Is it against Islam to read other people’s thoughts?

Such an ability is not wrong in itself. What is wrong is using it deliberately to pry into other people’s private lives.

Some people sense very precisely what another person is thinking or feeling. Whether anyone can truly do this, and how reliable it is, is hard to say. But for the question of right and wrong it hardly matters. What matters is what an ability is used for.

A comparison makes this clear. A television is neither good nor bad. You can watch a programme that educates you and is good for you. You can also watch something that harms you inwardly. No one would say that the device itself is evil because of that. It depends on how it is used.

The same is true of every gift Allah has given a person. Whoever uses it to harm others does wrong. Whoever uses it for good uses it rightly. A person’s thoughts are the most private thing they have. Anyone who deliberately tries to probe them in order to learn about others violates their dignity. The verse above forbids exactly this kind of spying.

But one can also use the power of one’s own mind in a completely different way. If you find yourself in company where people speak badly, you can consciously turn your thoughts to God and to good things. You can reflect on how the lives of the people around you could be improved. That is a good use of the gift God has given you.