---
page_title: "Sour Jar Curses and Sūrat al-Kawthar's Two Magic Squares"
summary: "How a curse made at a distance finds its target in the Arabic occult tradition, and how Sūrat al-Kawthar and its two magic squares cut it off at the root."
html_url: https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/sour-jar-curse-arabic-grimoires-kawthar-square.html
text_url: https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/sour-jar-curse-arabic-grimoires-kawthar-square.md
revised: 2026-10-24
publisher: John Friend Publishing
---

A Note from the Library

# From TikTok Sour Jars to Arabic Grimoires: How a Curse Finds Its Target, and How Sūrat al-Kawthar Cuts It Off at the Root

October 22, 2026 · 6 min read

What the Arabic manuals say about workings done from a distance, why a spiritual bath alone rarely ends them, and the recitation and the two squares of Sūrat al-Kawthar that cut them off

In the older folk practice, cursing a person meant getting close to him. You buried a charm under his threshold, smeared something on his doorpost, or paid a servant for a few clippings of his hair. Locked buildings and doorbell cameras have put an end to most of that, and the work has moved to a distance. A common method you'll find from "TikTok Witches" is the sour jar, or the freezer spell, in which the operator puts a person's name, birth date, or a photograph printed from social media into a jar of vinegar, pins, or rotting matter.

Anyone schooled in the Arabic tradition will ask the obvious question. If a man writes "John Smith" on a slip of paper and drops it into vinegar, how does the jar know which "John Smith" to strike? The way the classical manuals answer that question explains a good deal, including why so many baths and cleanses bring relief that does not last.

## How a working finds its mark

In the Arabic grimoires a working does not act on its own. The written figure is an agreement that binds a spirit, a khādim or servant, and sends it out against a person. There must be an agent to allow for the action to occur. A spirit sent on an errand must be told where to go. That is why the manuals tie a working to the person's name together with his mother's name, and why they ask for something of his, a piece of his clothing or a few hairs, and in modern times, a photograph. The finished work is then put where its nature calls for it: buried in the ground, sunk in water, or set beside a fire. A raṣad, a watcher spirit, may be left over it to guard it.

Most jars made from a video have none of that behind them, and yet they can still do harm. Envy and the evil eye strike without any ritual at all, and malice worked into filth draws lower spirits to it, whether or not you call them by name.

## Why the bath is not enough

When someone suffers a run of bad luck, a tiredness that will not lift, or opportunities that fall apart at the last moment, the first remedy offered is usually a bath of lote-tree leaves, sidr. A bath washes off what has settled on the person. It does nothing to the jar sitting on a shelf in another city, or to the figure buried under someone's floor, with its watcher still beside it. A working that is renewed on its day comes back as soon as the bathing stops. The trouble ends only when the working is cut off at its root, and for that the healers turn to the shortest chapter of the Quran, Sūrat al-Kawthar.

## Sūrat al-Kawthar

Clear the room first, as described in my piece on [the dwellers of the place](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/articles/dwellers-of-the-place-dismissing-jinn-before-a-working.html). Don't forget to call the dwellers back when you have finished.

Recite the sūra 21 or 71 times. At the end of each recitation, repeat its last verse three or seven times.

"Indeed, We have given you al-Kawthar. So pray to your Lord and sacrifice. Indeed, the one who hates you is the one cut off."

Innā aʿṭaynāka al-kawthar. Fa-ṣalli li-Rabbika wa-nḥar. Inna shāniʾaka huwa al-abtar.

إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ ﴿١﴾ فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ وَانْحَرْ ﴿٢﴾ إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ الْأَبْتَرُ ﴿٣﴾

The first verse speaks of abundance given, and the healers read it for provision opened again. The last cuts off the one who hates you at the root, al-abtar, so that the working cannot be renewed. The verse names no one. Shāniʾaka means whoever bears you hatred, and so it reaches the true sender, and anyone they paid to do the work, without your having to know who they are.

## The two squares of Sūrat al-Kawthar

Once the house is clear, a square of al-Kawthar is written and carried. A numerical square, a wafq, is built from the number of the words it carries. The first verse, innā aʿṭaynāka al-kawthar, comes to 969. The whole sūra comes to 2,754.

[*Al-Jawāhir al-Lammāʿa*](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/arabic-islamicate-occult-manuscripts/the-radiant-jewels-for-summoning-the-kings-of-jinn.html) gives the method. Take the number, subtract the base of the square, which is 12 for the three-by-three and 30 for the four-by-four, and divide what remains by the side. The result is the key, al-miftāḥ, the first number written. From there you go up to the next largest value in the natural order until the last number, the lock, al-mighlāq. Both numbers here divide evenly, so neither square has a remainder to carry, and every row, every column and both diagonals come out exactly.

The three-by-three square of the first verse runs from 319 to 327. Every line adds to 969.

| | | |
|---|---|---|
| ٣٢٢ · (322) | ٣٢٧ · (327) | ٣٢٠ · (320) |
| ٣٢١ · (321) | ٣٢٣ · (323) | ٣٢٥ · (325) |
| ٣٢٦ · (326) | ٣١٩ · (319) | ٣٢٤ · (324) |

Write 319 first, in the middle cell of the bottom row. Then 320 at the top right, 321 in the middle cell of the left side, 322 at the top left, 323 in the centre, 324 at the bottom right, 325 in the middle cell of the right side, 326 at the bottom left, and 327, the lock, in the middle cell of the top row.

The four-by-four square of the whole sūra runs from 681 to 696. Every line adds to 2,754.

| | | | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ٦٨٨ · (688) | ٦٩١ · (691) | ٦٩٤ · (694) | ٦٨١ · (681) |
| ٦٩٣ · (693) | ٦٨٢ · (682) | ٦٨٧ · (687) | ٦٩٢ · (692) |
| ٦٨٣ · (683) | ٦٩٦ · (696) | ٦٨٩ · (689) | ٦٨٦ · (686) |
| ٦٩٠ · (690) | ٦٨٥ · (685) | ٦٨٤ · (684) | ٦٩٥ · (695) |

Write 681 first, in the top right corner, and go up one at a time, each number in its cell as shown, until 696, the lock, in the third row, second cell from the left.

The three-by-three carries the first verse alone and is written for provision and for cooling a hostility. The four-by-four carries all three verses, so it opens provision and cuts off the enemy's renewal at once.

Write it with a new pen on clean white paper. [*Al-Jawāhir*](https://johnfriendpublishing.com/books/arabic-islamicate-occult-manuscripts/the-radiant-jewels-for-summoning-the-kings-of-jinn.html) has the four-by-four written in the first or the eighth hour of Thursday; when need presses, do not wait for the hour. Fill the numbers strictly from the key to the lock, never out of order. When it is finished, recite Sūrat al-Kawthar over it 21 or 71 times, repeating its last verse three or seven times at the end of each recitation, and blow lightly over it. Fold it toward yourself, wrap it so it stays dry, and carry it in an upper pocket. Keep it clean, and take it off before you enter a bathroom.

A curse can be forgotten by the one who made it. The watcher left over it does not forget. More on that another time.