Do fortune tellers get their knowledge from spirits eavesdropping on heaven?

No. No one can snatch a secret from God that He wishes to keep. The verses about eavesdropping on heaven are images showing that every path to higher knowledge costs effort and danger, and that God drives back the enemies of good.

Some verses of the Holy Qur’an speak of satans trying to listen in on heaven and being pursued by a flame. Some have concluded that spirits catch fragments of divine secrets before they are driven off, and that fortune tellers live off these scraps.

A simple question settles the matter. Is God not able to guard His secrets? Of course He is. No one can creep up on something God wishes to protect and snatch part of it away. The first verse above says that God reveals His unseen to no one, except to whom He Himself chooses to disclose it. That is the reality. Everything else is imagination.

Taken literally, these verses would contradict the Holy Qur’an itself. They are meant figuratively. Even the secrets of nature, which man is meant to explore, are only yielded with great effort. Whoever wants to expand his knowledge sets out on a fiery path. Think of a rocket leaving for space, surrounded by fire on every side. Progress in knowledge and in rank always comes at a cost.

At the same time, there are people with a satanic attitude who try to hold back what is good. Opponents again and again tried to frustrate the plans of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw). They were driven back not by him, but by God, whose wrath kept pursuing them.

So whoever believes that fortune tellers have access to God's secrets is building on an idea the Holy Qur’an does not support.