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Fatwa CenterMeaning of Hadith ‘He Is Not One of Us Who Reads Omens or Has Them Read for Him…’
Question
Does this hadith mean that those who do this are not muslims.‘Imran ibn Husayn reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “He is not one of us who reads omens or has them read for him, or who performs soothsaying or has it performed for him, or who practices magic or has it practiced for him.”
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
This Hadith was narrated by al-Tabarani 
in al-Mu’jam al-Kabir on the authority of ‘Imran ibn Husayn 
that the Prophet said: “He is not one of us who reads omens or has them read for him, or who performs soothsaying or has it performed for him, or who practices magic or has it practiced for him.”
The meaning of the Prophet’s saying: ‘He is not one of us…’; is that he is not in our way, our Sunnah, and rulings of our Sharia, it does not indicate that everyone about whom this was said has left Islam; rather, each according to his condition, even if it indicates prohibition in his least condition.
Whoever seeks omens and believed in the effect of omens without the predestination of Allah, then this is major Shirk that takes a person out of the fold of Islam. But if he believes that seeking omens is just a means to bring good and ward off evil, then this is minor Shirk that does not take a person out of the fold of Islam, because he has established a cause whose effect has not been proven by Shari’a or by predestination.
Likewise, whoever goes to a soothsayer and believes him in what he says, believing that he knows the Unseen, then he is an unbeliever who goes out of the fold of from Islam; this is because of associating the soothsayer with Allah in the knowledge of the Unseen, which Allah has exclusively kept for Himslef and nobody else. As for the one who went to him and believed him despite his belief that he does not know the Unseen, and that he takes his news from the Jinn who listen, or from the companion accompanying the person, then some scholars said: “He commits major Kufr (disbelief) that takes him outside of the fold of Islam, and others said: It is a disbelief that does not take him outside of the fold of Islam, but it is one of the grave major sins.
In case he went to him just to ask him and did not believe in what he says, then he did not disbelieve, but he committed a major sin.
Thus, a person does not become a disbeliever by simply going to the sorcerer; rather, he becomes a disbeliever if that is associated with an act that takes a person outside of the fold of Islam, such as believing that the sorcerer knows the Unseen, or obeying him if he commanded him to get closer to the Jinn by slaughtering, or by doing other similar acts of disbelief.
Details of this subject are taken from books on beliefs and commentaries on Hadiths, and it is difficult to mention them all in one single Fatwa.
For more benefit on fortune-telling, magic and soothsaying, please refer to Fatawa 225778, 228358, 328561, 360988, 88672, 129376, 283075 and 322036.
Allah knows best.
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