on one of the Muslim rulers when the Muslims were besieging Acre.” Other judges and others likewise deceived rulers other than this one.

Falsehood concerning events in the world is more prevalent than falsehood concerning religious matters, because those who give worldly interests precedence over religion are more eager for such knowledge. Although religious people also have an interest in it, their interest in religion is stronger. The former do not possess the same light for distinguishing truth from falsehood as religious people do. Hence liars have proliferated in this field, many of their falsehoods have gained currency, vast sums have been wrongfully acquired through them, and many people aspiring to kingship and similar ambitions have been killed as a result.

For this reason, they employ various methods of deception in this field and deliberately lie about it. Sometimes they appeal to physical movements and configurations brought about by Allah, such as the movements of the celestial spheres and heavenly bodies, meteors, thunder, lightning, winds, and other such phenomena. At other times, they rely on movements and configurations that they themselves produce, such as divining with sand, pebbles, and barley, drawing lots by hand, and similar practices belonging to the same category as divination by arrows. They seek knowledge of events through this practice of divination, whether using arrows, pebbles, or other objects mentioned by scholars of Quranic exegesis.

Thus, whenever someone physically alters any material object in order to discover what the future holds for him, this belongs to the same category—unlike the good omen sanctioned by the Sharia, which used to