Soothsaying and Supernatural Perception

Soothsayers are persons who:

• gaze into transparent bodies, such as mirrors, bowls, or water, and
• examine the hearts, livers, and bones of animals, as well as those who cast pebbles and (date) pits

The real soothsayer does not need to make much of an effort in order to lift the veil of sensual perception.

They, however, expend much effort to concentrate all sensual perception in one particular sense, the noblest one, which is vision.

It is applied exclusively to whatever plain visual object has been selected for concentration, until the information appears.

People think that those who gaze into mirrors see something in the mirror. But this is not correct.

They continue gazing at the surface of the mirror until the surface disappears.

Between their eyes and the mirror appears a veil like a white cloud*. In it, forms are pictured, and these pictures are the objects that they perceive.

This gives them the facts of a character that they wanted to obtain. They pass on these facts as they perceive them.

Neither the mirror nor the forms perceived in it are now present to them. A different kind of perception originates in them in that state.

It is a psychic one that has nothing to do with vision. Through it, objects of psychic perception take on shape for observation by sensual perception, as is known.

Something similar happens to those who:

• examine the hearts and livers of animals, and
• gaze into water, bowls, and similar things.

Among these people we have observed are persons who keep their senses occupied only by means of incense and incantations, in order to be prepared for supernatural perception.

Then, they tell what they have perceived.

They think that they see the forms take on concrete shapes in the air, telling them what they want to know in the form of pictures and allusions. These persons are less remote from sensual perception than the first group.

Augury (zajr) is talk about supernatural things which originates in some people when a bird or animal appears, and they reflect about it after it has gone.

It is a power in the soul that calls for sagacity and the ability to think about the things of interest which augurs see or hear.

The power of imagination is strong in augurs. They exert that power in their researches, while depending on the help given by things they have seen or heard.

This gives them some supernatural perception. The power of imagination acts here as it does in sleepers.

When the senses are asleep, the power of imagination intervenes among the things seen in the waking state, and combines them with the products of its own thinking.

Thus, the power of imagination brings about vision.

In the insane, the rational soul is but weakly connected with the body. This is because the humors are corrupt and have a weak animal spirit.

Therefore, an insane person’s soul is not deeply immersed in the senses.

• His soul is too much occupied by the painful disease of deficiency.

Frequently, it was pushed into attaching itself to the insane by some other Satanic spirituality, which clings to them and which the soul itself is too weak to keep away.

The insane thus become possessed.

They are totally removed from sensual perception when they have become possessed in this manner, either:

• because of the corruption of their constitution from the essential corruption of their soul, or
• because of the onslaught the Satanic souls on them when those Satanic souls are attached to their bodies

They perceive a glimpse of the world of their soul.

Their soul receives the impress of forms which, in turn, are transformed by the imagination. In this condition, they frequently speak without wanting to speak.

Supernatural perception in all these groups contains truth and falsehood mixed together.

They may achieve the loss of sensual perception. But it is only with the help of foreign notions (tasawwur) that they achieve contact (with the supernatural).

This leads to untruthfulness, which is common in these ways of supernatural perception.

The diviners (‘arraf) somehow enjoy this kind of perception, but they do not have the same contact with the supernatural.

They concentrate their thinking on the matter in which they are interested and apply guesses and hypotheses to it. They base themselves upon an unfounded assumption as to what basically constitutes contact with, and perception of, the supernatural.

They claim acquaintance with the supernatural.

But in reality their procedure has nothing to do with it.

This is how such supernatural knowledge is obtained.

Al-Mas’udi discussed this in his Muruj adh-dhahab.

• But he did not have the right explanation.
• It was obvious that he was not firmly grounded in the various kinds of pertinent knowledge.
• He merely reports what he learned from people experienced in the subject, and from others.

Supernatural Perception

All the kinds of supernatural perception mentioned are found in man.

The Arabs used to rely on soothsayers to learn about forthcoming events, and consulted with them in their quarrels.

There is a lot of information about this matter.

In pre-Islamic times, the famous soothsayers were:

• Shiqq, of the tribe of Anmar b. Nizar
• Satih, of the tribe of Mazin b. Ghassan

Satih used to fold up like a garment, as he had no bones except for his skull.

A famous story is their interpretation of the dream vision of Rabi’ah b. Nasr. They predicted that:

• the Abyssinians would take possession of the Yemen
• the Mudar would rule after them
• the Muhammadan prophecy would make its appearance among the Quraysh.

Another famous story is that of the dream vision of the Mobedhan.

Satih interpreted it when the Persian emperor Khosraw sent ‘Abd-al-Masih to him with the dream.

On that occasion, Satih informed him about the prophecy of Muhammad and the future destruction of the Persian realm.

There were also many diviners among the Arabs mentioned in their poems. One poet said:

Another poet said:

• The “diviner of the Yamamah” is Riyah b. ‘Ijlah
• The “diviner of Najd” is al-Ablaq al-Asadi