the narrator of the hadith:

“‘Iyāfa is drawing omens by making birds fly, while tarq is drawing lines on the ground.”

It has also been said that the definitions are the other way round. If drawing lines and similar practices, which are branches of astrology, are forms of sorcery, then what of astrology itself? This is because they generate figures on the ground, these being derived from the configurations of the heavens.

Ahmad, Abū Dāwūd, Ibn Mājah and others narrated with an authentic chain of transmission from Ibn ‘Abbās, who said that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“Whoever acquires knowledge of astrology acquires a branch of sorcery; the more he learns, the more sorcery he acquires.”

The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—thus explicitly stated that astrology is a form of sorcery. Allah Most High has said:

“The magician will never succeed, wherever he may go.”

Reality bears this out: observation shows that astrologers do not prosper, either in this world or in the Hereafter.

Ahmad narrated, as did Muslim in his Sahīh, from Safiyya bint ‘Ubayd, from one of the wives of the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“Whoever visits a fortune-teller and asks him about anything will have no prayer accepted from him for forty days.”

According to some scholars, the term “fortune-teller” includes the astrologer; according to others, he falls under the same ruling. If this is the condition of the questioner, what, then, of the one questioned?

Muslim also narrated in his Sahīh that Mu‘āwiya ibn al-Hakam al-Sulamī said:

“I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, some of our people visit soothsayers.’ He replied, ‘Then do not visit them.’”

The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—thus forbade visiting soothsayers. The term “soothsayer” includes the astrologer according to al-Khattābī