Treating the Sick Person with a Fortune-Teller and the Limits of Necessity
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Shaykh, may Allah forgive you, there is a sick man, O Shaykh, with a chronic illness. The doctors in all parts of the Kingdom were unable to do anything; Allah did not grant him a cause or a cure through them. So his brother took him and went with him to the north to a man who has dogs, and they say he is a fortune-teller. I advised him, and he said that necessity permits the forbidden.
The Shaykh:
This is not permissible. This is a mistake. This is it itself.
The questioner:
And he took five thousand riyals from him.
The Shaykh:
This is not a necessity.
The questioner:
Five thousand riyals. This fortune-teller took five thousand riyals from him and said, “Your wife has cast a spell on you in bread.” And this woman is dutiful to him, even after his illness. She cannot possibly cast a spell on him. And he is over fifty years old.
The Shaykh:
And this is among his punishments. The point is that this is not permissible.
The questioner:
And now his mind is disturbed. May Allah avert the calamity. His mind is disturbed and he does not pray now. He no longer feels anything and no longer waits.
The Shaykh:
It is not permissible to do this. If it is the sorcerers or the fortune-tellers or others like them, it is not permissible to visit them, and it is not lawful, even if one is sick. Some illnesses have no cure. Some illnesses, Allah has decreed that one will die from their causes. They have nothing else. A doctor may treat a group of patients and it may not benefit, if Allah intends to remove the illness. Correct.
The questioner:
Fine, this is not with evidence.
The Shaykh:
A person takes the means, and Allah suffices him. So the matter is in Allah’s hand. Not every illness has a medicine. Some illnesses have no medicine. Allah may have decreed that one will die from them. Yes.
The questioner:
Necessity permits the forbidden. In what, O Shaykh? In what?
The Shaykh:
If he is hungry and has nothing to eat, he takes his food from carrion, for example, and similar things, so that he does not die. It does not mean that if he does not marry, he commits zina, or if he does not drink khamr. No, this is an obligation.
The questioner:
If it is speech.
The Shaykh:
Not every necessity is a necessity, and not everything is called a necessity. The necessity that leads you to death: you take from carrion or from any food you find, so that you save yourself and your life from this great hunger that has befallen you, either by paying the price, or by the goodwill of your brother. Do you understand?
The questioner:
Yes. Do not earn the decree, O my brother.
The Shaykh:
Yes, no. The decree is behind it. Nothing happens except by the decree of Allah. Yes.
Shaykh, may Allah forgive you, there is a sick man, O Shaykh, with a chronic illness. The doctors in all parts of the Kingdom were unable to do anything; Allah did not grant him a cause or a cure through them. So his brother took him and went with him to the north to a man who has dogs, and they say he is a fortune-teller. I advised him, and he said that necessity permits the forbidden.
The Shaykh:
This is not permissible. This is a mistake. This is it itself.
The questioner:
And he took five thousand riyals from him.
The Shaykh:
This is not a necessity.
The questioner:
Five thousand riyals. This fortune-teller took five thousand riyals from him and said, “Your wife has cast a spell on you in bread.” And this woman is dutiful to him, even after his illness. She cannot possibly cast a spell on him. And he is over fifty years old.
The Shaykh:
And this is among his punishments. The point is that this is not permissible.
The questioner:
And now his mind is disturbed. May Allah avert the calamity. His mind is disturbed and he does not pray now. He no longer feels anything and no longer waits.
The Shaykh:
It is not permissible to do this. If it is the sorcerers or the fortune-tellers or others like them, it is not permissible to visit them, and it is not lawful, even if one is sick. Some illnesses have no cure. Some illnesses, Allah has decreed that one will die from their causes. They have nothing else. A doctor may treat a group of patients and it may not benefit, if Allah intends to remove the illness. Correct.
The questioner:
Fine, this is not with evidence.
The Shaykh:
A person takes the means, and Allah suffices him. So the matter is in Allah’s hand. Not every illness has a medicine. Some illnesses have no medicine. Allah may have decreed that one will die from them. Yes.
The questioner:
Necessity permits the forbidden. In what, O Shaykh? In what?
The Shaykh:
If he is hungry and has nothing to eat, he takes his food from carrion, for example, and similar things, so that he does not die. It does not mean that if he does not marry, he commits zina, or if he does not drink khamr. No, this is an obligation.
The questioner:
If it is speech.
The Shaykh:
Not every necessity is a necessity, and not everything is called a necessity. The necessity that leads you to death: you take from carrion or from any food you find, so that you save yourself and your life from this great hunger that has befallen you, either by paying the price, or by the goodwill of your brother. Do you understand?
The questioner:
Yes. Do not earn the decree, O my brother.
The Shaykh:
Yes, no.
And even if the scheme precedes the decree, it does not precede the validity. It does not precede the decree.
ولو أن الكيد سبق القضاء لا سبق صلاحية، ما تسبق القدر،
Source
ندوات الجامع الكبير مع الأسئلة - 52 — archive.org (1:01:41)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.