Ibn ʿAbbās said about a people who write “Abjad” and keep watch on the stars: “I see no share with Allah for anyone who does that.” (1)
— “write ‘Abjad’”: they break up the letters of “Abjad Ḥawwaz …” and the rest—what are called the numerical-value letters—and study them in order to claim knowledge of the unseen.
— “keep watch on the stars”: they believe the stars exert influence, and on the basis of that corrupt notion and false belief in the stars and the calculations by which they think they can know the unseen, they arrange their affairs.
— “I see”: with the hamzah pronounced with fatḥah it means “I do not know”; with ḍammah it means “I do not think.”
— “share”: meaning a portion (of divine favor).
Overall purport of the report: Ibn ʿAbbās is saying, “I neither know nor think that anyone who writes the Abjad letters, watches the stars, and on that basis pronounces judgment about the future, has any share with Allah,” because such behavior falls under the ruling of soothsayers who claim knowledge of the unseen.
Relevance to the chapter: it shows that writing Abjad and learning it for the purpose of claiming knowledge of the unseen, as well as star-gazing in the belief that the stars influence events, are both forms of soothsaying; whoever practices them forfeits his share with Allah.
Points derived from the report:
- The prohibition of studying Abjad letters as a means of claiming knowledge of the unseen, because that contradicts—