وَلَا بِقَوْلِ كَاهِنٍ ۚ قَلِيلًا مَّا تَذَكَّرُونَ 42
Translations
Nor the word of a soothsayer; little do you remember.
Transliteration
Wa laa biqawli kahin. Qalilan maa tatadhakkarun.
Tafsir (Explanation)
This ayah condemns reliance on the words of soothsayers and fortune-tellers (kahin), emphasizing that the Quran does not come from such sources but from divine revelation. Classical scholars like Ibn Kathir and Al-Tabari explain that the kahin were pre-Islamic Arab diviners who claimed knowledge of the unseen through jinn communication, and this ayah refutes their claims while lamenting that people rarely take heed and remember the truth.
Revelation Context
This ayah appears in the context of Surah Al-Haqqah's discussion of the Quran's divine authenticity and the certainty of the Day of Judgment. It addresses Meccan society's prevalent practice of consulting kahins (soothsayers), contrasting their false claims with the Quran's truth, and serves as a rebuke to those who would attribute the Quran to sources other than Allah.
Related Hadiths
The Prophet (ﷺ) said: 'Whoever goes to a fortune-teller and asks him about something, his prayer will not be accepted for forty days' (Sahih Muslim 2230). Additionally, the Prophet warned against listening to poetry and songs as alternatives to divine guidance, similar in spirit to rejecting the kahin's false claims.
Themes
Key Lesson
Believers must guard against reliance on false sources of guidance—whether ancient soothsayers or modern equivalents—and instead commit to remembering and following Allah's clear revelation, recognizing that true guidance comes only from the divine message, not from human speculation or supposed knowledge of the unseen.