How to Reform an Ignorant Person of Corrupt Belief

Question

A certain man holds a false belief: for instance, at the start of any undertaking he consults the chaughariya (a Hindu table of auspicious and inauspicious hours) to see whether the time is good or bad, in the manner non-Muslims do; when a well is dug he breaks a coconut as is done among non-Muslims, and believes in it. When questioned, he replied, “I believe in it, whether you believe or not.” Even at the sending-off of daughters to their husbands’ homes this is specially observed.

Answer

It is a misfortune that he has neither knowledge of religion nor the company of scholars of the people of truth, which is why he has fallen into such wrong things. To pronounce a fatwa on such a person and cut off relations with him is generally not beneficial but harmful: obstinacy sets in, and then the very capacity to hear and accept the truth is lost.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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