Fortune Telling

FORTUNE TELLING

People attach some importance to the time of birth, which act can at times be very much exaggerated. Astrologers tell us that if they knew the exact time of someone’s birth, they can set up his or her horoscope and that they can tell that person a great deal about his or her personality and future. They claim that by knowing the exact time of birth, they can calculate which star was rising and which was descending, and these movements indicate certain things for human beings. Besides, newspapers and magazines in most countries have a horoscope column which tell people, who are born between certain dates, what to expect in the period immediately after the publication of that issue of the paper or magazine. Although many read these for fun, some of them take them seriously.

From the Islamic point of view, we accept nothing of these claims. Indeed, the Prophet of Islam (Sallallahu Alaihi Wassallam) warns us against consulting any fortune-teller, regardless of the method he or she uses to tell us our fortunes. Moreover, the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wassallam) describes fortune-tellers as liars, even when they happen to say the truth (i.e. foretell correctly). That means that if a fortune-teller tells us something and it turns out to be as he had said, he still is a liar because when he told it to us, he did not know it for certain. He was simply guessing. When a person tells us something, which is only guess work, he must be a liar. Indeed, the prohibition to fortune-tellers, including astrologers, is very strict. To believe that someone may know the future is tantamount to disbelief in Almighty Allah, because it suggests that these people know something, which in fact is known only to Almighty Allah Himself.