Hadith: Whoever goes to a soothsayer and asks him about something and believes him, his prayer will not be accepted for forty nights
«مَنْ أَتَى عَرَّافًا فَسَأَلَهُ عَنْ شَيْءٍ لَمْ تُقْبَلْ لَهُ صَلَاةٌ أَرْبَعِينَ لَيْلَةً».
[صحيح] - [رواه مسلم] - [صحيح مسلم: 2230]
المزيــد ...
Some of the Prophet's wives reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said:
"Whoever goes to a soothsayer and asks him about something and believes him, his prayer will not be accepted for forty nights."
[Authentic hadith] - [Narrated by Muslim] - [Sahih Muslim - 2230] Explanation
The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) warns us against going to soothsayers - a general term also applying to fortune tellers, astrologers, geomancers, and others who use certain things as means for knowing the unseen - and says that if a person merely asks a soothsayer about anything of the unseen, Allah will deny him the reward for his prayers for forty days, as a punishment for this great sin and misdeed.
Benefits from the Hadith
- It is prohibited to go to fortune tellers and ask them about matters related to the unseen.
- One may be deprived of the reward for an act of piety as a punishment for the commission of a sin.
- This Hadīth also applies to horoscopes, palmistry, and coffee reading, even if only for merely getting information, for all this falls under divination and the claim of knowing the unseen.
- If this is the punishment for one who goes to a soothsayer, then what about the punishment for the soothsayer himself?
- The prayers of the forty days are valid and should not be offered again, but there is no reward for those prayers.