The Ruling on Contacting Sorcerers and Fortune-Tellers

Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner says that some of his brothers mentioned to him that some satellite channels have a program, and the method of this program is sorcery and fortune-telling. He says: Give me your age and where you were born, and I will tell you what has happened to you and what is happening to you in this life? The question is: What is the ruling on contacting them? Is it like going to the sorcerer or the fortune-teller?

Answer:
Yes, contacting them and asking them about these matters is like going to them. If he asks them, he commits a sin, the sin of the one who goes to them, because the intended purpose is the same. Why does he go to them? In order to ask them. So if he asks them via contact, it is as if he went to them, because the operative cause is present. Thus, this warning applies to him: "Whoever goes to a fortune-teller or a diviner and asks him about something and believes him, has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)." This is in the Sunan and in Sahih Muslim: "Whoever goes to a fortune-teller... This is like going to the fortune-tellers; asking them by telephone or by means of communication, the meaning is the same, whether he goes to them or asks them through this medium. Yes.