1. Can Muslims read books like those of Nostradamus that claim to predict future events? Can they be read if one has no intention to believe in the ‘predictions’?
2. Is it permissible to view videos, CDs, newsprint pictures, etc. of Muslims suffering in Iraq, etc. and if yes, can one circulate such pics or web addresses?
3. How does one reconcile what a scan shows (of a baby in the mother’s womb, its sex, etc.) with the Qur’aanic verse that says that Allah Ta’ala Knows what is in the wombs?
1. It is not permissible to read Nostradamus and other similar books. Rasulullah (Salla Allahu alayhi Wa sallam) said, “That person who goes to a fortune teller has committed Kufr.” It is not permissible to go to a fortunteller even though you do not believe in his predictions. Similarly, it is not permissible to read books of predictions just as an entertainment. To purchase, sell and read such books is supporting an evil concept which itself a sin.
2. Generally Shariah prohibits pictures of animate objects. There may be a leeway for specific situations for example pictures for identification purposes. Similarly, pictures of oppressed Muslims may be taken only to highlight their plight and seek assistance for them if this is the only effective way of assisting them. This falls in the category of “need relaxes prohibition.” If the oppressed people are being sufficiently assisted and there is no need to take out their pictures to assist them then the o riginal prohibition will remain.
3. The verse of the Quran in reference is “And Allah knows what is in the wombs.” There are two key words in this verse, Ya’lamu which means that Allah knows. The other key word is Arhaam which means wombs. The knowledge of Allah is absolute in every sense. Absolute knowledge is without any medium or source. That is the case with the knowledge of Allah. He does not require any means or source for His knowledge as knowledge is His attribute. The information on scanning machines is not knowledge as that is through a source, the machine. At most it is a reflection of that which is in the womb.
Secondly, the knowledge of Allah is error-proof. He knows exactly what is the gender of the child. There can be no mistake about that. Errors in scan machines are well known and common.
Thirdly, the knowledge of Allah about what is in the wombs is not confined to the gender of the child. It is far beyond that. Allah knows everything about the child, every blood cell, every blood vessel, every tissue, every bone, the marrow in the bone, the life span, the feature and conduct of the child. Allah even knows what the child will do and whether the child will be a successful slave of Allah or not. Surely, no machine, rather all the machines of the world, cannot detect an iota of all this.
The second key word in the verse in Arhaam which means wombs. Allah claims to know all that which is in the wombs. A scan machine may scan one woman at a time. Allah knows at once everything of every womb of every woman that came in the past that is present and that which will come in the future. Can there be any such machine. Subhanallah, the knowledge of Allah is supreme and greatest. Allahu Akbar. Allah is the greatest.
and Allah Ta’ala Knows Best
Mufti Ebrahim Desai