Muallim - The Muslim Lifestyle Magazine - January - 2016

In this issue

Islam’s position on sorcery for both the one who practices magic and the one who believes in sorcery can be summed up in just one sentence. Sorcery or magic is absolutely forbidden. Remembering that Islam is a way of life, not just a set of beliefs that people may or may not practice, we find that sorcery or magic is forbidden because of the damage they can do to individuals, families and the community.
Sorcery is known in Arabic as Sehr and it is one of the tricks that Satan uses to lead humankind astray. It is for this reason Islam warns against magic. Allah the Almighty warns against it in the Qur’an. “And indeed they knew that the buyers of it (magic) would have no share in the Hereafter. And how bad indeed was that for which they sold their own selves, if they but knew.” (Qur’an 2:102)
In an authentic saying, the Prophet of Islam said: “Whoever goes to a fortune teller (a soothe sayer) or a diviner and believes him, has, in fact, disbelieved in what has been revealed to Muhammad”.
Thus Islam condemns magic, sorcery and even what is called the horoscope or luck or reading one's palm to foretell the future is also prohibited in Islam. This is based on the belief that no one knows the future or the unseen except Allah the Almighty.