Istikhara & Consultation - Mufti Minhajuddin Ahmed

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And peace and blessings be upon the Master of the Messengers and the Seal of the Prophets, and upon his good people, the pure, and those who follow them with good until the Day of Judgment, and after that.

Allah, the Exalted, said in the decisive revelation, after we seek refuge in Allah from the accursed Satan, In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

My dear respected brothers and elders, respected sisters and youngsters, and As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Allah in this ayah, in Surah Ali Imran, has instructed Rasulullah with certain advices which are very pertinent for us, and they are great lessons for us to learn from this ayah.

The Context of the Ayah: The Battle of Uhud

The context of this ayah is the incident which happened after the battle of Uhud. In the battle of Uhud, Rasulullah had given particular instructions to the Sahaba to guard a path in the rear where he was afraid that the enemy could attack. And there was a misunderstanding regarding his order, resulting in which 70 Sahaba they ended up having to sacrifice their lives and became shaheed, including Musawi ibn Umair, the flag bearer of the Muslim army, and the muallim and the teacher of the people of Medina, and Sayyid al-Shuhada Hamza.

Sixty to seventy Sahaba lost their lives due to this mistake. And this mistake was a major mistake in implementing the order of Rasulullah. And Rasulullah himself personally was injured as a result and wounded, and his face was struck by the sword of the enemies that ended up resulting in his teeth being dislodged from their gums, and his face was bloodied and wounded.

All this happened because they did not follow the instructions of Rasulullah. So after such a big mistake, it is possible that Rasulullah's heart would become constricted and would become upset with the Sahaba. And if he would become upset with them as their instructor, this would definitely be detrimental to their progress in their spirituality and their closeness to Allah and coming close to Allah because their teacher, their muallim, their prophet, their nabi was upset with them.

So in these ayahs Allah is instructing Rasulullah to forgive his companions and to further be soft with them and seek forgiveness on their behalf from Allah. And the way Allah does it is in such a respectful manner showing the honour of Rasulullah that Allah had that position that he had in the eyes of Allah is also exemplified in this ayah.

The Quranic Instruction on Mercy and Softness

It is due to the mercy of Allah, that you have become soft. You are soft with them, with your companions, with your sahaba. Then Allah says:

And if you had been harsh-tongued, and if you had a hard heart, then they would have run away from you. They would have abandoned you.

So therefore forgive them for their mistakes. And ask Allah to forgive them as well. And then consult with them and take their opinions when you decide matters.

Then after taking consultation and mashwarah and taking the opinions of the sahaba, then when you make the final decision, then rely on Allah. Trust in Allah. Verily Allah loves those who trust in Him. Those who lay their trust in Allah.

Understanding the Attributes of the Prophet

So in this ayah we see how in a very gentle manner Allah is addressing Rasulullah. He does not instruct him that you need to be soft and you need to speak softly and lovingly and do not be harsh. Rather Allah starts off by saying this is how you already are.

He describes Rasulullah's attribute. He says that you are already soft for them. And this perfection in the character of Rasulullah that is there, that is being affirmed by Allah.

And Allah is further confirming it and saying that look you are soft and you are kind to your Sahaba. But where did this kindness come from? Where did this softness come from? Where did this gentleness in your character come from? Allah is also reminding us that this is not something which is inherent, which comes on its own, which we can attribute to ourselves and we can claim greatness due to our having those beautiful characteristics. But rather we have to attribute it back to Allah and Allah alone.

That is why Allah says: Look at the mercy of Allah. Due to His mercy upon you, what do we see? That you are very soft. So the beautiful attribute that you have is there, it is already there. But just a reminder that this attribute came from Allah and Allah alone.

And then, instead of saying don't be harsh and don't be strict with them, Allah says that He just gives the outcome if you weren't, what would have happened. If you were harsh-tongued and hard-hearted, one has to do with the tongue how you speak and one has to do with the feelings in your heart how you feel. So if your tongue was very harsh with them, or if your heart was very hard and you didn't have any mercy on them, then what would have happened is that they would have abandoned you, they would have run away from you.

A Lesson for All of Us

So this is a lesson for all of us. As teachers, as mentors, as elder brothers, as parents, as elders in the community, as in any position that we have, that we are counseling people, advising people, or we are in a position as a model for others to follow, and every person is responsible for his own family, starting with the family, as Rasulullah said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 893)

Each one of you is like a shepherd and will be asked regarding his flock. Everyone has responsibility, those that are under him.

So we see that if Rasulullah, despite being the pinnacle of perfection of character:

He was a manifestation of moral excellence. Yet Allah is saying, if you had a harsh tongue and a hard heart, they would have abandoned you. Who would have abandoned you? Those Sahaba who are ready to sacrifice their lives for you. So what about us? What type of character should we have when we deal with those that are under us? They would have abandoned you.

So therefore Allah says: So forgive them. Forgive people for their mistakes. This was such a major mistake which resulted in loss of life for so many great individuals and personal injury for Rasulullah. Yet Allah is telling him, forgive them for their mistake. Forgive them from the bottom of your heart. Do not hold any grudges against them.

And these Sahaba who made the mistake in Uhud, seek Allah's forgiveness for them as well. Ask Allah to forgive them. Meaning have their welfare at heart and wish best for them so that they will be forgiven in the hereafter as well. Seek forgiveness from Allah for them as well.

And then beyond forgiving them and seeking forgiveness for them, Subhanallah, it doesn't even end there. You have to elevate them to such a rank. Make them feel so much involved in the process, in the decision-making process that despite the fact that you received direct revelation from me and guidance from me and you are my Nabi and my Rasul and you are the Khatamul Anbiya, you are the Seed of the Prophets, you received direct instructions from me. Despite all of this, Allah is saying and take their opinions when you decide matters. Consult with them.

So this is the order of Allah in this ayah. In the context of those Sahaba who made the major mistake which resulted in loss of seventy Sahaba's lives and injury of Rasulullah, Allah is saying take mashwarah for them. And so that way their hearts will be at ease, their hearts will be at comfort and they will feel involved that they have a voice and their voice is heard. This is the instruction to Rasulullah.

The Station of the Prophet and Consultation

If there is anyone who did not need to take opinions of anyone else, then that was the personality of Rasulullah. Because his words themselves were a hujjah and a dalil shari' and evidence that needs to be followed and a proof for the ummah. Just like the words of Allah, the kitab Allah, the Quran, we follow and we submit to the word of Allah. As Muslims, as believers, we submit to the word of Rasulullah.

Anything would be uttered by default would be hadith. And for those who are listening to him directly, there is no question of the hadith being sahih or not. That is a function of the strength or weakness of the narrators. There is no narrator between them and Rasulullah. They are hearing it directly from his lips. Every hadith is one hundred percent they are hearing it from Rasulullah and it becomes binding upon them to follow.

So if there is anyone who does not need to take opinions and not need to involve people in the decision making process would have been Rasulullah. Yet Allah is telling him, take the opinions of your sahabah in deciding matters. And after that Allah says, that when you take the mashoorah and you take the opinions of your different companions, then when you make the decision. And your final determination, when you make your final determination, so this final determination that has to be made is not made by anyone else or by everyone together. This verb is a second person singular verb, which means that when you make the decision.

So at the end of the day, after taking all the opinions, the one who decides the matter will be the one. There has to be at the end of the day one leader, one amir. And we all have the opportunity to express our opinions when the consultation is in process. But when the decision is made, then the decision is made by one individual, whoever is appointed as the amir. We cannot have a situation where everyone is fighting to be the amir. That will lead to chaos, anarchy.

That is what we see from this ayah. When you as the amir, as the leader, you make the final decision, then then do not rely on your mashoorah. Do not rely on your plans. Do not have reliance and trust in all of your preparations.

The Proper Balance: Planning and Reliance on Allah

You have to do the preparations. You have to do the planning. But after you make your plan, and after you make your program, and you have your meetings, then don't rely on your planning, don't rely on your consultations, and say that everything will be successful because we planned it so. But rather after doing all the work, when you make your final determination, then rely solely on Allah.

Know that your planning, you are weak, your planning is weak, and nothing can be successful, and you cannot reach your desired objective without the help of Allah. So your entire reliance should be on Allah and Allah alone. Verily Allah loves those who trust in Him.

So this is not only an instruction to Rasulullah, rather we find in Surah Ash-Shura, Allah when He describes the believers, He says:

The believers are such that they decide their matters through mutual consultation. So Mashwarah is a part of our Deen.

Istikhara and Mashwarah: Two Gifts from the Prophet

And the time is coming to an end, I wanted to touch on two things. This is the history of the ayah, and the background of this ayah, which talks about Mashwarah. And along with Mashwarah is Istikhara. There is a Hadith of Rasulullah, that:

(Source: Collections of Hadith)

The one who does Istikhara will never have regret and sadness, and the one who does Mashwarah will also be free from having to regret and have sadness, and feel sadness. These are two gifts to us given by our Deen, given to us by Rasulullah.

When it comes to Mashwarah, this is a commandment of Allah in the Quran to Rasulullah. This is Sunnah of Rasulullah. We found him in the Battle of Badr, he made Mashwarah, where should we camp? In the Battle of Uhud, should we go out to defend, go out on the offensive against the coming army of Quraysh, or we defend Medina from inside? When he came to the Battle of Khandaq, he made Mashwarah, how should we defend ourselves? And he took the Mashwarah of Salman al-Farsi with regards to digging a trench, which was unheard of in the Arabian warfare.

They never heard of defending through a trench. That was the Battle of Ahzab, when there were ten thousand Mushrikeen from different tribes came upon Medina to surround it and defeat them. And they were in a smaller number, the Muslims army. So they took the defense and the help of the trench in defending themselves.

He made Mashwarah on so many different occasions, what to do with the Sahaba. And thereafter, his companions who followed him, the Khulafa of Rashidun, continued that process. But it is not limited to matters of national importance, national affairs. Even in our personal life, many times we make mistakes because we do not take the trouble to take Mashwarah and guidance.

Mashwarah in Personal and Academic Decisions

Allah says, ask those who know if you do not have knowledge. We have students who do not take Mashwarah and counseling regarding the Sharia aspect of their studies. They might be having a counselor at college to help in deciding courses. They end up studying four years and get such a degree that the only thing they can do with that degree is compute interest and earn Laana of Allah.

Now they have a very specific degree that they only work in the financial sector and banks and computing interest. Whereas Rasulullah said, the curse of Allah descends on the one giving interest, taking interest, the one writing up the contract and the witnesses. This is such a unique sin for which all of the different participants have been specifically highlighted as being cursed by Allah.

The only sin in the Quran where Allah used the word prepare for war against Allah and His Rasul. Now we invested so much time and so many years in education and we got a degree that that's pretty much the only thing we are capable of doing. This is just an example. Why didn't we take Mashwarah? My college counselor is telling me that this is a very great opportunity and there's a good market for this and I will get a job. But from the Sharia perspective, is this a good area of study? Is this something good that I can major in?

Mashwarah in Life Decisions and Family

Likewise, when it comes to other decisions we make in life, regarding moving, regarding jobs, regarding marriage, all of these things that we do, and regarding affairs at home, even at home, between the husband and the wife and the children, to create harmony, to create love, to create unity within the family, instead of taking unilateral decisions as the head of the household, if the father sits down with all the family members regarding family matters and takes everyone's opinions, then this would be bringing the Sunnah of Mashwarah alive at the home level. Subhanallah, there would be so much barakah and blessing in that home.

There would be so much unity where everyone participates in presenting their opinion regarding what should we do in our Thanksgiving vacation coming up, what should we do as a family? So different Mashwaras are given. What should we do in the winter vacation? What should we do regarding so many different matters? It could be mundane worldly activities as well, but if we get Mashwarah from all of our family members, even the children get involved, and the wife, then Subhanallah, after the head of the household is the father, Allah Ta'ala has given that rank and responsibility, and the wife is the heart of the family, and the husband is the head of the family, then when he makes the decision, and afterwards everyone becomes united and works together with that common goal.

At least they have the opportunity to have their voice heard. So this is Subhanallah, something that marketing and people in management and people in business administration, they talk about in the worldly arena, but this is something which is taught to us by Allah Ta'ala in the Quran itself.

The Etiquette of Giving Counsel

And one of the etiquettes of Mashwarah is that when somebody asks you for your opinion, Rasulullah said:

(Source: Collections of Hadith)

The one from whom an opinion is sought, then this is an amanah, it is a trust that he has to discharge. He has to be sincere in giving his opinion. He should sincerely advise a person based on what he would do for himself, what he would regard good for himself and his own family, that is a Mashwarah he should give.

And he is exempted from the prohibition of speaking bad about someone behind their back, which is known as ghiybah and backbiting. If somebody asks you regarding a marriage proposal, regarding someone, you know this person, what is your opinion regarding that person, and this proposal came from my daughter, what do you say? It is specifically been highlighted as an exemption from the prohibition of backbiting. That a person has to speak the truth, has to speak the truth and say whatever that person knows, and will not be guilty of backbiting. Because this is a trust that he has to discharge, he has to speak what he knows.

Tawbah and Redemption

But at the same time, since I touched on this topic, if someone ever committed a sin in their life, it doesn't mean that they are condemned for life, and they are always going to be doomed for failure, and they can never get ahead in life. Rasulullah said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah)

The one who seeks repentance and forgiveness from a sin, is like the one who never committed the sin. So if somebody has moved on and committed some sins and some wrongs in the past, but they have made tawbah and have bettered their life, then we should not be holding on to their past, and not give them an opportunity to improve in the future. But rather we should be hopeful and say that, Inshallah, based on the current situation, you can even give positive mashwarah regarding someone who might have done something in the past, but is now, Alhamdulillah, repentant from that.

The Practice of Istikhara

And besides Mashwarah, one is to seek khair from Allah. That is called Istikhara. The Sahaba, they said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1166)

Rasulullah used to teach us the du'a of Istikhara with as much importance and significance he would attach to it as he would teach us a surah of the Qur'an. There are so many du'as that you find in the books of hadith, and so many collections of du'as that are there, and so many books that are collections of all the du'as of Rasulullah, pages and pages of du'as of Rasulullah.

And all the big books of hadith have the Kitab al-Ada'iyah, the chapter on invocations and prayers. So many du'as of Rasulullah. Yet there is no single du'a concerning which we find that Rasulullah gave such importance as the Sahaba say, like he would teach us a surah of the Qur'an. And this is the du'a of Istikhara.

Understanding the Istikhara Du'a

Khairun means goodness. Istikhara means to seek goodness from Allah. If we ponder and reflect over the words, what is the words:

Oh Allah, I seek good from you. I seek khair from you. Because you have complete knowledge. And I seek power from you. Because you have the absolute complete power. And I seek from you gracious bounty. For you have all power. I have no power. You have all knowledge. I have no knowledge. You are the one who knows everything of the unseen. I barely know that which is seen even. You know the unseen.

Oh Allah, if you know that this particular task, this particular matter and affair whatever it is. And at this point, when we make the du'a, we should think about that matter in our hearts, in our mind. Whether it is marriage, whether it is job. And for that matter, we are limiting Istikhara to marriages and jobs. In our practice. But if we are lucky enough to do that. Beyond that, we never do Istikhara.

Whereas we are supposed to be doing Istikhara for any action that we take. That is permissible. Not that is farad. We can never do Istikhara. Should I perform Jumu'ah or not? We do Istikhara about that. If it is something permissible and there could be potential loss or gain. There could be benefit or there could be harm for us. And we are unaware. We seek khair from Allah.

The Two Outcomes of Istikhara

Oh Allah, if you know that this task, this matter, this affair, this journey, this marriage, this job, this moving, this college. Whatever the matter is. And then you say if it is good for me. For my religion and for my worldly life. In the short term or in the long term. If it is good for me then decree it for me and make it easy for me. Then put barakah in it for me and bless it for me.

And if you know on the other hand and then again we think about the matter in our heart if it is bad for me. It is harmful for me. For my deen and my dunya. It is bad for me in my deen and my dunya. Then turn it away from me and turn me away from it. So if it is bad for you then are you just going to have to leave it? And where are you going to go next then? Then that part is taken care of as well.

Then wherever else goodness lies for me decree that other thing for me. If this is bad for me turn it away from me turn me away from it but wherever else may be good give me that grant me that. And then make me pleased with it as well. It may not be such that my heart is attached to the former when it is bad for me and you decree the second one for me which is better for me but I am still missing the first one. That's why you make dua to Allah at the end. That oh Allah make me pleased with that which is better for me as well.

It is a very very comprehensive dua taught to us by none other than Rasulullah.

Dreams and Signs After Istikhara

And to conclude, there is not any specific things you have to see in dreams. There are many things people say oh you have to see a green light means you should go ahead and if you see red then means stop. No there is nothing like that. This is not the rules of the road test where you see a green light means go and red light means stop. And there is no condition to necessarily see a dream.

If things start working out in your favor and things are progressing and things are going good that's the barakah of Istikhara go with it. If there are impediments coming and things are breaking off that's the barakah of Istikhara because the second part of the dua was that if it's bad for me turn it away from me yes your dua is working it's not working out means something else is better for you either way it's a win win situation.

You cannot lose with Istikhara. That's why Rasulullah said the one who does Istikhara has no regrets. If things work out it's in your favor. If things don't work out it's in your favor because you made the dua. If it's not good for me turn it away from me.

How to Perform Istikhara

And the way to do it is to perform wudu in the best manner possible then perform two rakats with khushu and wudu with concentration and devotion and then send salawat on Rasulullah. Then recite this dua with concentration then make dua in your own words and preferably to do this before sleeping.

Yes it is possible that someone might see a dream but it's not a necessary integral element. Sometimes people are more perceptible to seeing dreams that's just based on how they are Allah has created them. Some people see dreams more. Some people see less. Some people might see indication in a dream that's true. Rasulullah said Mubashirat Wahi has terminated but Allah sends inspiration through dreams and that will continue. It's a hadith in Sunan Abu Dawud.

So you could see a dream but you don't have to wait for a dream. Just continue on with it. The way your heart moves is inclined towards it any particular side go with that and Inshallah Allah will give you barakah.

Conclusion

May Allah allow us to continue to benefit from the blessings of Istikhara and Mashwarah and to decide our matters through these two blessings that Allah has granted us in the Quran and Sunnah.