Not so 'lucky' number 7

[Slave.of.alAhad]

Salam Alaykum

I am starting this thread to warn others of the danger of comitting shirk (making partners with Allah or ascribing His Powers or Attributes to others than Himself) by believing in such things as "luck" or that certain numbers or things/objects can bring about some sort of benefit in a persons life. I have a Muslim friend of mine who is obsessed with certain numbers, so much so that he will plan important things on certain dates of the month or at certain times of the day that correspond with these numbers. He will make certain decisions in his life based off of how they correspond with these numbers or will prefer certain things over others based on these numbers. This thread will hopefully (insha Allah) keep others from falling into the same trap that my friend has.

The follow is an excerpt from the book "The Fundamentals of Tawheed" by Bilal Philips. My comments are in brackets.

"In America the no. 13 is considered unlucky and thus, in many of the apartment buildings the 13th floor is called the 14th. Friday the 13th is considered particulary unlucky and many people avoid travel or special engagements on this day. And if anything bad befalls them on that day, they immediately attribute it to the day itself. This phenomena is not restricted to the common people as some might mistakenly imagine. For example, the flight commander of the Apollo moonshot of 1970, which came near to disaster, explained on his return that he should have known that something was going to happen. When asked why, he replied that the flight took place on Friday the 13th, blast off was at 1300 hours (ie, one o'clock), and the flight number was Apollo 13."

This is quite similar to my friends case in which he attributes good "luck" or good fortune and outcome of events with his select numbers. We see that this is often the case with people when it comes to the number 7 aswell.

Bilal continues on the subject saying;

"Allah's ability to cause good and bad fortune is being shared by His creation in these beliefs. Also fear of misfortune and hope for good fortune which should only be directed to Allah, is being directed to other than Allah. [this is clearly an action of commiting shirk] Knowledge of the future and the unseen is also being claimed, and this quality belongs only to Allah. Allah clearly pointed this out in His attribute 'Aalim al-Chayb, 'Knower of the Unseen'. Allah even has the Prophet (saws) confess in Qur'an that had he known the unseen future, he would have avoided all misfortune.

Therefore the belief in omens can clearly be cl***ified as an act of Shirk in all of the major areas of Tawheed. This ruling is further substantiated by the hadeeth reported by Ibn Mas'oud in which Allah's Messenger (saws) said, 'Tiyarah (bad omens) is Shirk! Tiyarah is Shirk! Tiyarah is Shirk!' Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'Aas also reported that the Prophet (saws) said, 'Whoever is prevented from doing something by Tiyarah, has committed Shirk.' [or in the case with my friend he withholds himself from certain things or only does certain things that correspond with his form of tiyarah (omens, in his case being certain numbers)]

Therefore, Muslims are obliged to carefully avoid all feelings which stem from these beliefs. If they find themselves unconsciously acting on the basis of these beliefs, they should seek refuge in Allah... This area may seem quite insignificant for so much fuss to be made about it. Islam, however, puts stress on this area because it represents the seed from which Major Shirk may grow..."

Wa alaykum salam

[mlsh27]

I have a favorite number and plan stuff on those days because I love the number, not because I think it is lucky..just something that has been brought into my life since birth for fun! Maybe your friend isn't doing it out of luck...

[pasionatemumina]

very good to be honest i dont belive in numbers

[Mysterious Uk]

Yeh, i have seen people not going under signposts or ladders because it is 'bad luck', in my opinion it sounds silly, if all that superstitious business was true then i would get a million years bad luck! Good post :clever:

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[~ Sabr ~]

:bump:

[BadOlPuttyTat]

oh how stupid. I often use the expression "lucky b*stard" to describe people (Saudi Arabian's). But its not because i believe luck is some all divine force.

ALSO! Lucky number 7 is Shinto and a old Japanese folklore belief. It means the 7 lucky gods who would prescribe does and dont's to keep good luck. If you dont walk under a sign because you say its bad luck then your no Muslim because you have committed shirk since your basically acknowledging a god other then Allah. Lucky number 7 IS A FOREIGN POLYTHEISTIC PANTHEON OF JAPANESE GODS! Luck 7 spread to America because to this day Japan is the biggest gambling and drinking nation. Do not put anything in increment of 7 believing it is lucky or it is SHIRK!

And to make myself clear again

LUCKY NUMBER 7 IS A PANTHEON ON PAGAN GOD'S THAT MADE THE JAPANESE PUT EVERYTHING IN GROUPS OF SEVEN!!! I am very serious people!

[Muhaba]

there is no such thing as lucky number or lucky this or lucky that.

just as the article says, it is an unislamic belief and is shirk. nothing but the Will of God can make something happen. a lot of times people mess up because they think something bad is going to happen.

a lot of our ideas are affected by the culture we live in so if we hear of 13 being unlucky or broken mirrors or spilling salt, etc it's important to not let that affect our minds. one thing that you can do to counter this, is to use the numbers your mind is telling you are unlucky and not use those that you believe are lucky. for example, if one thinks that 13 is unlucky they should use it. when trying different font size in MSWord, i sometimes use size 13 just to not let myself get affect by such superstitions.

[dqsunday]

In the past I never felt any ill luck towards the number 13. In fact I actually like the number. But I never had any real 'faith' in it being lucky or unlucky. But I can see where directing one's actions based on a number, event or thing is bad. Its a narrow line between that and idol worship. Many cultures/religions use numbers as a way to determine the future or the outcome of certain actions, be it good or bad luck. There is a whole category of fortune telling based on numbers (ie numerology) which I always considered to be nonsense even if at times its interesting nonsense. I had dabbled in fortune telling (the Tarot, Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling cards, runes, bones) on and off in the past but don't do it anymore. Eventually I will get rid of all of it once I figure out which box in storage contains it.

Fortune telling of any form is bad too...only Allah can see/know the future though evil jinn can misguide people into thinking they are seeing the future...there is an article about this on another site.. http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/4064/