Understanding Istikhara - Dr

Understanding Istikhara

Dr. Bilal Philips

Opening

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

(بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ - bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim)

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ

Indeed all praise is due to Allah, and as such we should praise Him, seek His help, seek His forgiveness, and seek refuge in Allah from the evil which is within ourselves, and the evil which results from our deeds. For whomsoever Allah has guided, none can misguide, and whomsoever Allah has allowed to go astray, none can guide. And I bear witness that there is no God worthy of worship but Allah. And I bear witness that Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the last messenger of Allah.

The best form of speech is the book of Allah. And the best source of guidance was that brought by Muhammad (peace be upon him).

"And indeed, the worst of all affairs are the innovations in religion. For every innovation in religion is cursed. And all cursed innovation leads to misguidance. And all misguidance leads ultimately to the hellfire."

The Human Desire to Know the Future

Human beings, by their nature, desire to know the future. Our present we can see. Our past, we know about. But the future remains something unknown to all of us. But, if there was a way to know the future, we would all seek it. Because knowledge of the future means that you can avoid harm coming to you. And you can ensure benefit by knowing the future.

However, only Allah knows the future. That is Tawheed. No one else knows the future in its completeness and in its certainty.

We know from what the Prophet (peace be upon him) informed us regarding the jinn, the evil among them, who do manage to get bits and pieces of knowledge of the future. Future relative to us, but not future relative to the angels. As information is passed amongst the angels, some of them are able to steal bits and pieces of that

knowledge. And as the Prophet (peace be upon him) informed us, they pass that knowledge down to their partners on the earth. And among their partners are the fortune tellers.

But as the Prophet (peace be upon him) clarified, each bit of truth that they pass on is mixed with a hundred lies. So it has a mixture of truth, a small amount, and most of it is lies. But that little bit of truth is enough to captivate people, to catch them, and to draw them into the sin, the grave sin of fortune telling.

The Evil of Fortune Telling

And because of that, we have in our world people who are offering ways and means of fortune telling under different headings, using different methodologies, but all ending up telling you what your future will bring.

Whether they read your palm, or they read tea leaves at the bottom of your teacup, or they read cards, they turn cards over, or they look into a crystal ball, or whatever. Or it could be in the form of electronic programs, where you put in your name and your date of birth, and it will tell you what's good for you to do today. "Today is not a good day to make certain kinds of decisions." Or it's with the stars, astrology. Depending on the month in which you are born in, you are given a symbol—Pisces, or Virgo, or whatever. And then you have somebody who will tell you what's good for Virgos today. What's not good for Pisces. All of this, fortune telling.

A major evil. So evil, that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) had said, whoever goes to a fortune teller, out of curiosity, his or her prayers, for 40 days and nights, will go unrewarded. For 40 days and nights, your prayers have lost their value.

That's something very serious. Of course, this doesn't mean that if today, you already looked in the newspaper, and checked your column, and read your fortune, that now you don't have to pray for the next 40 days and nights. It doesn't mean that. Because when you pray, two things happen. One, you remove from yourself the obligation of prayer. Two, you earn reward. Depending on your level of concentration, of awareness. If your prayer is without any awareness, you're just going through the motions, then your reward will be zero. If you have some awareness, you do reflect, then the reward is added accordingly.

But the obligation of prayer, even if you don't get reward, you have to do it, to remove that obligation from yourself. And that is why, the Prophet (peace be upon him) had said, do not make the fard prayer twice. Don't make the fard prayer twice. You pray it one time, the obligation is gone, don't pray it again. It won't count.

This is also to protect us from Shaytan, who will come and whisper, when you pray, "Oh, that prayer has no reward, you better do it again." So you go and you do it again. By the time you reach Taslims, he has put enough whispers in your ear, that you need to do it a third time. Then a fourth time, then a fifth time, and you're lost. So to protect us from that, you have one shot. That's it.

Islam's Solution: Istikhara

So, because of the fact, that we have this desire, to want to know the future. And even though we know, that fortune telling is haram, it is a natural desire, for us to want to know the future. Islam, in its comprehensiveness, provides for that desire. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) provided for us what would fulfill our desire to know the future. Not that he is going to tell us the future. What he has provided will not give us the future exactly. But he gave us a means of dealing with that desire to know the future.

He told us, that whenever any of us has decided on a matter, we should pray two units of prayer, not from the obligatory prayers, and then make a particular dua, which you know as dua al-istikhara. Most of you, if not all of you, already know this. But, for most Muslims, it is confused. Yes, there is istikhara there, and yes, we are supposed to do it, and you know, we are doing it in all kinds of ways, which do not coincide with what the Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us. This is the problem.

Not that we never heard of istikhara, everybody heard of it. They might mispronounce the name, and these kinds of things, but, everybody knows about it. But how to do it? How is it supposed to be done?

The Correct Method of Istikhara

Step 1: Make a Decision First

Well, if we begin with what the Prophet (peace be upon him) began with, and he said:

إِذَا هَمَّ أَحَدُكُم بِالْأَمْرِ

"When one of you has decided on a matter."

Meaning, you don't do istikhara when you haven't made a decision. You have two things, you don't know which one to decide on. This is not what istikhara does for you. You need to first decide on one. This is a big mistake. People go into the istikhara, not knowing what to do. Not having decided what to do. They are thinking the istikhara is going to tell them what to do. But that's not how it works.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

إِذَا هَمَّ أَحَدُكُم بِالْأَمْرِ

"If one of you has decided about a matter."

What Istikhara Is NOT For

This decision, and this istikhara, is not done, regarding what is already obligatory. You don't make istikhara to decide whether you should pray five times a day or not. Do you understand? This is not the place for istikhara.

Nor is istikhara to be done in matters which are already recommended by Rasulullah (peace be upon him). Whether you should get married or not. Prophet (peace be upon him) recommended get married. End of story.

Don't make istikhara on that one.

Nor do you make istikhara about things which the Prophet (peace be upon him) disliked. He said, such and such, is not good, better to avoid it, whatever. You don't do istikhara about that. He has already advised us not to do it.

Nor do we make istikhara about things which are haram. Should I work in the bank or not? No, no. Don't make istikhara about working in a bank or not. It's haram to work in a bank. End of story.

So istikhara is generally in the areas which are not prohibited, recommended, disliked, or obligatory. However, it could be between two obligatory things. You have chosen one of two obligatory things, and you're deciding to go ahead with that. As opposed to another obligatory thing which you could do. That's okay. But not whether you should do an obligatory or not do an obligatory. I hope this point is clear.

Step 2: Pray Two Rakah

So, he said, whenever you have decided, then, one of you has decided, then make two rakah. Then make the dua.

Common Misconceptions

Now, commonly again, in our countries, people will ask other people to do istikhara for them. So they will go to the sheikh, maulana, or they might even call over the phone, send an email, "Can you make a couple of istikhara for me please?" And usually you get charged for every istikhara, so it's good business for the maulanas. But this is nonsense. Nonsense.

Nobody can make istikhara for you. The hadith is very clear. You, who has decided, make two rakah. Nobody can do those two rakat for you. And then make the dua. Nobody can do that dua for you. You have to make the dua.

So this is the point I think most of us get lost. We are caught in this other understanding—istikhara is like a mystical thing, you know, the maulanas, they know what to do, and how to do, and when to do, and we don't really know, we just say please, "Can you do istikhara?" I'll pay my fifty rupees or whatever, rials, I pay for it, you know, and I'm waiting for the answer. But this is not the deen.

And, unfortunately, if some of you have been following the news, we have a sister in Afghanistan who stood up against this kind of exploitation of the deen. People who were selling ta'weez, amulets, charms. She tried to address one of the mullahs who were doing that, and what did he do? He said, "She has burned the Quran," and the ignorant people at that grave went crazy. They beat her to death, threw her off a building, drove a car over her.

إِنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ

We ask Allah to accept her sacrifice of her life in defense of tawheed.

The Du'a of Istikhara

The Prophet (peace be upon him) taught us in the dua to say:

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْتَخِيرُكَ بِعِلْمِكَ، وَأَسْتَقْدِرُكَ بِقُدْرَتِكَ، وَأَسْأَلُكَ مِن فَضْلِكَ الْعَظِيمِ

"O Allah, I seek Your guidance to what is good for me because of Your infinite knowledge. I seek Your help because of Your power, and I ask You from Your favor."

So all of this is recognition of Allah's tawheed, of His knowledge of all things, of His power and control over all things, and of His mercy, mercy upon us.

فَإِنَّكَ تَقْدِرُ وَلَا أَقْدِرُ ، وَتَعْلَمُ وَلَا أَعْلَمُ، وَأَنْتَ عَلَّامُ الْغُيُوبِ

"For surely You are able, and I am not able." You're humbling yourself. Recognizing that all is in Allah's hands.

"And You know and I do not know. And You alone know the unseen. You alone know the unseen."

اللَّهُمَّ إِن كُنتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذَا الْأَمْرَ خَيْرٌ لِي فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي

"O Allah, if You know actually it's not 'if You know,' because of course Allah knows. Better to say, I guess, O Allah, though You know—in this affair, what is good for my religion"—because that's what is most important, what we are seeking guidance for, that it be good for our religion. Not merely good for my person, my dunya, but good first and foremost for my religion-"and for my livelihood," because that's what we live in. "And the aftermath of my affairs."

فَاقْدُرْهُ لِي وَيَسِّرْهُ لِي ثُمَّ بَارِكْ لِي فِيهِ

"Then decree it for me, make it easy for me, and bless me in it."

Understanding the Du'a

So if you listen to the dua, you're not saying, "O Allah, if You know that this affair, or one of these two affairs, is good for me." It says, "if this affair"—that's why you had to have decided on something. You're talking about something specific. That this thing which I have decided on.

Decided on how? You try to find out as much as you can, what is the correctness of this thing that you're seeking. You get the advice of those who are knowledgeable around you. And after you've gathered all of that information, you conclude, "Okay, this is a good thing for me to do." At that point, make your istikhara.

How to Know the Answer

So if this thing that you want to do, when you have completed your dua, and you're looking for the answer, the answer is, when you have tried to do that thing. If it comes easy, everything falls into place, it's just smooth, then know that it is the best thing.

The Dream Misconception

Not as people think. People normally say, you need to make istikhara before you go to bed at night. And then, you'll find your answer in a dream. If in the dream, you see red, a blinking red light, or a red plane, red something, then no, not good to do. But if you see a green light, or some other green thing, then no, that's a good thing to do.

This is total nonsense. Total nonsense. It has nothing to do with that at all.

If it's easy, when you go about doing it, then know that it is correct. It's the best one for you.

When Things Are Difficult

So naturally, the rest of the dua says the same thing. If it's difficult, if it's not good for me, then make it difficult, take it away from me. I can't get a hold of it, it's difficult for me to access it, that's the sign.

So if after you make the istikhara, and you try to do that thing, all kinds of roadblocks come in front of you. It's no longer feasible. Then you let it go.

But what happens is that after we make the istikhara, difficulties come, our heart is attached to it. So we're still fighting, struggling, and trying to do it anyhow. And maybe eventually you'll manage to do it, but it wasn't good for you. That was the sign. No red light. Just know when it is difficult, that it is the sign that it's not best for you.

And actually in the dua, we do ask Allah to take it out of our heart, take it away from us. If it's not good, remove the love of it from our heart, and put our heart on whatever else You have chosen for us, and make us pleased with it.

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The Blessing of Istikhara

So this is istikhara. A blessing from Allah to give us a sense of peace, where we fear the future, what's going to happen. We have a means of expressing our acceptance of Allah's qadr. Because in the end, after we make the

istikhara, and we follow the signs, what are we accepting here? The qadr of Allah. After we make our decision, then we put our trust in Allah.

So this is the correct method of istikhara. And I hope inshallah, you would share that with your families, because there is huge confusion in the Muslim world about this. Huge confusion. Share it with them, let them find the right way, and let them use the istikhara frequently, whenever they have affairs to decide on, after they have decided, knowing the best way to go forward.

And this is the deen. The deen, Islam, has provided us with everything that we need. Every area that we have a desire, Islam has provided us with a way of fulfilling that desire in a positive and religiously acceptable method. A way pleasing to Allah.

So I ask Allah to keep us on this path. Sirat al-mustaqeem, where we hold on firmly to the Quran and the sunnah. Where we can find the answer for everything that we need in our lives.

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Sujood Ash-Shukr: The Prostration of Gratitude

Having looked at istikhara and its place in our lives, which aids us in accepting the destiny, what is occurring in our lives, it gives us a method of dealing with it, which will give us a sense of peace and contentment.

On the other side, we are commonly faced with stress, pressure from our workplaces, from family, life is stressful. Many of us fall into depression. Some of us end up taking our own lives as a result. Of not knowing and understanding the qadr of Allah, we get caught up in this state of depression. Depression where we cannot see any good in our lives. Everything seems bad. Nothing is going right. Often times we blame it on the jinn, the evil eye. We can't deal with it.

Well, again, Islam provides for that need with a very simple act. The act known as sujood ash-shukr.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has reported that whenever something good would happen to him, he would fall down on his face in sujood, and carry on with his life. It was just a moment. A moment of gratitude. Showing gratitude to Allah. And this is what is missing in many of our lives today. A lack of that sense of gratitude. And this is why we have become plagued with depression.

The Example from Cricket

So the remedy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave us. I know you've all watched cricket games where the guy has scored this, or he knocked this wicket out, whatever, and then he drops down on the ground. He bounces his head on the ground, he jumps back up again. It was supposed to have been sujood ash-shukr, but not quite. Right? Not quite.

Sujood ash-shukr is prostrating at that time, but it is prostrating. Not just bouncing your head on the ground and jumping back up again. Prostrating. (سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيَ الْأَعْلَى - Subhana Rabbi al-A'la) "Glory be to my Lord, the Most High."

How to Perform Sujood Ash-Shukr

Reflecting on the good, the blessing, which is in our lives. Try to track it down. Maybe you feel there is no blessing, but when you're in that sujood, and you stay in that sujood, two, three minutes, reflecting, finding good. Because for sure there is good. In each and every one of our lives there is good. But we just can't see it. Due to the depression, the stress, the worry.

So that's the time out that we open up and reflect and reconnect with the mercy and the blessings of Allah in our lives. And believe that if you do that regularly, as it was the sunnah muakkadah of Rasulullah (peace be upon him), it will make a difference in your life. If you do it properly, you do it sincerely, it will remove your depression. It will remove it. Inshallah.

A Wake-Up Call

So let us bring it back into our lives. Because I'm sure, if I ask, how many people made sujood ash-shukr this week, one time, put your hand up. Look at that. We have about 700 people here, and not a single hand is raised. What is that saying? We have lost touch with Islam.

This is something the Prophet (peace be upon him) did regularly. Not just sunnah, sunnah muakkadah. And we don't even bother to do it at all. Are we better than Rasulullah (peace be upon him)? I mean, is it so difficult?

The Ease of Sujood Ash-Shukr

You don't have to make wudu. Sujood ash-shukr, you don't have to make wudu. You could be in a state of janaba, menses for the women. You can make sujood ash-shukr. You're not sure where the Kaaba is, don't matter. Make your sujood ash-shukr. It's completely easy. Fully available. But we're not taking it.

And then we wonder, why do we have all these issues in our lives, and the problems, and the this and the that, when the things which have been given to us, we don't even take. We don't value them.

The Meaning of Bearing Witness

When we say (مُحَمَّدًا رَسُولُ اللهِ - Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah), when we say that, what does that mean? Just words? Or it means that, the example which he gave us, of sujood ash-shukr, we are going to follow him. That's the point.

It's our loss. Of course it doesn't affect Rasulullah (peace be upon him). It's our loss. We are the ones who lose, by not following his way. We are the ones who then suffer depression, suffer stress, suffer all these things, simply because we don't follow such a simple act, which the Rasul (peace be upon him) gave us.

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Conclusion: Living the Deen

So brothers and sisters, this is the deen. We need to know it, and we need to live it. It is there to make our lives better. It's not a burden that we are putting on ourselves. The doors are open, to make our lives peaceful, happy lives, if we follow the way of Rasulullah (peace be upon him).

So I ask Allah to bring us back to that sunnah. The blessed, guided sunnah. That sunnah which will bring for us, true happiness in this life and the next.

The Obligation of Seeking Knowledge

I ask Allah that we learn it. To help us to learn it. To fulfill the command of Rasulullah (peace be upon him) when he told us:

(طَلَبُ الْعِلْمِ فَرِيضَةٌ عَلَى كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ - Talabul 'ilmi fareeḍatun 'ala kulli muslim)

"Seeking knowledge is compulsory for every Muslim."

It was to learn the deen. To learn about Allah. To learn the sunnah of Rasulullah (peace be upon him). And to live that sunnah.

I ask Allah to help us to hold on firmly to the Quran and sunnah. To bring blessing back into our lives, the lives of our families. To forgive those who have died amongst us. Our parents, relatives, children. Forgive them, put them in paradise, and make us amongst those who would follow them into paradise in the life to come.

آمین

وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ