Whoever goes to a soothsayer and asks him about something and believes him, his prayer will not be accepted for forty nights

Explanation

The Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) warns us against going to soothsayers - a general term also applying to fortune tellers, astrologers, geomancers, and others who use certain things as means for knowing the unseen - and says that if a person merely asks a soothsayer about anything of the unseen, Allah will deny him the reward for his prayers for forty days, as a punishment for this great sin and misdeed.

Lessons

• It is prohibited to go to fortune tellers and ask them about matters related to the unseen.
• One may be deprived of the reward for an act of piety as a punishment for the commission of a sin.
• This Hadīth also applies to horoscopes, palmistry, and coffee reading, even if only for merely getting information, for all this falls under divination and the claim of knowing the unseen.
• If this is the punishment for one who goes to a soothsayer, then what about the punishment for the soothsayer himself?
• The prayers of the forty days are valid and should not be offered again, but there is no reward for those prayers.