In the course of Muʿāwiyah ibn al-Ḥakam’s narration—may Allah be pleased with him—he relates: “I said, Messenger of Allah, I am only lately removed from the age of jāhiliyya (pre-Islamic ignorance), and Allah Most High has now granted us Islam.” He spoke this way to make clear the contrast between his former state and his present one, and to acknowledge Allah’s favor upon him. For during jāhiliyya they neither recognized virtue nor repudiated vice except according to whatever customs prevailed among them. Then Allah brought us this Islam with its radiant light and mighty criterion, separating truth from falsehood, benefit from harm, faith from disbelief, and monotheism from idolatry—along with every other blessing He bestowed upon this community through Islam.

He went on to say, “Among us are men who visit the soothsayers.” The Prophet replied, “Do not go to the soothsayers.” Those soothsayers were men upon whom the devilish jinn would descend with scraps of news they had overheard from the heaven. The soothsayers would then report to the people what the devils had told them, adding to that true information a great deal of falsehood. If they happened to speak accurately about one matter out of a hundred, people would treat them as authorities and would therefore go to them and submit their disputes to them for judgment.

A soothsayer, then, is simply a man to whom a devil comes, informing him of what it has overheard from the heavenly decree, and he tacks on to that report many fabrications. The jinn continue to come to them