Around the Muslim world there are claimed physical remnants from the Prophet and objects that he is claimed to have been in contact with. These are objects of veneration, and are looked upon as carriers of divine blessings, baraka, attainable through immediate or near immediate physical contact.

The practice of ‘seeking blessings from relics’, tabarruk bi al-athar is well established in Islamic tradition. The paper addresses the phenomenon through placing it within a wider theoretical context. The way in which ‘blessings’ are transmitted shows clear structural similarities with how spiritual ‘pollution’ is transmitted. The latter has been analysed with reference to a general ‘contagion avoidance system’ in human cognition as an evolutionary adaption.  There is nevertheless a problem of assuming a simple connection: How does a system designed by nature to avoid pathogens through evoking feelings of disgust transfer into a system of the opposite, seeking closeness and evoking positive emotions?

The paper suggests a possible solution in a hypothetical fashion, based on recent research concerning ‘relics’ in the context of contemporary celebrity worship, and the concepts of psychological essentialism, prestige and ‘info copying’.