and enthusiastic supporters. This stems from ignorance of the religion, a cavalier attitude toward sound belief, and a license granted to those who would toy with it.

2. Soothsaying and divination: Both involve claiming access to the unseen and knowledge of hidden matters—such as foretelling what will happen on earth, what events are to occur, or where a lost object may be located. The soothsayer does this by employing devils who steal snippets of information from the heavens. Allah, Exalted is He, says: “Shall I inform you upon whom the devils descend? They descend upon every sinful liar, who lends an ear, and most of them are liars” (Qur’an 26:221–223).

A devil snatches a single word from the conversation of the angels, whispers it into the ear of the soothsayer, and the soothsayer then mixes with that word a hundred lies. People believe him because of that one word which truly came from the heavens. Yet Allah alone possesses knowledge of the unseen; whoever claims to share in any of it through soothsaying or otherwise, or believes someone who makes such a claim, has set up a partner with Allah in that which is His exclusive prerogative. And soothsaying is never free of polytheism, because it—