The second cause is the worship of the heavenly bodies. They would fashion talismans for their idols in homage to the planets, carefully selecting the moment they deemed auspicious for forging each charm. The talisman would be made of a substance they believed suited the planet’s nature, and over it they would utter words of outright polytheism and unbelief. Then the devils would come to them, converse with them, and fulfill certain requests. They called these visitations “the planetary spirits,” yet in truth they are nothing but devils—male or female—leading them astray.

A book has even been compiled titled The Hidden Secret on Magic and Addressing the Stars. This is precisely the polytheism practiced by the Chaldeans and the Kashdanians, the very people to whom the Friend of Allah—Abraham, upon him be peace—was sent. It is the gravest category of sorcery. Hence the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said in the ḥadīth narrated by Abū Dāwūd and others: “Whoever acquires a branch of the knowledge of the stars has taken a branch of sorcery; the more he increases in it, the more he increases in sorcery.”

For this reason Tinkalūshāh the Babylonian composed his treatise on the degrees of the celestial spheres, and likewise