Fortune Telling

Many people claim to have the knowledge of unseen and the future. They are known by various names, among them: fortune-teller, soothsayer, foreseer, augur, magician, prognosticator, oracle, astrologer, palmist, etc. Because of the sacrilege and heresy involved in fortune telling, Islam has taken a very strong stance towards it in Qur’an. Islam opposes any form of association with those who practice fortune-telling, except to advise them to give up their forbidden practices.

These people can be divided into two categories.

1. Those who have no real knowledge or secrets but depend on telling their customers
about general incidences which happen to most people.
2. Those who have made contact with the Jinn. This group is of most importance because it usually involves the grave sin of Shirk, and those involved often tend to be highly accurate in their information and thus present a real Fitnah (temptations) for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

According to Islamic School of thought anyone who visits a fortune-teller believing that he knows the unseen and the future is that of Kufr (disbelief). Abu Hurayrah and al-Hasan both reported from the Prophet (pbuh) that he said, "Whosoever approaches a fortune-teller and believes what he says, has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad. Such a belief assigns to creation some of Allaah's attributes with regard to the knowledge of the unseen and the future. Consequently, it destroys Tawheed alAsmaa was-Sifaat, and represents a form of Shirk in this aspect of Tawheed.

Through Quran Recitation we clearly no one knows the unseen besides Allah. Not even the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Allaah said: With Him are the keys to the unseen and none knows it except Him alone."

So Muslims must take utmost care in dealing with books, magazines, newspapers as well as individuals who, in one way or another, claim knowledge of the future or the unseen.