What is the ruling on going to fortune-tellers for treatment due to severe illness, while knowing that it is forbidden?
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The questioner : We know with certainty that Islam has forbidden and fought against sorcery. However, it sometimes happens that a person is afflicted with one of the diseases, and he consults all the specialists in that disease, but to no avail. Eventually, they tell him: "We have not known this ailment before, and we have no cure for it." The illness increases upon him more and more, and finally, he decides to go to one of the fortune-tellers, even though he knows that it is forbidden. So he actually went, and it was not but a few days until he was cured, praise be to Allah. What is your opinion in such cases?
The Shaykh : Our opinion in these cases is that the questioner has judged himself to have done a forbidden act, because he mentioned that he knows it is forbidden, and that going to soothsayers and fortune-tellers is forbidden. If it is forbidden, then it is not permissible for a person to go to them, because Allah the Exalted has not made the healing of this Ummah in what He has forbidden for them. It is obligatory for this person who did what he did to repent to Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, from this act, and to increase in seeking forgiveness, repentance, and righteous deeds, so that perhaps Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, will forgive him.
And whoever is afflicted with such matters has a very beneficial path, indeed it is the most beneficial of things for one who is guided to it, which is reciting over the afflicted person with the verses of the Qur'an and with what is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of Prophetic hadiths that are used for healing. In them is healing, in them is sufficiency, and in them is well-being.
The Shaykh : Our opinion in these cases is that the questioner has judged himself to have done a forbidden act, because he mentioned that he knows it is forbidden, and that going to soothsayers and fortune-tellers is forbidden. If it is forbidden, then it is not permissible for a person to go to them, because Allah the Exalted has not made the healing of this Ummah in what He has forbidden for them. It is obligatory for this person who did what he did to repent to Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, from this act, and to increase in seeking forgiveness, repentance, and righteous deeds, so that perhaps Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, will forgive him.
And whoever is afflicted with such matters has a very beneficial path, indeed it is the most beneficial of things for one who is guided to it, which is reciting over the afflicted person with the verses of the Qur'an and with what is authentic from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of Prophetic hadiths that are used for healing. In them is healing, in them is sufficiency, and in them is well-being.