Belief that sudden death is because of magic/witchcraft
Question

i am an american lady married to an arab man and in his town, people seem to believe that when someone dies, especially if they suddenly got sick and passed away, it is because some evil "sahar" or magician placed a spell on that person in order to make every-one believe that he/she died, and then this magician takes the "dead" person and imprisons him/her to become a slave.  what is the ruling in islam concerning such beliefs?  has this been heard of before? could it really happen?  as a foreigner and convert to islam, i don't know what to believe in this aspect and i am real confused.  please clear this up for me. thank you
Praise be to Allah.What is mentioned in the question is completely wrong. The person who dies suddenly is just like anyone else who dies, for whatever reason: his soul leaves his body, and the soul is a matter of the unseen which is known only to Allah. Some groups of innovators (followers of bid’ah) believe that when a person dies, his soul moves to another body. This is known as tanaasukh (transmigration of souls), and this belief is something which is known to be essentially false according to the religion of Islam.
Shaykh ‘Abd al-Kareem al-Khudayri.
 This is appalling kufr and falsehood, and is one of the results of denying the torment of the grave. We ask Allah to keep us safe and sound.