What is the ruling on reading in a cup? And what is the ruling on one who believes these fortune-tellers?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Reading in a cup, O Shaykh, is one of the types of sorcery. There are those who believe in this, especially when it informs about the future; it tells about matters in the future, and then those matters happen?
The Shaykh : What do you mean by reading in a cup?
The questioner : In some countries, there are those who read in a cup. That is, you tell them, and they ask you for the mother's name, for example, or the father's name, and they tell you about your past, some matters and some incidents that happened to you in the past. They also tell about some incidents that will happen in the future.
The Shaykh : But is this cup empty, or does it have water in it?
The questioner : Allah knows best; I do not know, but they call it reading in a cup.
The Shaykh : It appears to me that this is a type of fortune-telling and sorcery, so it is not permissible. And whoever believes someone who informs him about a matter that will happen in the future has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad, may Allah protect us from that, because if he believes in the information about something in the future, he has lied to the Qur'an, for Allah the Exalted said:[An-Naml 27:65] Thus, the knowledge of the unseen is restricted to the Lordship . So whoever believes one who says that such and such will happen on such and such a day has lied to the Qur'an. For this reason, it came in the hadith: Sunan Ibn Majah 639Hasan (Darussalam).
The questioner : O Shaykh, but the question asks: How does he inform about matters in the future and they happen?
The Shaykh : This is a doubt. We say: It was a coincidence. It is not because he is knowledgeable. This person guesses until he knows, or it is like the fortune-tellers who were in the time of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. The jinn hears the news from the sky and inspires it to this fortune-teller, then the fortune-teller adds other things to it. So if he is correct in this word that was heard from the sky, they say: This one is truthful and knows the unseen.
The Shaykh : What do you mean by reading in a cup?
The questioner : In some countries, there are those who read in a cup. That is, you tell them, and they ask you for the mother's name, for example, or the father's name, and they tell you about your past, some matters and some incidents that happened to you in the past. They also tell about some incidents that will happen in the future.
The Shaykh : But is this cup empty, or does it have water in it?
The questioner : Allah knows best; I do not know, but they call it reading in a cup.
The Shaykh : It appears to me that this is a type of fortune-telling and sorcery, so it is not permissible. And whoever believes someone who informs him about a matter that will happen in the future has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad, may Allah protect us from that, because if he believes in the information about something in the future, he has lied to the Qur'an, for Allah the Exalted said:
Say, "None in the heavens and earth knows the unseen except Allah
قُلْ لا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ الْغَيْبَ إِلَّا اللَّهُExcept Allah.
إلا اللهor who goes to a fortuneteller and believes what he says, he has disbelieved in that which was revealed to Muhammad.
مَن أتى كاهناً فصدقه بما يقول فقد كفر بما أنزل على محمدThe questioner : O Shaykh, but the question asks: How does he inform about matters in the future and they happen?
The Shaykh : This is a doubt. We say: It was a coincidence. It is not because he is knowledgeable. This person guesses until he knows, or it is like the fortune-tellers who were in the time of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. The jinn hears the news from the sky and inspires it to this fortune-teller, then the fortune-teller adds other things to it. So if he is correct in this word that was heard from the sky, they say: This one is truthful and knows the unseen.