Is predicting rainfall considered fortune-telling?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you. We are listening to this question from our brother Abdullah from Hail. Yes. Peace be upon you, O our Shaykh. And upon you be peace. May Allah keep you in good health, O Shaykh. May Allah give you a good evening, yes. May Allah preserve you, O Shaykh. I have just one question, and it is for you, O dear one. Listen. We are interested in the rain and such, and at this time we always check the weather forecasts, but listen to me, they issued a forecast for ten days from now, and I asked an old man from our town, and he said this is not permissible because it is *talfal* (fortune-telling). Thank you. It involves knowledge of the unseen, and... I want you to clarify this information for me more, O Shaykh? All right, thank you, Abdullah. May Allah preserve you.
Answer:
One who asserts with certainty that rain will fall is undoubtedly claiming knowledge of the unseen. As for one who makes a prediction, there is no harm in that, because Allah has set signs for the rain and appointed times for it. So we look for it in those times, but we do not assert it with certainty; it may come, or it may not. Yes.
May Allah reward you. We are listening to this question from our brother Abdullah from Hail. Yes. Peace be upon you, O our Shaykh. And upon you be peace. May Allah keep you in good health, O Shaykh. May Allah give you a good evening, yes. May Allah preserve you, O Shaykh. I have just one question, and it is for you, O dear one. Listen. We are interested in the rain and such, and at this time we always check the weather forecasts, but listen to me, they issued a forecast for ten days from now, and I asked an old man from our town, and he said this is not permissible because it is *talfal* (fortune-telling). Thank you. It involves knowledge of the unseen, and... I want you to clarify this information for me more, O Shaykh? All right, thank you, Abdullah. May Allah preserve you.
Answer:
One who asserts with certainty that rain will fall is undoubtedly claiming knowledge of the unseen. As for one who makes a prediction, there is no harm in that, because Allah has set signs for the rain and appointed times for it. So we look for it in those times, but we do not assert it with certainty; it may come, or it may not. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [5174] هل توقع نزول الأمطار يُعدُّ من التكهن؟ - صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.