What is the ruling on seeking rain through the stars?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The Shaykh is not the one who says: You mentioned, may Allah preserve you, at the beginning of the chapter in the seventh lesson that seeking rain through the stars is shirk (associating partners with Allah), and then you mentioned, in the hadith of Abu Malik, that these traits are among the causes of sins, and that whoever has one of these traits is not a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah). I hope you will clarify the truth in this matter, for perhaps I made a mistake in what I heard, or I understood from your explanation, may Allah preserve you, something other than what you stated.
Answer:
I clarified that seeking rain through the stars, as the scholars mentioned, is of two types. If one believes that the stars are the ones who cause the rain and create the rain, this is shirk akbar (major shirk), shirk in rububiyyah (lordship). But if one believes that the One who creates the rain and sends it down is Allah, and that the stars are merely a cause, this is shirk asghar (minor shirk), because Allah did not make the stars a cause for sending down rain. This is intentional shirk. This is the distinction, this is what the scholars detailed and the commentators mentioned regarding this hadith.
The Shaykh is not the one who says: You mentioned, may Allah preserve you, at the beginning of the chapter in the seventh lesson that seeking rain through the stars is shirk (associating partners with Allah), and then you mentioned, in the hadith of Abu Malik, that these traits are among the causes of sins, and that whoever has one of these traits is not a mushrik (one who associates partners with Allah). I hope you will clarify the truth in this matter, for perhaps I made a mistake in what I heard, or I understood from your explanation, may Allah preserve you, something other than what you stated.
Answer:
I clarified that seeking rain through the stars, as the scholars mentioned, is of two types. If one believes that the stars are the ones who cause the rain and create the rain, this is shirk akbar (major shirk), shirk in rububiyyah (lordship). But if one believes that the One who creates the rain and sends it down is Allah, and that the stars are merely a cause, this is shirk asghar (minor shirk), because Allah did not make the stars a cause for sending down rain. This is intentional shirk. This is the distinction, this is what the scholars detailed and the commentators mentioned regarding this hadith.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم الاستسقاء بالأنواء؟ لمعالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.