What does spirit summoning mean, and is it a reality or a myth? What is the ruling on practicing this?

The questioner : What does spirit summoning mean? Is this a reality or a myth, given that it is said that there are people who summon the spirits of the dead, meet with them, and speak to them? Is this true? It is also said that there are books about spirit summoning. What is your opinion, and what is the ruling on practicing such a thing?

The Shaykh : This summoning of the spirits of the dead is not valid, and it cannot be established. If it were the case that someone claimed to have summoned the spirit of a certain person and spoken to it, and it spoke to him, then this is Satan speaking to him in the voice of that deceased person. The spirits, after death, are preserved, as Allah the Exalted said: meaning that they do not neglect the preservation of this spirit. Furthermore, the spirits, after death, are in their abode and cannot be summoned to this world under any circumstances. Engaging in such a practice is forbidden because it involves lying, deception, cheating people, and taking money unjustly. Therefore, it is obligatory to be cautious of it and to warn against it as well, due to the many great harms it contains.