Going to horoscope pages and channels in order to refute them

Praise
be to Allah

Firstly:

It is not
permissible for a Muslim to go to fortune tellers or listen to them, even if
he does not believe in what they claim to have of knowledge of the unseen,
because of the report narrated by Muslim (2230) from one of the wives of the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), from the Prophet
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), that he said: “Whoever goes to a
fortune-teller and asks him about something, his prayer will not be accepted
for forty nights.”

However, if he
believes what they say, then he has disbelieved in that which was revealed
to Muhammad (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him).

Imam Ahmad
(9536) narrated from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet (blessings and peace of
Allah be upon him) said: “Whoever goes to a soothsayer or fortune teller and
believes what he says has disbelieved in that which was revealed to Muhammad
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him).” Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani
in Saheeh al-Jaami‘ (5939).

An-Nawawi (may
Allah have mercy on him) said:

The scholars
said: It is only prohibited to go to soothsayers because they speak of
matters of the unseen that may come to pass by coincidence, so there is the
fear that people may become confused because of that, because they try to
confuse people and make them drift away from the path of Islam. There are
many saheeh hadiths which indicate that it is forbidden to go to soothsayers
and believe what they say.

End quote from
Sharh an-Nawawi (5/22).

Secondly:

Astrology
involves making connections between events on earth and the movements of the
stars, interpreting what happens on earth on the basis of astronomical
events.

One of the types
of astrology is that which is called horoscopes and zodiac, in which it is
believed that the child who is born under a particular sign of the Zodiac
will be lucky or unlucky, and what they say about the nature and
characteristics of people according to their star signs.

Shaykh Ibn
‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said, commenting on the words of
the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), “Whoever acquires
any knowledge of astrology has acquired knowledge of a branch of
witchcraft”:

What is meant
here is that knowledge of the stars through which they seek to predict
earthly events, so – for example – when a certain star appears in
conjunction with another star, they predict that such and such will happen,
and if a person is born under a particular star, he will be lucky, and if a
person is born under another star, he will be unlucky. From the different
positions of the stars they predict various earthly events. But earthly
events are decreed by Allah; the causes thereof may be known to us or they
may be unknown, but the stars have nothing to do with it.

End quote from
al-Qawl al-Mufeed (1/519).

It says in
Fataawa al-Lajnah ad-Daa’imah (27/203):

It is haraam to
publish, read or propagate horoscopes, and it is not permissible to believe
them; rather this is a kind of disbelief (kufr) and is contrary to Tawheed.
What you must do is be aware of that, advise others to avoid it, and rely
only on Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, putting your trust in Him in
all your affairs. End quote.

See also the
answers to questions no. 2538 and
147232.

Thirdly:

If someone has
sufficient knowledge to be able to advise these fortunetellers and
charlatans, so he tries to communicate with them, and he goes to them where
they are, so that he can tell them that what they are doing is wrong and
explain to them the Islamic ruling on what they are doing, then that is not
regarded as going to them in the manner that is prohibited. Rather that is
something prescribed and enjoined for one who is able to do it, and it is
either obligatory or recommended, no matter what the means of communicating
with them.

Shaykh Ibn
‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) stated that speaking to fortune
tellers or asking them questions is of different types, one of which is:

… The fourth
type: asking the fortuneteller questions in order to highlight his falseness
and lies. Thus one may test him by asking him questions, and this may be
obligatory or may be something that is needed. Proving the words of
soothsayers to be wrong is something that is needed, and may be obligatory.
In that case, going to the soothsayers and asking them questions is not the
same in all cases; rather it depends on the reason for going to them, as is
indicated by other shar‘i texts.

End quote from
al-Qawl al-Mufeed (2/49).

Shaykh al-Islam
Ibn Taymiyah said:

But if he is
asking him in order to test him and find out what he really is, and he
(meaning the questioner) has sufficient knowledge to recognise when he is
telling the truth and when he is lying, then this is permissible, as it is
proven in as-Saheehayn that the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him) asked Ibn Sayyaad: “What comes to you?” He said: (Sometimes) a
truthful one comes to me and (sometimes) a liar comes. He said: “What do you
see?” He said: I see a throne on water. He said: “I am hiding something from
you.” He said: (It is) ad-dukh, ad-dukh. He said: “Be off with you! You will
never go beyond your rank. Rather you are one of the brethren of the
soothsayers.”

End quote from
Fataawa Ibn Taymiyah (19/62).

Denouncing these
astrologers is something that is needed from those who are able to do it, by
all possible means, whether that is on social media, YouTube or otherwise.

But if the
Muslim thinks that denouncing them is just a drop in the ocean (and will not
be noticed), and no one will pay attention to it and it will not achieve the
desired results – as is usually the case with these pages – then what is
prescribed is for him to not waste his time, and to protect his face by
keeping away from these websites, because no interest can be served by going
to these pages, and it is most likely that no one will benefit from what he
says, there will not even be the benefit of establishing proof against them.
Moreover, by his refraining, he will thwart the aim of these people to
increase the number of followers, to have their webpages become more widely
known, and to cost the ignorant to become confused and be tempted to join
them because of the increased popularity of their pages.

And Allah knows
best.