Fortunetelling
There are
among mankind, people who claim knowledge of the unseen and the future. They
are known by various names, among them: fortune-teller, soothsayer,
foreseer, augur, magician, prognosticator, oracle, astrologer, palmist, etc.
Fortune-tellers use various methods and mediums from which they claim to
extract their information, among them: reading tea-leaves, drawing lines,
writing numbers, palm-reading, casting horoscopes, crystal ball gazing,
rattling bones, throwing sticks, etc.
Practitioners of occult arts, which claim to reveal the unseen and predict
the future, can be divided into two main categories:
1. Those who have no real knowledge or secrets but depend on telling
their customers about general incidences which happen to most people. They
often go through a series of meaningless rituals, then make calculatedly
general guesses. Some of their guesses, due to their generality, usually
come true. Most people tend to remember the few predictions that come true
and quickly forget the many which do not. This tendency is a result of the
fact that after some time all the predictions tend to become half-forgotten
thoughts in the subconscious until something happens to trigger their
recall. For example, it has become a common practice in North America to
publish, at the beginning of each year the various predictions of famous
fortune-tellers. When a survey was taken of the various predictions for the
year 1980, it was found that the most accurate fortune-teller among them was
only 24% accurate in his/her predictions!
2. The second group are those who have made contact with the Jinn. This
group is of most importance because it usually involves the grave sin of
Shirck (polytheism), and those involved often tend to be highly accurate in
their information and thus present a real Fitnah (temptations) for both
Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
World of the Jinn:
Some people have attempted to deny the reality of the Jinn about whom the
Qur'an has devoted a whole chapter, Soorah al-Jinn (72). By relying on the
literal meaning of the word Jinn which comes from the verb Janna, Yajunnu:
"to cover, hide or conceal", they claim that the word Jinn really refers to
"clever foreigners". Others have even stated that a Jinni is a human who
does not have a true mind in his head but he has a fiery nature. But, the
reality is that the Jinn represent another creation of Allaah, which
co-exists with man on the earth. Allaah created the Jinn before He created
mankind, and He also used a different set of elements than those used for
man. Allaah said:
"Verily we
created man out of clay, from an altered black mud. And we created the Jinn
before that from a fiery wind." (Surah al-Hijr 15:26-27)
They were named Jinn because they are hidden from the eyes of mankind.
Iblees (Satan) is from the world of the Jinn, even though he was among the
angels when they were commanded by Allaah to prostrate to Adam. When he
refused to prostrate and was asked why,
Allaah said:
"He said, 'I am better than he is. You (Allaah) created me from fire and You
created him from clay!" (Surah Saad; 38:76)
'Aa'esha reported that the
Prophet (Peace
Be upon Him) said, "The angels were created from light and the Jinn from
smokeless fire." (Sahih Muslim)
Allaah also said, "And when We told the angels to prostrate to Adam, they
all prostrated except Iblees. He was of the Jinn." (Surah al-Kahf, 18:50)
Therefore it is incorrect to consider him a fallen angel or the like.
The Jinn may first be divided into three broad categories in relation to
their modes of existence.
The Prophet
(Peace Be Upon Him)said: "There are three types of Jinn: One type which
flies in the air all the time, another type which exists as snakes and dogs,
and an earthbound type which resides in one place or wanders about. "
(At-Tabaree and al-Haakim)
The Jinn may be further divided into two categories in relationship to their
faith: Muslims (believers) and Kaafirs (disbelievers). Allaah refers to the
believing Jinn in Soorah al-Jinn (72) as follows:
"Say: It has
been revealed to me that a group of Jinn listened and said, 'Verily we have
heard a marvelous Qur'an. It guides unto righteousness so we have believed
in it. And, we will never make partners with our Lord. He, may our Lord's
glory be exalted, has not taken a wife nor a son. What the foolish ones
among us used to say about Allaah is a horrible lie." (Surah al-Jinn 72:1-4)
"And there are among us Muslims and others who are unjust. Whoever accepts
Islam has sought out the right path. As for those who are unjust, they will
be fuel for the Hell fire." (Surah Jinn 72:14)
The disbelievers among the Jinn are referred to by various names in both
Arabic and English: 'Ifreet, Shaytaan, Qareen, demons, devils, spirits,
ghosts, etc. They try to misguide man in various ways. Whoever listens to
them and becomes a worker for them is referred to as human Shaytaan (devil).
Allaah said: "Likewise, we have made for every Prophet an enemy, Shaytaans
from among mankind and the Jinn. (Surah al-An'aam 6:112)
Every human has an individual Jinn accompanying him referred to as a Qareen
(i.e. companion). This is a part of man's test in this life. The Jinn
encourage his lower desires and constantly try to divert him from
righteousness. The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) referred to this relationship
as follows,
"Everyone of you has been assigned a companion from the Jinn.
" The companions asked, "Even you, O Messenger of Allaah?" And the Prophet
replied, "Even me, except that Allaah has helped me against him and he has
submitted. Now he only tells me to do good." (Muslim)
Prophet Sulaymaan (Solomon) was given miraculous control over the Jinn, as a
sign of his prophethood.
Allaah said:
"And, we gathered for Sulaymaan his army from the Jinn, mankind and the
birds, and they were all kept in order and ranks." (Surah an-Naml 27:17)
But this power
was not given to anyone else. No one else is allowed to control the Jinn and
no one can.
The Prophet said, "Verily an 'Ifr-eet from among the Jinn
spat on me last night trying to break my Prayer. However Allaah let me
overpower him and I wanted to tie him to one of the columns in the masjid so
that you all could see him in the morning. Then, I remembered my brother
Sulaymaan's prayer: 'Oh my Lord, forgive me and bestow on me a kingdom not
allowed to anyone after me.' (Surah Saad 38:35) (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Man cannot gain control over the Jinn as this was a special miracle given
only to Prophet Sulaymaan. In fact, contact with the Jinn in circumstances
other than possession, or accident is most often made by the performance of
sacrilegious acts despised and forbidden in the religion. The evil Jinn
summoned in this fashion may aid their partners in sin and disbelief in God.
Their goal is to draw as many others as they can into the gravest of sins,
the worship of others besides or along with God.
Once contact and contract with the Jinn are made by fortune-tellers, the
Jinn may inform them of certain events in the future.
The Prophet
(Peace Be upon Him) described how the Jinn gather information about the
future. He related that the Jinn were able to travel to the lower reaches of
the heavens and listen in on some of the information about the future, which
the angels pass among themselves. They would then return to the earth and
feed the information to their human contacts.(Bukhari and Muslim)
This used to
happen a lot prior to the prophethood of Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him) and
fortune-tellers were very accurate in their information. They were able to
gain positions in the royal courts and enjoyed much popularity and were even
worshipped in some regions of the world.
After the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him) began his mission the
situation changed. Allaah had the angels guard the lower reaches of the
heavens carefully, and most of the Jinn were chased away with meteors and
shooting stars.
Allaah described this phenomenon in the following Qur'anic
statement made by one of the Jinn,"We (the Jinn) had sought out the heavens
but found it filled with strong guardians and meteors. We used to sit on
high places in order to listen, but whoever listens now finds a flame
waiting for him."'( Surat al-jinn 72:9)
Allaah also said, "And We have guarded it (the heavens) from every cursed
devil, except the one who is able to snatch a hearing and, he is pursued by
a brightly burning flame." (Surah al-Hijr 15:17-18)
Thus, the Jinn could no longer gather information about the future as easily
as they could before the Prophet's (Peace Be upon Him) mission. Because of
that, they now mix their information with many lies.
The Prophet
(Peace Be upon Him) said: "They (the Jinn) would pass the information back
down until it reaches the lips of a magician fortune-teller. Sometimes a
meteor would overtake them before they could pass it on. If they passed it
on before being struck, they would add to it a hundred lies." (Al-Bukhari
and Tirmidhi)
'Aa'eshah reported that when she asked Allaah's messenger (Peace Be upon
Him) about fortune-tellers, he replied that they were nothing. She then
mentioned that the fortune-tellers sometimes told them things, which were
true. The Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) said: "That is a bit of truth which
the Jinn steals and cackles in the ear of his friend; but he mixes along
with it a hundred lies." (al-Bukhari, Muslim)
The Jinns are also able to inform their human contact of the relative
future. For example, when someone comes to a fortune-teller, the
fortune-teller's Jinn gets information from the man's Qareen (the jinn
assigned to every human being) of what plans he had made prior to his
coming. So the fortune-teller is able to tell him that he will do this or
that, or go here or there. By this method, the real fortune-teller is also
able to learn about a stranger's past in vivid detail. He is able to tell a
total stranger of his parents' names, where he was born, the acts of his
childhood, etc. The ability to vividly describe the past is one of the marks
of a true fortune-teller who has made contact with the Jinn. Because the
Jinn are able to traverse huge distances instantaneously, they are also able
to gather huge stores of information about hidden things, lost articles and
unobserved events. Proof of this ability can be found in the Qur'an, in the
story about Prophet Sulaymaan and Bilqees, the Queen of Sheba. When Queen
Bilqees came to see him, he asked the Jinn to bring her throne from her
land.
"A powerful one from among the Jinns said, I will bring it
for you before you can get up from your place. Verily, I am strong and
trustworthy for the assignment. (Surah an-Naml 27:39)
The Islamic Ruling on Fortune-telling:
Because of the sacrilege, heresy and cheating involved in fortune telling,
Islam has taken a very strong stance towards it. Islam opposes any form of
association with those who practice fortune-telling, except to advise them
to give up their forbidden practices.
Visitation of Fortune-tellers:
The Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) laid down principles, which clearly forbade
any form of visitation of fortune-tellers. Safiyyah reported from Hafsah
(wife of the Prophet) that the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) said, "The prayer
of whoever approaches a fortune-teller and asks him about anything will not
be accepted for 40 days and nights." (Muslim)
The punishment
in this Hadeeth is for simply approaching a fortune-teller and asking him
questions out of curiosity. This prohibition is further supported by
Mu'aawiyah Ibn al-Hakam's Hadeeth in which he said, "O Messenger of Allaah,
verily there are some people among us who visit oracles. " The Prophet
(Peace Be upon Him) replied, "Do not go to them". Such a severe punishment
has been assigned for only visitation because it is the first step to belief
in fortune-telling. If one went there doubtful about its reality, and some
of the fortune-teller's predictions come true, one will surely become a true
devotee of the fortune-teller and an ardent believer in fortune-telling. The
individual who approaches a fortune-teller is still obliged to make his
compulsory prayer throughout the 40 day period, even though he gets no
reward from his prayers. If he abandons the prayer all together, he has
committed another major sin. This is similar to the Islamic ruling in the
case of prayer on or in stolen property, according to the majority of
Jurists. They hold that whenever obligatory prayer is performed, it produces
three results under normal circumstances:
1. It removes the obligation of that prayer from the individual.
2. It earns him/her a reward.
3. It keeps him/her remembering Allaah
Belief in
Fortune-tellers:
The Islamic ruling with regard to anyone who visits a fortune-teller
believing that he/she knows the unseen and the future is that of Kufr
(disbelief). Abu Hurayrah and al-Hasan both reported from
the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) that he said, "Whosoever approaches a
fortune-teller and believes what he says, has disbelieved in what was
revealed to Muhammad.
Such a belief assigns to creation some of Allaah's attributes with regard to
the knowledge of the unseen and the future. Consequently, it destroys
Tawheed alAsmaa was-Sifaat, and represents a form of Shirck in this aspect
of Tawheed.
The ruling of Kufr (disbelief) includes, by analogy (Qiyaas), those who read
the books and writings of fortune-tellers, listen to them on the radio or
watch them on the T. V., as, these are the most common means used by 21st
century fortune-tellers to spread their predictions.
Allaah clearly states in al-Qur'an that no one knows the unseen besides Him.
Not even the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him).
Allaah said: ''
With Him are the keys to the unseen and none knows it except Him alone."
Surat al-anaam 6:59
Allah told Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be upon Him),
"Say! I have no
power to bring good to myself nor avert harm but it is only as Allah wills.
If it were that I knew the unseen, I would have multiplied the good and no
evil would have touched me." (Surat al-araaf 7:188)
And He also said:
"Say! None in
the heavens nor the earth knows the 'unseen except Allah'." ( surat al-namil
27:65)
Therefore, all the various methods used around the world by oracles,
fortune-tellers, and the likes, are forbidden to Muslims. Because Muslims
must not believe in myths.
Palm-reading, I-Ching, fortune cookies, tea leaves as well as Zodiacal signs
and Bio-rhythm computer programs, all claim to inform those who believe in
them about their future. However, Allaah has stated in no uncertain terms
that He alone knows the future:
''Verily the
knowledge of the Hour is with Allaah alone. It is He who sends down the rain
and knows the contents of the wombs. No one knows what he will earn tomorrow
nor in which land he will die, but Allaah is all-knowing and aware." (Surah
Luqmaan 31:34)
Therefore, Muslims must take utmost care in dealing with books, magazines,
newspapers as well as individuals who, in one way or another, claim
knowledge of the future or the unseen. For example, when a Muslim
weather-man predicts rain, snow, or other climatic conditions for tomorrow
he should add the phrase, "In ShaaAllaah (If Allaah so wishes)". Likewise,
when the Muslim doctor informs his/her patient that she will deliver a child
in 9 months or on such and such a day, she should take care to add the
phrase "In ShaaAllaah", as such statements are only estimations based on
statistical information.
By Dr.
Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips