There is a woman who claims to worship Allah sincerely, and that whilst she is asleep she is visited by a man wearing a white gown who walks around her, then the next morning she predicts things that are almost true. The people know of her and they have started to visit her and they say that she has knowledge of the unseen, but no one knows the unseen except Allah. What is the ruling on this woman? What do you advise us to do?
Praise be to Allah
It is not
permissible for anyone to claim to have knowledge of the unseen. The one who
makes such a claim is a kafir (disbeliever). And it is not permissible to
believe that anyone has knowledge of the unseen. The one who believes that
is also a kafir.
Allah has told us
that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) does not have
knowledge of the unseen, and that the jinn do not have knowledge of the
unseen.
What we are
referring to here is the unseen in absolute terms, which no one knows except
Allah. As for the relative unseen – which some people know and others do not
– some people may find a way to know this, so we have to find out how they
know it; some may find out by spying and some may find out through the jinn.
Both are ways which are forbidden for us to use.
Shaykh Ibn
‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked:
Do the jinn have
knowledge of the unseen?
He replied:
The jinn do not
have knowledge of the unseen because Allah says (interpretation of the
meaning):
“Say: None in the
heavens and the earth knows the Ghaib (unseen) except Allah.”
[27:65]
“Then when We
decreed death for him [Sulayman], nothing informed them (jinn) of his death
except a little worm of the earth which kept (slowly) gnawing away at his
stick. So when he fell down, the jinn saw clearly that if they had known the
unseen, they would not have stayed in the humiliating torment” [34:14]
So whoever claims
to have knowledge of the unseen is a kafir, and whoever believes the one who
claims to have knowledge of the unseen is also a kafir, because Allah says
(interpretation of the meaning):
“Say: None in the
heavens and the earth knows the Ghaib (unseen) except Allah.” [27:65]
No one knows what
is unseen in the heavens and the earth except Allah alone. Those who claim
to have knowledge of the unseen future are all fortunetellers, and it is
proven that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:
“Whoever goes to a fortuneteller and asks him (about anything), his prayer
will not be accepted from him for forty days.” And if he believes him then
he is a kafir because if he believes that he has knowledge of the unseen,
then he has disbelieved in the words of Allah (interpretation of the
meaning):
“Say: None in the
heavens and the earth knows the Ghaib (unseen) except Allah.” [27:65].
[Majmoo’ Fatawa
al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen]
And Shaykh Ibn
‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked about the ruling on one
who claims to have knowledge of the unseen. He replied:
The ruling on one
who claims to have knowledge of the unseen is that he is a kafir, because he
has disbelieved in Allah. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Say: None in the
heavens and the earth knows the Ghaib (unseen) except Allah, nor can they
perceive when they shall be resurrected.” [27:65]
If Allah has
commanded His Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to
proclaim to all that no one in the heavens or on earth has knowledge of the
unseen except Allah, then whoever claims to have knowledge of the unseen has
denied what Allah has told us here.
We say to them:
How can you possibly have knowledge of the unseen when the Prophet (peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him) did not have knowledge of the unseen?
Are you better or the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)?
If they say, “We are better than the Messenger” then they become kafirs by
saying that. If they say, “He is better,” then why was the unseen concealed
from him but you have knowledge of it?? Allah says of Himself
(interpretation of the meaning):
“(He Alone is) the
All‑Knower of the Ghayb (unseen), and He reveals to none His Ghayb (nseen).
Except to a
Messenger (from mankind) whom He has chosen (He informs him of the unseen as
much as He likes), and then He makes a band of watching guards (angels) to
march before him and behind him.” [72:26]
The second verse
attests to the kufr (disbelief) of the one who claims to have knowledge of
the unseen. And Allah commanded His Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) to announce to all (interpretation of the meaning):
“Say (O Muhammad):
I don’t tell you that with me are the treasures of Allah, nor (that) I know
the unseen; nor I tell you that I am an angel. I but follow what is revealed
to me.”
[6:50]
[Majmoo’ Fatawa
al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen]
The one who
predicts the future is called a kahin (fortuneteller, soothsayer), and it is
not permissible to ask questions of such a person or to go to him or her. If
their predictions are sometimes correct, that is either a coincidence or
because the jinn have intercepted the news and conveyed it to the
fortuneteller, but they add a hundred lies to it.
It was narrated
that ‘Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) said: Some people asked the
Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about
fortunetellers. He said: “They are nothing.” They said: “O Messenger of
Allah, sometimes they tell us something and it is true.” The Messenger of
Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “That is a word of
the truth that they learn from the jinni which he whispers into the ear of
his familiar, but they mix a hundred lies with it.” [al-Bukhari, Muslim].
Al-Hafiz ibn Hajar
said:
Al-Qurtubi said:
During the Jahiliyyah (pre-Islamic days og ignorance) they used to consult
the fortunetellers about events and rulings, and follow what they said. Then
the fortunetellers stopped when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) was sent. But there are still some who resemble them. It is
forbidden to go to them, so it is not permissible to go to them or to
believe them.
In the version
narrated by Yoonus the phrase “sometimes they tell us something and it is
true” appears as “they tell something and it turns out to be true.” This
phrase has confused the questioner because of the general meaning of the
phrase “They are nothing”, which he has understood to mean that they never
get anything right. But the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) commented that although they sometimes coincidentally get things right,
it is never completely right for it is always contaminated with many lies.
Al-Khattabi said:
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) explained that the
reason why the fortuneteller sometimes gets it right is that the jinni tells
him of something that he has heard by eavesdropping on the angels, and he
adds lies to that to embellish what he heard. So occasionally he gets it
right but usually it is wrong. [Fath al-Bari].
With regard to
what is mentioned in the question of what this woman sees in her dreams,
such dreams are not to be taken as evidence concerning rulings of sharee’ah
(Islamic law), let alone whatever they may indicate that goes against any
matter of ‘aqeedah (belief) that is confirmed in the texts of Islam.
Whatever she sees in her dreams is to be regarded as the shaytan’s toying
with her and taking advantage of her ignorance.
For more
information on the rulings on what is seen in dreams, please see questions
no.
25768,
6537
and
23367.
And Allah knows
best.
