escape the eye. It consists of spells, incantations, words that are recited, medicines, and smoke-burning preparations. Some forms work on hearts and bodies: they can make a person ill, kill him, or sow enmity between a man and his wife. Their effect, however, occurs only by Allah’s universal, pre-existent decree. At its core it is a satanic practice, and in most cases it cannot be carried out without shirk—drawing close to malicious spirits by offering them what they desire and scheming to enlist their help through acts of worship directed to them. For this reason the Lawgiver has coupled magic with shirk, and it falls under shirk from two angles:
- Employing and relying on devils, at times even courting them with what they love so that they will serve the magician.
- Claiming knowledge of the unseen and alleging a share in Allah’s knowledge. This is outright disbelief and deviation.
Allah, the Exalted, said: “And they certainly knew that whoever purchased it would have no share in the Hereafter.”⦗1⦘
Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Avoid the seven destructive sins.” They asked, “Messenger of Allah, what are they?” He replied, “Associating others with Allah, magic, killing a soul that Allah has forbidden except in justice, consuming usury, consuming the property of an orphan, turning one’s back on the enemy on the day of battle, and slandering chaste, unsuspecting, believing women.”
5- Divination (kahānah)
It is the claim to possess knowledge of the unseen, such as informing about what will occur on earth, based on a supposed cause: eavesdropping. A jinn steals a word from the angels’ conversation and whispers it into the diviner’s ear; the diviner then adds to it a hundred lies, and people believe him because of that one stolen word.
Allah alone possesses the knowledge of the unseen. Whoever claims to share in it through divination or any other means, or believes someone who makes that claim, has set up a partner with Allah in what belongs exclusively to Him.