The Ruling on Asking Sorcerers and Magicians from among the Sufis and Others

Question:

In some quarters in Yemen, there are people who are known as As-Sadah, who do things which are not in conformity with the religion, such as magic and other things, and they claim that they are able to heal people with incurable diseases. They prove it by hurting themselves with daggers or cutting their tongues, then restoring them without harming themselves. Some of them pray and some do not. They permit themselves to marry from outside their group, while prohibiting anyone from marrying into their group and while supplicating for the sick, they say: "O Allah! O so-and-so (one of their ancestors)!" In times past," people used to extol them and consider them special people and that they were close to Allah; indeed, they used to call them 'Men of Allah'. Now people are divided. Some of them are against them, and they are the young men and some of the educated people, while others remain attached to them, and they are the older people and the uneducated. We request your Excellency to explain the truth of the matter.

Answer:

These people, and their like among the Sufis who perform forbidden actions and invalid deeds, and the psychics, are from those about whom the Prophet said:
"He who visits a fortuneteller and consults him, no prayer of his would be accepted for forty days.

This is because of their claim to know the unseen and their servitude to the Jinns. So it is not allowed to question them. Similar is the Prophetic Hadith:
"He who visits a seer and believes what he says, has certainly denied what was revealed to Muhammad.

And in another version:
"He who visits a fortuneteller or a seer and believes him, has certanily denied what was revealed to Muhammad.»

- As for their calling upon other than Allah, seeking help from other than Him and claiming that their fathers and their ancestors control the affairs of the universe or can cure the sick, or answer supplications, even though they are dead or absent all of this is disbelief in Allah, the Almighty, the Majestic and all of these are from the deeds of the polytheists. It is obligatory to reject them and avoid them and not to ask anything of them, nor believe in them. This is because, by these deeds, they are committing all of the actions of fortune- tellers and seers, and the actions of polytheists, worshipping other than Allah, seeking help from other than Him and seeking succor from other than Him, such as the Jinn, the dead and others connected to them, claiming that they are their fathers and their ancestors or other people whom they claim have some type of power or who can perform miracles.

But all of these are deeds of magic, fortunetelling and prognostication, rejected by the pure Law (of Islam). As for their evil actions such as harming themselves with daggers or cutting their tongues, all of this is trickery practiced on the people and all types of forbidden magic, which are prohibited and warned against in the texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah. No rational person should be fooled by this; it is what Allah, the Almighty, the Majestic referred to when He spoke of the magicians of Pharaoh:
It appeared to him (Musa - upon him be peace) by their magic (Pharaoh's magicians) that they (their ropes and sticks) moved quickly.

Those people combined the sins of magic and sorcery, fortune- telling and major Shirk and seeking help from other than Allah and seeking succor from other than Him and claiming knowledge of the unseen and possessing power over creation. These things are full of major Shirk and clear disbelief, and they are among the actions of sorcerers, which have been forbidden by Allah, the Almighty, the Majestic, being a claim to hold knowledge of the unseen, of which none knows anything except Allah, as He, the Most High says:
Say: "None in the heavens and the earth knows the Ghaib (unseen) except Allah.

It is obligatory upon all Muslims who know their true position to disavow them, to make the evil of their behavior clear, that it is rejected, and that what they are doing involves Shirk, disbelief, that it consists of magic, fortune-telling, prognostication, and that it consists of claims to knowing the unseen. All of these things are forms of misguidance and disbelief and are false. It is incumbent to avoid them and those who perform them. As for their not allowing their daughters to marry other than them, while permitting themselves to marry from other than them, this is also a form of ignorance and misguidance, for which there is no proof and no basis in the Law. Allah, Most Glorified, Most High says:
O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes that you may know one another. Verily, the most honourable of you in the Sight of Allah is that (believer) who has At-Taqwa [i.e. one of the Muttaqun: i.e. pious and righteous persons who fear Allah much (abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds which He has forbidden), and love Allah much (perform all kinds of good deeds which He has ordained)]. Verily, Allah is All- Knowing, Aware (of all things).

So even if they are from As-Sadah or from Bani Hashim they have no right to forbid the marriage of their daughters to other than them. This is rejected and contradicts what has been authentically reported from the Messenger of Allah for he married Zainab, the daughter of his uncle to Zaid bin Harithah and she was from the tribe of Bani Asad; and he married Fatimah bint Qais to Usamah bin Zaid and she was from the tribe of Quraish; and 'Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, married Umm Kulthum to 'Umar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, and she was not from Bani Hashim, rather she was from Bani 'Adi. Such occurrences were frequent, and they prove the invalidity of these people's position, and that they are contradicting what their pious forebears used to do. It is incumbent to advise them and warn them against contradicting the Command of Allah, and to order them to turn in repentance to Allah, the Most Glorified, from all of those things that they did which contradict the pure (Islamic) Law. We ask Allah to guide us and them.