Sat 11 Jan 2020
Lesson 22: Magic and fortune telling
Read by our brother Abu Muadh Taqweem
Summary
- Only Allah has the power to benefit or harm and only He has knowledge of the unseen
- What is the meaning of “sihr” (magic)? Is it shirk?
- Is it ok to watch magic tricks for fun?
- Fortune telling, tarot cards and modern day “healers”
- What about sleight of hand tricks?
Overview
- Are we allowed to watch magic tricks? What if it is “just for fun”?
- What is the definition of “sihr” (magic)?
- Different forms of magic
- How does it occur
- What are some of its effects?
- Only Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, has power to harm or benefit, magicians themselves do not have any power
Polytheism (Shirk)
- Those who are involved in performing magic have obedience to the Shaytan (Satan)
- Therefore magic is a form of polytheism (Shirk) and nullifies one’s tawheed
- Why is this?
- Some anecdotes
The Unseen
- Only Allah knows the unseen
- The magicians claim to have knowledge about the unseen, this is not True
- It is mentioned that magicians and fortune tellers etc try to work with the Jinn to find out about the unseen. The Jinns try to ascend the sky to hear the talk amongst the angels, if the Jinn hear any information they pass this onto the fortune teller or magician etc who then mixes this one small piece of information with much lies
- Allah has made the shooting stars as missiles against these Jinns that try to ascend, if any information ever gets passed down to the people of earth then this is something that Allah had already Pre-ordained by his Divine Decree
- Therefore magicians lie when they claim to have the knowledge of the unseen with them
Destructive sins
- The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) commanded the companions to stay away from 7 destructive sins, the companions asked what these are, he said:
- 1. Committing Shirk alongside Allah
- 2. Magic
- 3. To kill a soul for whom Allah has made unlawful except by due right
- 4. To take interest
- 5. To take the wealth of the orphan
- 6. To turn your backs and flee the battlefield
- 7. To falsely accuse a pious chaste woman
- These are amongst the major sins, there are other major sins, their total number varies between the scholars (see the Book about Major Sins from Sheikh Muhammad Ibn AbdulWahaab)
- What differentiates between a major sin and a minor sin?
Fortune telling and Sorcery
- Fortune tellers claim to have knowledge of the unseen, how do they try to do this? (see above)
- Only Allah, the Exalted, the Most High, has knowledge of the unseen
- Therefore whoever claims to have knowledge of the unseen or believes someone who claims this then he has committed shirk (polytheism) alongside Allah
- Again, the fortune tellers as with the magicians are connected to the Jinn
- The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) informed us that whomsoever goes to a fortune teller and asks him a matter, and he believes him, then his prayer will not be accepted for 40 days [hadith in Sahih Muslim]
- What about if a person does not believe the fortune teller but just goes to meet him for entertainment or fun?
“Healers” and tarot cards
- Some fortune tellers present themselves as healers and some claim to be a “doctor”
- They command the people to commit shirk, for example they may say in order to be cured one has to sacrifice something to other than Allah, or they may use amulets etc
- These are all haraam
- What about modern day “sleight of hand” tricks? Can one watch these videos just for fun?
- What about kids programmes like Harry Potter?
Q&A:
- What if you have children who are already into Harry Potter? How should you approach this?
- If someone threatens you with magic, what is my protection?
- What about reading horoscopes? What if someone reads about it purely for curiosity or interest?
Next section: Superstitions