a man and asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘Buraydah.’ He said, ‘O Abū Bakr, our situation has become easier.’”

As for superstitious omens, this is when someone has undertaken something, trusting in Allah, or intends to undertake it, then hears something displeasing, such as “It will not be completed” or “It will not succeed,” and takes it as an evil omen and abandons his undertaking. This is forbidden. As reported in the Sahīh, Mu‘āwiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulamī said:

“I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, some among us take things as evil omens.’ He replied, ‘That is something one of you feels within himself, but it must not deter you.’”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, thus forbade a person from allowing superstitious omens to deter him from what he intended. Both in his liking for good omens and in his dislike of superstitious omens, he followed only the path of seeking Allah’s guidance, trusting in Him, and taking the means He had prescribed. He did not make a good omen a command or an incentive to act, nor an evil omen a prohibition against acting. It is the people of pre-Islamic ignorance, who sought decisions through divining arrows, who took such things as commands and prohibitions. Allah prohibited seeking decisions through divining arrows in two verses of His Book.

Whenever they wished to undertake something, they would cast lots for it using objects such as arrow shafts, pebbles, or the like. They marked one with a sign for good and another with a sign for evil, leaving a third unmarked. If one came out, they proceeded; if the other came out, they refrained; and if the unmarked one came out, they cast the lots again.

Practices falling under this heading include divination using pebbles, barley, boards, pieces of wood, or paper inscribed with letters of the abjad alphabet or lines of