The Mehr news agency reported the decision, but did not describe what process of divination was used to decide the official should be sacked. In Islamic countries, as in Christian countries, the most common form of divination, called estekhareh in Persian, historically has been to open the Holy Book arbitrarily to a page and place one’s index finger on a verse. When the verse is negative, the proposed course of action is generally rejected. Another method of divination involves the counting of beads as on a rosary.
Such divination has never been sanctioned by established Christian churches, and, in fact, has been condemned by the Roman Catholic Church since the earliest day of Christianity, which views divination as a pagan practice. The Old Testament books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy both condemn divination and other efforts to forecast future events.
But divination has still been used over the centuries in the Christian world and was, in fact, widespread in the Middle Ages, another example of how actual religious practice often differs substantially from the edicts of a faith.
The Islamic world’s clerical establishment also frowns on divination and considers it un-Islamic to try to forecast the future, the same as in Christianity. However, as in the Christian world, some Muslims who consider themselves good followers of the faith nonetheless practice divination and believe it to be religiously proper. In the modern era, the practice remains far more common in Iran than in the West.
Mehr reported that the Interior Ministry last month named Ali Babai-Karnami to be governor of the city of Sari in Mazandaran province. But he was fired last Tuesday as the formal ceremony for his installation was being prepared.
Mehr quoted Mazandaran Provincial Governor Ali-Akbar Tahai as saying: “Since divination showed a bad result, we preferred to look for another choice.”
The firing as a result of divination has not drawn much attention in Iran. The word of the firing comes as many conservatives in the regime are accusing those around President Ahmadi-nejad of following witchcraft and superstition. But the news of divination being used to fire an official has not added to such criticism.