Who are the diviners?

Q: Who are the diviners?

A: The diviners are those who strike the earth and draw lines, and perhaps they place lumps of clay or stones or such things on them, and say: "Such and such will happen, or such and such will happen, or it will become such and such." They deceive people with this and claim knowledge of the unseen. This is false, and it is not permissible to approve of it or to believe them. Rather, it is obligatory for the authorities to prevent them from doing this and to punish them as the pure Shari'ah requires. Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) narrated with a good chain from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said: And divination by birds is driving away birds, as the Arabs did in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. When a crow would pass by them and caw, they would say: "Such and such will happen, and such and such will happen." Or if they saw a deformed donkey, a deformed beast, or a deformed person, they would take an omen from this and turn back from their needs. This is part of the divination of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance.
And the lines are the marks on the ground; they draw them in the sand and in the earth, and perhaps they dig things, or place lumps of clay, a stone, or a date pit, claiming that by this such and such will happen. And the jibt is the thing in which there is no good; it is used for the idol, for sorcery, and for everything in which there is no good.