This is because their discipline rests on the premise that celestial motions cause events, and that knowledge of the cause entails knowledge of the effect. Yet this holds only when one knows the complete cause whose effect invariably follows. At most—if they know anything at all—these people know only a very small part of the many causes involved. They know neither the remaining causes nor the necessary conditions nor the impediments.

They are like someone who knows that the sun rises overhead in summer, producing intense heat, and seeks to infer from this, for example, that the grapes on a particular piece of land will then become raisins. This assumes that there are grapes there, that they ripen, and that their owner spreads them out in the sun during the heat so that they become raisins. Although this often happens, inferring it from the sun’s heat alone betrays profound ignorance. There may or may not be grapes there; those vines may bear fruit if tended, or they may not. The grapes may be eaten fresh, pressed, stolen, or made into raisins, and so forth.

There is abundant evidence demonstrating the falsity of this craft and its prohibition, but this is not the place to discuss it. It is authentically reported in Sahīh Muslim that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Whoever visits a diviner and asks him about something will have no prayer accepted for forty days.”

The term “diviner” has been said to be a general designation encompassing soothsayers, astrologers, geomancers, and others who claim advance knowledge through such methods. Even if it were said that, linguistically, the term designates only some of these types, the others would still fall within its scope by virtue of the generality of its underlying meaning, as has been said concerning the terms “wine,” “gambling,” and the like.