Four types of beliefs

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Greater Sins

Chapter 33 The Thirty-First Greater Sin: Sorcery

Four types of beliefs

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Four types of beliefs

1) To believe that stars are the supreme controllers of the world is HarÄm. A person who has such a belief is a Kafir whether he denies the creator or not. All the jurists are unanimous in this regard.

2) To believe that the heavenly bodies have been bestowed by Allah (S.w.T.) the power to control the world is not Kufr but it is a foolish notion because we have no proof that the inanimate stars have any intelligence or will to influence the world.

3) The third type of belief is when a person admits that the stars have no intelligence and will power but says that Allah (S.w.T.) has decreed that when the position of the stars will be such, the following event will take place. It is the law of causation like when fire is brought near something it burns it. Though such a belief is proved correct most of the time, reason does not accept it to be unchangeable.

4) To predict future events on the basis of heavenly occurrences is not HarÄm according to most of the scholars. For example if the moon and Saturn come in a line there would be a good rainfall. To interpret such heavenly phenomena is not HarÄm but such interpretations can be accurately given only by the Infallibles (a.s.). What the meteorologists predict is based on an incomplete part of this knowledge. Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) remarks:

“The complete knowledge of stars cannot be acquired and incomplete knowledge is of no benefit.”

(Wasa’il ul-Shia)

After enumerating the different types of astrological sciences, Shaykh Ansari says, “All these traditions imply that whatever the astrologers predict is based on deficient knowledge. They only conjecture and guess on the basis of a little knowhow. People who consult them are rarely satisfied by their predictions but it is possible that he may have experience regarding a particular event and may make an accurate prediction. Hence it is better to refrain from consulting such people and if they make a prediction, one should say, ‘It is only a possibility.’”