Astrology in Islam

                                      Astrology

1. The knowledge of stars and planetary calculations collectively is called ‘Tanjeem’.Najam: star

2. it is one of the important branches of fortunetelling

3. it has been divided into three categories

a. the belief that earthly beings are influenced by the heavenly bodies

b. the same belief but a Muslim version that Allah causes all this

c. astronomy: calculations for directions, farmers to determine

seasons etc and ishalal

First category:

1. that the earthly beings affected by heavenly bodies

2. future can be forecasted by their movements

3. it is the shirk in Asma O sifaat, as attributing the creation the qualities of Allah

4. Origin:

a. As ancient as from 3rd millennium B.C. in Mesotopomia, and attained full development in Greek orbit

b. It reached China and India in 6th century B.C. and was widely adopted

c. It was made unique to Royal court to only in Greece, and then in India and

China too, general public cannot access it

d. But in 4th century B.C. in Greek, the general Greek public can also access it, if it can afford to

5. Christians:

a. The Christianity adopted the cultural aspects of Greece, when it reached there after leaving middle east, as idea of trinity and astrology

b. So the early Christian writers, like Dante and St. Thomas Aquinas, accepted it as an exact science

6. Ibrahim (AS):

a. Was sent to Sabians, who also believed in astrology

b. They made idols of moon, stars and sun and prostrated to them

c. They also believed that the spirits of these heavenly bodies come into idols and communicate and fulfill the desires

7. Islam:

a. Cancelled all types of this kind

b. It is shirk as it involves predicting future, giving the attribute of Allah to stars etc and most important of them is the control over destiny (Qadar)

c. It is kufr and those who practice it are considered kaafir

d. It is haram as Ibn Abbas narrated that Prophet (saw) said:

“Whoever acquires any branch of astrology has acquired knowledge of a branch of magic. The more he increases in that knowledge the more he increases in sin.”

Second category:

1. The Muslim version of astrology, that heavenly objects do affect the earthly beings, but by Allah’s will

2. This entered Muslim’s ruler ship during late Umayyad caliphate and early Abbasid’s Caliphate

3. The latter were more corrupt and introduced dancing girls, jokers, court scholars, and astronomers etc

4. They knew that prohibition of astrology, so to want to make it practice they said that we are making predictions and Allah will do if He wants to, inshaAllah

5. So astrological predictions were attributed to Allah’s will

6. Still this practice is also haram and is Kufr

7. As in this case also, Allah’s powers are given to creations and His Knowledge is claimed by these interpreters

Third category:

1. Astronomy: based on scientific facts

2. For directions as North Pole star, and for season predictions etc is legitimate

3. It is halal as also mentioned in Qur’an

“it is He who made the stars as guidance for you in the darkness of land and sea.”Arguments of Muslim astrologers:

1. The verse used by early astrologers:

“And signs and with the stars they are rightly guided.”

a. They used that the scince refers to astrology

b. However, we can refer to Companions or Prophet (saw), as Ibn Abbas (tarjaman ul Quar’an, the translator of Qur’an, said by Prophet saw) said:

“The signs here mean the road signs or landmarks in daylight hours, not the stars at all. The guidance by them is meant to be guided at day and night during travel.”

c. The most prominent argument is the translation of the Sura al Burooj as ‘zodiacal signs’. In reality it means ‘star configuration’

Astrology

1. It destroys the element of Asma o sifaat

2. Its haram and forbidden

3. The hadeeths of Prophet (saw) about approaching fortuneteller, and the prayers will not accepted and disbelieved in Islam, takes this aspect of astrology in it also

4. As both the fortuneteller and astrologer claims to predict the future

5. The Mulsims should not even wear things related to these, even they do not believe it, as they represent the Kuffar

6. Prophet (saw) said:

“What I fear most of my nation after my time is: the injustice of their leaders, the belief in stars and the denial of divine destiny.”

7. Qatadah, a leading scholar who studied under Companions of Prophet (saw), also said

a. The stars are for directional guidance and for stoning devils

b. Seeking anything beyond this is unacceptable

c. They are people of ignorance to Allah’s commands

d. No one knows of unseen

e. If Allah would have taught it, He would have had taught it to Adam, when he made him learn the names of all things.

 By Dr Bilal Philips, (The Fundamentals of Tawheed) Chapter Six, pp. 105-114