World Blog by humble servant.Question and Answers.Consulting spiritual gurus, astrologers, witchcraft, talismans, rebirth, speaking to the dead … What position do these hold in Submission / Islam?

Question: I would like to know if Islam allows consulting spiritual gurus and astrologers. Is it possible to speak to angels or the dead? Can you ward off evil or change your fortune by wearing gemstones and talismans? What happens after death and can animals or humans be reborn? After reading your website, I am realizing that when in trouble, people try all sorts of things, but never turn to God alone and look for the answer in His scriptures. Please help me get these answers and also know that they are correct.

Answer: Peace be upon you. May God bless you for your observation. The primary reason people do not seek the solution from God alone is because they do not know why they were created and what the purpose of their life is. While we are providing the answers to your questions below, we recommend that you also find out why you were created, as that will give you a complete understanding of what you have asked about and other important questions about life.

Consulting spiritual healers/gurus: No human has the power to grant life or death or happiness (10:56, 40:68, 6:17). No human can intercede with God for the soul of another human being. God’s scriptures contain the exact road map of how to live a happy, secure life, and it is the responsibility of all humans to follow them and account to God directly for their deeds. Following any spiritual source/information that is not from God constitutes idolatry (or setting up of partners with God), the only unforgivable offence, if maintained till death (4:48, 4:116). When God has already provided the exact spiritual road map of life (and happiness) in His scriptures, how can anyone else claim to have a solution independent of Him? A truly guided person will acknowledge that his or her guidance came from God’s scriptures and will thus direct you to the scriptures, not themselves. Therefore, do not follow anyone who claims to have spiritual powers to heal or provide happiness. Such a person is an agent of Satan in disguise and will take you to Hell along with Him.

Astrology: Astrology/numerology etc. are misleading concepts because no one knows the future except God (27:65, 35:38, 52:41, etc.). If you could foresee and avoid/change future events, it would defeat the purpose of your creation, which is to deal with the tests of life that God has planned for you in order to redeem yourself back to Him. Additionally, if people already knew the future, they would take things for granted and would worship and depend on God even less than they do now. How many people do you know who like to predict the future, but are themselves significantly healthier, richer, happier, or enjoy more dignity? How come it hasn’t worked for them?

Gemstones, talismans, ‘prayed upon’ foods, etc.: These things are illegal because there is no short cut way around God’s system of life. To be protected from harm and evil, you have to worship God alone and lead a righteous life in a manner that pleases God—already defined in His scriptures (5:12). You cannot escape this responsibility by relying on a gemstone to provide you prosperity or protection. It constitutes a direct application of idolatry and will make you a loser in the Hereafter.

Witchcraft; speaking with the dead: Witchcraft comes under the category of occultism and invokes the power of jinns (representatives of Satan) to influence various outcomes. God says in 2:102 that anyone who practices witchcraft will have no share in the Hereafter. You will have sold your soul to Satan, the most ardent enemy (2:168, 2:208) of humans. It is also impossible to speak with the dead. When a human being dies, its soul crosses a barrier into another dimension from where it can never return nor has any idea of what is happening back on Earth. Therefore, when people claim to communicate with dead friends or relatives, they are not actually doing so. They are only falling prey to Satan’s illusions (72:6, 14:22) which are allowed by God for those who deserve to be led in this direction. So while these things may “appear” to work for them, it will actually send them to Hell in the Hereafter because they failed to follow the truth defined by God in His scriptures.

Communicating with angels: This is another of Satan’s great tricks where millions of people are misled by ideas such as tarot card readings, angel conversations etc. When you learn about why the humans were created, you will also know who the angels are and their position in God’s kingdom. Angels are righteous servants of God who exist in a dimension which humans cannot comprehend on Earth. They obediently carry out various tasks in the universe and naturally will not do anything that supports Satan. Therefore, when people claim to communicate with angels or can see the future for personal gain through tarot cards, they are only being allowed to believe so because they deserve to go in this direction. While prophets and messengers of God may communicate with Gabriel, for example, the fortune tellers are certainly not messengers of God. The criteria for distinguishing a false messenger from a real messenger of God are clearly spelled out in Quran. A false messenger is a messenger of Satan. In the Hereafter, such false practitioners of the occult will end up losers along with all those who believed them. Those who claim to be Muslims and indulge in trying to use witchcraft and occultation will be punished severely for disobeying God’s clear information about this in the Quran.

Rebirth: Again, when you learn about why you were created, you will realize that this life on Earth is the only life the human has to make it back to God. At the moment of death, the fate of the human is sealed and its soul will either go to Heaven forever or will burn in Hell forever. There is no other opportunity for the soul to be reborn as a human (or any other creature), anywhere in the universe. At this time, most humans are not aware of this and that is why they do not take God and His instructions in His scriptures seriously. Satan has tricked billions of people into believing that they will either be forgiven by God—no matter how bad they were—or will keep being reborn in some form until they purify their souls enough to be redeemed into Heaven eventually. Unfortunately for them, this is not the case. There is absolutely no rebirth/second life, and there are no other opportunities to be redeemed to God except this life on Earth.

It is a fact that most humans are headed towards Hell (12:103-106) because they do not worship God alone and lead a righteous life that pleases Him. Worldly achievements and financial prosperity are not a confirmation or guarantee of redemption. God tells us that He assigns ranks to all humans in order to test them with what He has given them. Therefore, what matters eventually is not the financial status or achievements of people, but how much they developed their souls (49:13) to be redeemed back to God in the Hereafter.

How to know you have the right information?

The information we have given you is from the Quran, God’s Final Testament to mankind. The Quran is a fully detailed scripture containing everything the human must know about life; from the purpose of our creation to death, how to be righteous, how to be happy, how to grow and redeem the soul, etc.

You can certainly examine the other scriptures to seek out the best (39:18). God has been sending scriptures much before He sent down the Quran about 1400 years ago. However, there are two situations you will face:

1) God’s scriptures across religions are not available in their original form. Portions of varying degrees are either lost or corrupted beyond recognition. The mathematical miracle confirms the preservation of the Quran.

2) God may not have provided the previous generations with all the information about life that is contained in the Quran. Only what was relevant and adequate for those generations to know may have been given to them. The Quran confirms and supersedes previous older scriptures (5:48).

This is why you will find several sincere seekers and worshipers of God not certain about which book or books constitute a complete original set of instructions they must follow. Since God loves and guides the sincere from all His religions, portions of the truth from the previous scriptures will definitely be available for them to follow. But the question will remain; “How will you distinguish what is originally from God and not a corruption by Satan?”

By God’s grace, this is answer is also in the Quran. With the Quran, God has consolidated and superseded all His previous messages into one scripture containing a single system of Submission to Him alone for all humans. God has divinely preserved the Quran, making it the only scripture from Him in existence that is intact down to every letter. It contains a built in mathematical proof that proves beyond doubt that the Quran is the actual word of God. Thus, God has simplified the matter for all generations henceforth by putting everything into one, easy to follow book of information and instructions for living and redemption. Therefore, if it’s there in the Quran, you will know it is correct. If you find information in other scriptures that is in variance to Quran, it instantly exposes that it did not come from God (2:4, 5:48-49). It’s as simple as that.

Note: It is very important for you to know that the Quran is not a ‘Muslim Book,’ nor the exclusive property of a set of people who exude a certain cultural or religious profile. As mentioned above, it is a complete book of guidance for anyone who wishes to practice Submission to God alone—regardless of his or her religious/cultural background. The scripture is from God. It does not “belong” to any group of people exclusively.

The words Muslim and Islam are only the Arabic words for “Submitter and Submission,” and we also know now why God chose Arabic as the language of His final scripture for the world. To practice Submission to God alone, you do not have to use these Arabic titles, nor do you need to know how to read, write or speak Arabic, or change your name, or anything like that.

In fact, those who call themselves Muslims today are not really Muslims because they neither worship God alone nor follow the Quran alone for their religious guidance. If these people want to be counted as true Muslims (Submitters), they have to abandon all their traditional/ignorant/corrupt ways and start all over again with the truth from the Quran. Actually, they have lost their opportunity to be true sovereigns on Earth, because they received the Quran—a complete, perfect and fully detailed scripture—in their own language but chose to abandon it in favor of man-made traditions out of blind ignorance or convenience. We are now in the final era of mankind where God is restoring His religion of Submission to Him alone to its pristine purity. This process is already underway and is happening out of the USA which God has selected as the sovereign nation that will allow His message to flourish and spread freely and fairly.

God willing this has answered your questions. However we wish to reiterate that you must understand why you were created, as that will give you the complete picture about whatever you have asked about and more. The two specific links for that are: “Why were we created” & “Introduction.