عرافت

العِرَافَة

Irafa has two senses. The first is the trade of the 'arraf', who claims to know hidden matters by means of premises and signs, such as who stole an object or where a lost animal is. The second is the verbal noun of managing a people's affairs and governing them ¹. In the juristic sense, irafa is forbidden: whoever goes to a soothsayer (kahin) or an 'arraf' and believes what he says has disbelieved, and whoever only asks without believing him has his prayer withheld for forty nights ^{2 3}. The 'arraf' reports on past hidden matters, the kahin on past and future ones; kihana, sorcery and astrology are related terms ².