coming to know hidden matters through report from the jinn, by a familiarity natural or induced
Distinguish from
siḥr (sorcery) — kihāna turns on the jinn-channel — hidden matters by report from the jinn; siḥr on invocation and adjuration.
khāriq al-ʿāda (extraordinary act) — khāriq al-ʿāda is the general class of events outside the customary course.
General Technical Meaning
Kihāna is a divinatory capacity claimed to disclose unseen matters through a special psychic and celestial causal configuration.
In ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāʾī’s Works
Risālat al-Manāmāt wa-l-Nubuwwāt
soothsaying — explanation
In a cautious proposal based on reports about soothsayers, soothsaying is characterized as becoming apprised of a kind of hidden matter through a report from jinn, enabled by a familiarity with certain people that may arise naturally or through subjugation.
Limits of this account
The passage does not assert an exhaustive mechanism for every practice called soothsaying, and its report-dependent wording must remain visible.
al-Mīzān fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān
soothsaying — key distinction
An author-endorsed taxonomy distinguishes miracle, karāma, divination, and magic among extraordinary operations by challenge, prayer, and causal mode.
Limits of this account
It does not imply equivalence among those categories or by itself supply an exhaustive Kihana synthesis.
Read in context
Open a passage in the edition where this term is linked.