The Meaning of Fortune-Telling and the Ruling on Visiting Fortune-Tellers

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Question:
May Allah reward you. In his final question, he asks: What is fortune-telling, and what is the ruling on visiting fortune-tellers?

Answer:
Fortune-telling is the claim to know the unseen, for no one knows the unseen except Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Fortune-tellers are agents of the devils; the devils inform them of what they have glimpsed of what humans do not know. He (Exalted and Majestic is He) said:

⁽²²¹⁾ Shall I inform you upon whom the devils descend? ⁽²²²⁾ They descend upon every sinful liar. ⁽²²³⁾ They pass on what is heard, and most of them are liars.

هَلْ أُنَبِّئُكُمْ عَلَىٰ مَن تَنَزَّلُ الشَّيَاطِينُ تَنَزَّلُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ أَفَّاكٍ أَثِيمٍ يُلْقُونَ السَّمْعَ وَأَكْثَرُهُمْ كَاذِبُونَ

[Ash-Shu'ara 26:221-223]

These are the fortune-tellers. Fortune-telling and the claim to know the unseen is disbelief and apostasy from the religion of Islam. It is not permissible to go to them or ask them questions. It is not permissible to leave them alone; rather, it is obligatory to prevent them from the lands of the Muslims and to carry out the prescribed punishment against them. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

It was narrated that ‘Ali (رضي الله عنه) said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was at a funeral and he said: `which of you will go to the city and not leave in it any idol but he will break it, or any grave but he will level it, or any image but he will spoil it?` A man said: “I will, O Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).` So he went, but he was afraid of the people of the city, so he came back, `Ali (رضي الله عنه) said: I will go, O Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). He said: “Go.` So he went then he came back and said: O Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I did not leave in it any idol but I broke it, or any grave but i levelled it, or any image but I spoiled it. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Whoever goes back to doing any of that has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad.` Then he said: `Do not be a cause of division or show off or be a merchant except a good one, for those are the ones who are lagging behind in good deeds.` It was narrated from Al-Hakam that A man from Basra whom the people of Basra called Abu Muwarri’ and the people of Koofah called Abu Muhammad, said: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was at a funeral... and he mentioned a similar Hadeeth, but he did not say that ‘Ali said: `or any image but he will smear something over it.` And he said: I did not come to you, O Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), until I did not leave any image but i spoiled it.` And he said: `Do not be a cause of division or show off.`

من أتى كاهنا فصدقه بما يقول، قد كفر بما أنزل على محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم،

Musnad Ahmad 657, 658Lts isnad is Da'if because Abu Muwarri’ is unknown], lts isnad is Da\'if because Abu Muwarri\' is unknown and it is repeat of previous report] (Darussalam)

And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

It was narrated from 'Abdullah bin 'Amr that: The Prophet [SAW] said: "Whoever drinks Khamr and puts it in his belly, Allah will not accept his Salah for seven (days), if he dies during them" - Muhammad bin Adam (One of the narrators) said: "he will die a Kafir. If he was too intoxicated to offer any of the obligatory" - Ibn Adam said: "or recite Qur'an, his Salah will not be accepted for 40 days, and if he dies during them," And Ibn Adam said: "He will die a Kafir."

من أتى كاهنا لم تقبل له صلاة أربعين يوما

Sunan an-Nasa'i 5669Da'if (Darussalam)

Narrated by Muslim. Yes.

Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 6658- معنى الكهانة وحكم إتيان الكهان - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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