In his Memoirs, the famous satirist Bernard Shaw mentions that he passed by a soothsayer one day who was reading someone’s palm. Just for fun, he decided to spend some time with him, so he stretched out his hand to the palm reader. The writer was surprised when the soothsayer told him all about his life. Most of what the soothsayer said was true.

He became fascinated with the soothsayer’s feat and began to practice it on his friends. When one of his skeptical friends challenged him, he told him to hold out his hand. The man did so mockingly. It did not take long for that skeptic to become thoroughly amazed, since 90% of what Bernard Shaw told him about his life was true.

He had told his friend exactly what he had heard from the soothsayer. It applied just as much to his friend as it had to him. The reason for this, as Bernard Shaw astutely observed, is that people’s lives are 90% the same and only 10% different. The soothsayer was skilled in knowing the things that almost all people have in common and in being able to mention these things in a way that makes his client feel what is being said applies exclusively to him.

What Bernard Shaw discovered about soothsayers applies to most of the things that they say, whether they read palms, tea leaves, or what have you.

Making predictions about the Unseen has another face to it that we see in all the leading newspapers. It is the horoscope. If you ever had occasion to read it, you would see that everything being said is so general that you could take the text given under one zodiacal sign and place it under another without any marked effect. The same applies to what you would see if you followed the horoscope month after month. The reason for this is that the game being played here is the same as the one being played by Bernard Shaw’s palm reader.

We can see another face of this multifaceted coin in the supposed revelations of the Sufi sheikhs who inform their followers about what has occurred in their past or what will occur in their future. Professor al-`Uqqâd, in his biography, relates to us an interesting story from his school days. His elementary school teacher used to believe in the Sufi sheikhs and would encourage his students to follow them. The sheikh would come to class and say a few words to each student in turn. When al-`Uqqâd’s turn came up, the sheikh said to him: “You take note of your English class.”

Al-`Uqqâd writes: “I was very proficient in English, so there was no reason for him to give me such advice. However, he said this to me because if I did well on my English test, people would say: ‘The sheikh mentioned it and it became blessed’, and if I did poorly, they would say: ‘The sheikh warned you and this was revelation.’ This is how people would go out of their way to tie in the events of their lives with the sheikh’s vague pronouncements so that they could declare them blessings and revelations.”

This coin has another face that is very much in vogue these days - the interpretation of dreams. Some people get into this business because they see that they can get out of it fame and a steady paycheck without having to do any real work. They can see that they need no special knowledge nor do they have to expend any effort in investigation. All they have to do is listen to people’s dreams and then dish out a lot of vague and general answers in return.

“You will have a problem and then it will be solved.”

“You have a debt and you will ultimately pay it off.”

“You will be put under difficulties and then you will find relief.”

People yearn for a glimpse of the future, so they cling to statements like these and relate them to the events of their lives. This is easy when the statements are so vague that they can at least partially apply to some situation or another. Because people naturally desire to know the future, when they get statements like these, they buy into them readily and do not weary themselves by investigating what is really going on.

Sheikh Muhammad b. `Abd al-Wahhâb, in his commentary on the hadîth that a soothsayer tells a hundred lies for every one truth he brings, writes: “It implies that people will accept falsehood by clinging to one truth and ignoring a hundred lies.”

If we were to apply this “professional standard” of one in a hundred to our dream interpreters today, we would find that some of them would not even be able to measure up to it. They get one hit for hundreds of misses. But people, in their gullibility, are willing to cling to that one instance and forget the rest.

This is why a man in the business of selling knowledge of the Unseen finds many customers. It is remarkable that this craft is thriving better than ever in the most materially advanced nations of the world and that the major television networks are hiring fortune tellers to go on the air and read the palms of people thousands of miles away. The most amazing thing about it is that these programs attract such a large number of viewers.

We must mention that there is a difference between soothsayers coming with their vague pronouncements in the guise of dream interpreters and legitimate dream analysis. In every discipline there are professionals and charlatans. Legitimate dream analysts are people of integrity who speak with knowledge and are not looking for stardom. Charlatans are those who see dream interpretation as a fast track to fame and fortune. They do not need any training, expertise, or diploma. Their clients do not ask them to back up what they say. If one of these dream interpreters happens to get something right, the people say: “Isn’t it just as he said?” To justify his hundred mistakes, he comes up with some drivel like: “The timeframe for the fulfillment of dreams is fifty years. I am waiting just like you.”

Taking advantage of the gullible on the pretense of dream interpretation is just like taking advantage of the sick by offering invocations. Both of these practices are often done in the name of religion. This is why it is imperative that we clarify truth from falsehood in these matters.

And success is with Allah alone.