Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
It is not permissible to go
to soothsayers and fortune tellers, because the Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever goes to a fortune-teller and
asks him about something, his prayer will not be accepted for forty nights.”
Narrated by Muslim (2230).
And he (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever has intercourse with a
menstruating woman or with a woman in her back passage, or goes to a fortune
teller and believes what he says, has disbelieved in that which Allaah
revealed to Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).”
Narrated by Abu Dawood (3904), al-Tirmidhi (3904) and Ibn Majaah (936);
classed as saheeh by al-Albaani in Saheeh Ibn Maajah.
The kufr mentioned in the
hadeeth is to be understood in the sense of minor or lesser kufr, according
to many scholars, unless he believes that the witch or soothsayer has
knowledge of the unseen or he believes his claims to have knowledge of the
unseen.
For more information please
see the answer to question no. 8291.
The one who has fallen into
any of these matters must repent to Allaah, by regretting what he has done
and resolving not to do it again.
Secondly:
As for what the fortune
teller told him coming true day after day, this doesn’t matter, and it does
not affect the shar’i ruling in such cases at all. This may be due to one of
two things:
1 – That the fortune teller
used general words and phrases that reflect things that happen to all
people, such as saying “you will go through some trials, then you will find
relief” or “you will be blessed with some wealth” or “you will get married”
and so on, and the person thinks that the fortune teller is telling the
truth because of that.
2 – The fortune teller told
him of something true that would happen in the future, then it happened as
he said it would. This is something that the shaytaan snatched for him from
the heavens, then passed it on to the fortune teller, who added lies and
false things to it. If the incident that he spoke of happens, people believe
everything he said. This is what the Prophet (peace and blessings of
Allaah be upon him) pointed out when he explained this matter. Al-Bukhaari
(6213) and Muslim (2228) narrated that ‘Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with
her) said: Some people asked the Messenger of Allaah (peace and
blessings of Allaah be upon him) about soothsayers. The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said to them: “They are
nothing.” They said: O Messenger of Allaah, sometimes they tell us something
that turns out to be true. The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) said: “That is a word from the jinn that the jinni
snatches, and he cackles it into the ear of his familiar as a hen cackles,
but they mix more than a hundred lies with it.”
al-Bukhaari (4701) narrated
from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “When Allaah decrees a
matter in heaven, the angels beat their wings in submission to His words,
making a sound like a chain striking a rock. When the fear is banished from
their hearts, they say, What is it that your Lord has said? They say: The
truth, and He is the Most High, the Most Great. Then the one who is
listening out hears that, and those who are listening out are standing one
above the other” – Sufyaan [one of the narrators] demonstrated with his
hand, holding it vertically with the fingers outspread. – “So he hears what
is said and passes it on to the one below him, and that one passes it to the
one who is below him, and so on until it reaches the lips of the soothsayer
or fortune-teller. Maybe the meteor will hit him before he can pass anything
on, or maybe he will pass it on before he is hit. He tells a hundred lies
alongside it, but it will be said, Did he not tell us that on such and such
a day, such and such would happen? So they believe him because of the one
thing which was heard from heaven.” i.e., he is believed because of the one
true word that was heard from heaven and passed on to the fortune teller.
If we assume that the
fortune teller told him something that did actually happen, such as if he
told him about where a lost item was to be found, or some such, and this is
what happened, if the questioner did not know it, then it is not “unseen” in
absolute terms, rather it was “unseen” to the one who did not see it or know
it. The fortune teller is able to see such things, either by himself or with
the help of his helpers among the devils of mankind and the jinn, as is well
known.
To sum up: So long as your
friend has repented to Allaah, then he should not pay any attention to what
the fortune-teller said or be afraid of what he said. Some of the things he
mentioned may happen, or they may not. Usually they do not happen, because
the ratio of truth – if the fortune teller receives information from the
jinn – is no more than 1%.
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