Who deserves to be Worshiped ?

17.7 Revival of the prohibition of augury 85
Knowledge of what is going to happen in the future is an attribute of Allah alone.
No one knows what will happen in the near or distant future except Him. The
revealed scriptures prohibited augury and witchcraft because those who engage in
these practices try to raise themselves to the level of Allah in terms of assuming one
of His divine attributes.
Forecasting the weather is not considered part of augury and witchcraft because
weather forecasters depend upon physical measurements and mathematical
calculations. This is unlike augury and witchcraft, where a person claims to know
what is going to happen in the future, just like Allah knows. In fact, He alone is All-
Knowing.
Jesus prohibited augury and witchcraft. Leviticus 19:26 says, “You shall not eat
any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.”
Islam revived this doctrine that Allah alone knows the future. Allah has
mentioned:
{…The unseen is only for Allah [to administer]…} (Quran 10: 20)
{Say: None in the heavens and earth knows the unseen except Allah, and they do not
perceive when they will be resurrected.} (Quran 27: 65)
Based on this, Islam strictly prohibits consulting fortune-tellers, clairvoyants and
the like. Prophet Muhammad (bpuh) said:
«If anyone consults a fortune-teller or sooth-sayer and believes in what he (or she)
says, then (that person) has disbelieved in what was revealed to Muhammad
(bpuh).» (Recorded by Imams Bukhari and Abu Dawood)
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Augury has many meanings, some of which are: prognostication, prophecy and
divination. Of course, prophecy is a gift that Allah gave to the prophets alone.
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