This owl was known as Hammah.

This owl was known as Hammah. The Prophet {Peace be upon Him} declared this kind of faith to be baseless. Thus, the concept of the transmigration of souls is thoroughly baseless too. The Arabs were of the opinion that the diseases like itching and leprosy etc. are contagious ones. The Prophet {Peace be upon Him} refuted this view to be an erroneous one.

Thus it becomes known to us that a view which is generally held by the people to the effect that the people suffering from smallpox should be avoided and that the children should not be permitted to go near them, is among the myths cherished by the disbelievers, and hence we should not give our credit to them, which means that we should not nurse such a faith that the ailment of that person shall strike us automatically Without the will of Allah since no disease strikes anyone unless Allah commands it to be so.

(However, from the medical point of view, there is no harm in taking the necessary precautions). A myth which has gained a wide currency among the people is that they often keep observing that 1 Al-'lyafah used to release a deer or a bird. If these animals proceeded to the right, they considered it to be auspicious, but if the same proceeded to the left, they considered it to be as a foreboding one and thus refrained from commencing an act. At-Tayarah also implies the same meaning.

The people who were known as At-Tarq used to either cast pebbles on the ground or draw lines in the sand thereby inferring good or bad omens. a certain assignment is inauspicious for the particular person and hence he did not succeed in it. This belief is erroneous too.

The Prophet {Peace be upon Him} stated that, had something been inauspicious, it would have been a house, a horse and a woman.1 The above things sometimes do prove to be inauspicious, but no formula has been prescribed to ascertain their inauspiciousness. A belief widespread among the people is that a house resembling a lion's mouth2 a horse having a star-like forehead and a woman having a vicious mouth are inauspicious.

These myths are baseless, having no authenticity, and the Muslims should pay no attention to them. If someone buys a new house, a horse or marries a woman, one should only ask Allah to make them auspicious for him and similarly one should seek Allah's protection from their evil.