Details concerning casting lots (qurʿa)

Question

A woman is ill; she was treated by various doctors and practitioners of traditional medicine, but she found relief nowhere. When these treatments made no difference to this woman anywhere, the elders of the biradari (clan community) formed a committee and said to a practitioner of incantations: “If you know how to cast lots (qurʿa), then find out by means of lots whether this woman has the effect of a jinn, some natural bodily illness, or sorcery.

Answer

The essence of casting lots is that in some matter there are two options, and both are equal under the Sacred Law; one may adopt whichever one wishes, and lots are cast merely for reassurance. For example, a man has two wives and has to go on a journey; the Sacred Law permits him to take whichever wife he wishes with him on the journey, and the other has no right to object.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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