabic. In the operative context, jalb refers to operations designed to draw a specific person toward the practitioner. Jalb hawa'i ('aerial drawing') uses a prepared substance released into the wind to carry its charge across distances to the person being sought. ### What planet governs love magic in the Arabic tradition? Venus (al-Zuhara) governs love, desire, beauty, and attraction. Operations of tahbib and jalb are timed to Venusian hours and days (Friday), use Venusian materials (copper, rose incense, green or white cloth), and invoke divine names like al-Wadud associated with Venusian qualities. ### Which Arabic grimoires contain the most love magic? The Tumtum al-Hindi (Vol. VI) is among the most operationally dense Arabic love-magic texts, with dozens of jalb and tahbib operations. The Mujarrabat al-Ruhban (Vol. II) includes love sections in its syncretic format. Both are translated by John Friend Publishing. ### What are Arabic spells? In the manuscripts, what English readers call Arabic spells are chapters, operations and invocations organized by purpose — love, attraction, reconciliation, sustenance, protection. They combine divine names, Quranic verses, magic squares and written figures with planetary timing and specific materials. The translations of the Tumtum al-Hindi and the Mujarrabat al-Ruhban never use the word 'spell'; the Tumtum marks many of its chapters 'proved.' ### Are there Arabic love spells in the Mujarrabat al-Ruhban? Yes. Its contents include a Chapter on Attracting Love (Bab fi Jalb al-Mahabba), a chapter for attracting women and men, a chapter on gathering the spirits of love, and the Tarsil al-Jawalib, the sending of the attracting spirits. ### What does ruhban mean — what are monks in Arabic? Ruhban is the Arabic word for monks. Mujarrabat al-Ruhban therefore means the tested recipes, or tested remedies, of the monks — a Christian-Arab compilation whose love and attraction operations sit alongside those of the Islamic grimoires. ### What is the Venus magic square 7x7? The Venus square (wafq al-Zuhra) is a seven-by-seven grid in which each row, each column and both diagonals add to 175. In the Arabic planetary system it belongs to Venus, the planet of love, and it is the square associated with Friday love and harmony talismans. ### Is the Tumtum al-Hindi a vashikaran book? No. Vashikaran is the Indian name for magic of attraction and control, and the Tumtum al-Hindi is attributed to an Indian sage, but the book is an Arabic compilation. Its methods — divine names, Quranic oaths, magic squares, fire and pepper — belong to the Arabic jalb and tahbib tradition. **[Tumtum al-Hindi](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/arabic-islamicate-occult-manuscripts/tumtum-al-hindi-the-book-of-tumtum-the-indian.html)** · The Book of Tumtum the Indian · Vol. 6 — Arabic Islamicate Occult Manuscripts Formats: - [Read the Translation — Kindle & Paperback](https://urlgeni.us/amazon/kei6dT)