Asalamou Alykoum ya Jamatoul Muslimna ans Asalamou alykoum to all the team in Islam web.net! My Question is that, almost all my family believes in fortune tellers and most of them go for their help. One of my paternal uncle however, him self does the work of the fortune tellers (I mean he is a fortune teller) and he is very much successful in this. He has became reach on it and he is traying to miss lead others more deep on his work. I don’t know how he does it, but I think he works with the Jinn, and what I see him doing is that he has a wooden board, where he writes some ayats of the Quran wash it in a plat and put it in a bottle and give it to his customer. And that person will keep on robbing that in his/her body and believing that, that can help him. He also perform lot of charity giving, he kills a Cow almost every Friday and people praise him much on this. He tells the family every member of the family should contribute and give money for Cows to be bought and these will be taken to the village and killed there for Sadak. He has photos of cheiks in his house like cheike Tijan, and other Senegal’s Cheikh. He goes to Morocco very year to perform a spiritual prayer on Cheikh Tigans grave. Please explain if this is accepted in Islam, and what is the position of such people in Islam. And give me help on how I can approach him as I think he is Misleading many people and claiming he is a good Muslim. Thak you!

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If this man is really a fortune-teller, then he is committing great evil. In this case, one should advise him in a gentle manner and draw his attention to the seriousness of this matter.  A person who is expected to influence him should advise him. He should also be advised if he believes in some wrong beliefs about the so-called Awliyaa’ and it should be clarified to him that it is not permissible to travel to visit their graves or to pray at their graves and the like. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 82454, 87538 and 81262.

Also, one should advise the members of your family who believe in fortune-telling.

As regards writing the verses of the Quran and wiping them with water and then using that water in treating people, then this is permissible. However, it should be noted that a magician may pretend to write the Quran or he may do that but in reality he mixes some superstitions with it.

As regards slaughtering a cow and donating its meat in charity to people, then this act in itself is good. However, if the earnings of this man are solely from practicing magic and he has no other income, then it is not permissible to eat from this meat. But if his earnings are mixed from lawful and ill-gotten money, then it is disliked to eat from this meat.

Allaah Knows best.