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Astrology, Hhoroscopes and Islam

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Albalagh.net

Astrology and Horoscopes

By Mufti Ebrahim Desai (Darul Iftaa, Madrassah In’aamiyyah)


Q.If a person shows his/her hand to a palmist, his/her 40 days’ prayers are not accepted. Does this also apply to the case of someone only casually reading a horoscope?

Also, back in school, I thought only believing in palmistry was forbidden in Islam. And I didn’t know that your 40 days’ prayers are not accepted if you show your palm to someone. So, out of ignorance, I showed my palm to a girl who claimed to know palmistry. I did it just for fun (and not because I believed in it). When I got to know about the punishment, later on, I offered nafil-i-tauba and sought Allah’s forgiveness for the same. Will I be forgiven (since it was something I did out of ignorance)?

   
Jazak-Allah Khairan [Sara]


A. Palmistry, fortune-telling etc are acts which are absolutely abhored and forbidden in Islam.

The degree to which these acts are forbidden could be grasped from the fact that the one who does the fortune telling has been classified as a kafir.
Similarly, the one who believes in what the fortune teller says has also been mentioned to be a kafir.

Thus we can see the severity of these acts and we can understand that showing the hand to the palmist is completely forbidden, regardless of whether one believed her or not.

Now, if one showed the hand or read the horoscope INTENDING to accept what was to be told, then the salah of that person for the next forty days would go unrewarded ie. the salah would not have to be repeated, but no reward would be accrued for it.

And if one did believe the fortune-teller or palmist, then the hadith clearly mentions this person to be out of the fold of Islam.

As for your showing your palm to that girl, it was wrong to do so, but as you did repent we hope that Allah Ta’ala would forgive you for it.

(References: Fatawa Mufti Mahmud 1/195, Ahsanul Fatawa 1/52, Khairul Fatawa 1/75, Nizamul Fatawa 1/81, Mirqaatul Mafateeh, Sharh Muslim of Nawawi)

And Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

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This answer was collected from Albalagh.net, which is an Islamic site with Q&A and articles authored by many world renowned scholars from the Muslim world. Many of Mufti Taqi Uthmani’s fatawa in English are found exclusively on this site.

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