Question

I was told that going to a fortune teller and believing what they say will make you a kafir then i found this hadith –

Whoever went to a fortune-teller and asked him about some matter (i.e. of the unseen) and believed him, will have his prayer rejected for forty days.

some scholars maintain that what is intended here is that he who believes the words of a fortune-teller has committed an act of disbelief. This is because, in the Hadith, the Prophet informed us that one who visits a fortune-teller and believes in what he says will have his prayers rejected for forty days, while if it were true that he were a disbeliever, his prayer would not be accepted at all.

what is the position of the 4 madhabs on this matter? do all of them unanimously agree that believing the words of a fortune teller will make you a kafir or is there ikhtilaf? what opinion do the majority hold?

Answer

Wa Alaykumu Salam,

What you were told is incorrect. Kufr is the deliberate rejection of truth, which cannot be activated simply by one action or another except for outright self-acknowledgement or declaration that one does not accept the truth. The tradition (e.g. hadith) quoted is merely an explanation that when one seeks powers other than God they stain their very souls to the point that it may affect their relationship with Him. How could a person seek a fortune teller for assistance but then bow down to the Lord of the Universe for help? After all, in each of our prayers in the Fatiha we explicitly mention seeking God’s help only.

We do not provide opinions of the four schools of thought as there are plenty of sites that handle this type of information.

I hope this helps.

God knows best.