I have been following the football fever on Facebook, via the status updates of friends, which is where I first heard of Paul the ‘psychic' octopus. In utter amazement, I watched a video that someone had helpfully uploaded on how the octopus ‘oracle' takes its ‘decisions', avidly followed by the world media and football fans. Even more bizarre than the soothsaying cephalopod with the ‘100% track record' is the reaction of the supposedly ‘objective' media and readers across the world, who have lapped up the shenanigans of the ‘oracle' octopus and its rivals – a parakeet called Mani and a 700-kg crocodile called Harry in Darwin, Australia – without a murmur of disbelief or protest. It makes one wonder: Is the world going through a period of collective mental regression to the Period of Ignorance (Jahiliyah) where superstition and soothsaying reigned supreme? Have we become so desensitized by systematic exposure to the occult and ‘supernatural' – thanks to the popularity and consequent social acceptability of magicians (Harry Potter) and vampires (movies like Twilight and Eclipse) – that the slow slide back has gone largely unnoticed, and we now consider the weird, ‘wonderful'? The Islamic perspective on consulting soothsayers, psychics, fortunetellers, astrologers and others like ‘coffee ground readers', numerologists, palmists etc. provides a sobering counterpoint to this hysteria. Soothsaying and divination were prevalent practices during the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and when some people asked him about soothsayers he said, “They are of no account.'' Upon this, they said to him, “But they sometimes make true predictions.'' Thereupon the Prophet (peace be upon him), said, “That is a true word which a Jinn snatches (from the angels) and whispers into the ears of his friend (the soothsayer) who then mixes more than a hundred lies with it.'' (Al-Bukhari and Muslim) The narration in Al-Bukhari is: “The angels descend in the clouds and mention matters which have been decreed in heaven; Satan steals a hearing (listens to it stealthily) and communicates it to the soothsayers who tell along with it a hundred lies.'' Occult practitioners like the Kaahin (soothsayer), Munajjim (astrologer) and ‘Arraf (fortuneteller) all claim to make ‘predictions' about the future on the basis of certain signs and after obtaining certain information – and they are more often wrong than right. Al- ‘Irafah (divination), geomancy, At-Tarq (taking omens by striking birds with gravel on their wings or by throwing barley, etc., before them) are all variations of the same phenomenon that supposedly determine ‘good and bad omens'. All these practices are strictly forbidden in Islam, and if any of these ‘predictions' come true, they are not considered proof of the validity of these claims. Instead, they are seen for what they are: tricks of Satan to mislead people and lead them deeper into lives of deviancy and crippling dependence on these dark skills. In fact, many people refuse to even venture out of their houses or take any major decisions without consulting these ‘experts', and are willing to be swindled by them for life rather than relying on Allah. According to a narration, the prayer of a person who consults someone who claims to know matters of the Unseen and believes in him, will not be accepted for 40 days. (Muslim) This is because Allah Alone has complete knowledge of the Unseen, and believing that ordinary people ‘share' this knowledge is an act of Shirk (polytheism) – associating partners with Allah. The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said, “The practice of ‘Iyafah, the interpretation of omens from the flight of birds, the practice of divination by drawing lines on the ground and taking evil omens are all practices of Al-Jibt (It means anything worshipped other than the true God (Allah), i.e., all false deities, be they idols, Satan, graves, stars, angels, saints, Jesus the son of Mary, and in our era, celebrities who acquire ‘cult' status).'' (Abu Dawood) Muslims ought to know that such occult practices neither benefit nor harm anyone, and are mere tricks of Satan and his minions, and that any reliance on them is absolute superstition and heresy. Even dabbling in these areas is prohibited: according to a narration, “He who acquires a branch of the knowledge of astrology, learns a branch of magic (of which he acquires more as long as) he continues to do so.'' (Abu Dawood) It is no small irony that many in the modern world who virtually worship at the altar of Science and insist on being provided with ‘scientific proof' for everything related to faith – even the existence of God – have been hoodwinked into following occult practices so easily. Perhaps it is because merely paying lip service to the deities they worship – “progress”, “modernization” et al – will not change the fact that they have feet of clay.
