The word kuhhān is the plural of kāhin. A kāhin is someone who claims knowledge of the unseen future, saying, for example, “Such-and-such will happen on such-and-such a day,” or telling a person, “You will be happy on a certain date,” or “An accident will befall you on that day,” and similar predictions. These are the soothsayers.

Astrologers, on the other hand, are those who make a living out of the science of the stars. This discipline, however, is of two kinds: one lawful and one forbidden.

As for the soothsayers, they are human beings who have allies among the jinn. Allah has granted the jinn tremendous speed and strength, so they ascend to the heavens, each having a set station from which they eavesdrop on the angels. When Allah decrees a matter in heaven, they snatch a fragment of that decree and then descend to their human confederates—the soothsayers. The kāhin then adds to what he has heard, as the truthful Prophet ﷺ said, “a hundred lies,” that is, he embellishes the stolen word with a hundred fabrications. It so happens that the single word actually heard from heaven comes true exactly as the jinn heard it, and that is what people remember.

ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her, related that the Prophet ﷺ was asked about the soothsayers and he said, “They are nothing,” because soothsayers were numerous in the Prophet’s era before revelation came to him. The jinn, as Allah quotes them, said, “We used to take up positions in the heavens to eavesdrop” (Q 72:9). But once the Prophet ﷺ was sent, whenever a jinn sat in his place to listen, a flaming meteor pursued and burned him: “Whoever now tries to listen will find a flaming comet lying in wait for him” (Q 72:9).

Thus when the Prophet ﷺ was asked about soothsayers he replied, “They are nothing,” meaning: pay them no attention, accept none of their words, and let their affairs not concern you. They then said, “Messenger of Allah, they sometimes make a statement…"