Believing in Ouija boards

9-11-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. Is someone who believes in Ouija boards an apostate? Thank you.

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Answer:

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

We have already stated in a previous fatwa that playing with what is known as the Ouija board is forbidden because it involves calling the jinn and seeking their help. It is a kind of sorcery, and the one who practices it is seldom free from claiming knowledge of the Unseen or fortunetelling.

However, just playing with it is not Kufr (disbelief); rather, Kufr happens to the one playing if he does something that necessitates disbelief, such as believing that someone other than Allah knows the absolute Unseen, or he dedicates something to the jinn – such as slaughtering to it and the like.

The accusation of Kufr, here, is only in general terms. As regards a specific person, he is not judged to be an apostate unless certain conditions are met while certain impediments are absent.

For more benefit on the conditions for declaring someone to be a disbeliever, please refer to fatwas 8106, 87963, and 323092.

Allah knows best.