Zia Sheikh – Two Methods of Seeking Advice
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
In
the
In the story of Adiruna, did you know
that I am in love with what Allah
has revealed to me?
And I passed the test in reciting it.
And I am the first to meet him
in my life.
And I am the sheikh of guidance.
So don't teach me how to recite it.
In the story of Adiruna, did you know
that I am in love with what Allah
has revealed to me?
And I passed the test in reciting it.
And I am the first to meet him
in my life.
And I am the sheikh of guidance.
So don't teach me how to recite it.
And I am the first to meet him
in my life.
And I am the sheikh of guidance.
And I seek refuge in Allah from the
evil of our souls and from the evil
of our deeds.
Whom Allah guides, none can misguide him.
Whom Allah misguides, none can guide him.
And we bear witness that there is no
god but Allah.
He is alone and has no partner.
And we bear witness that our master and
master is Muhammad, his servant and his messenger.
Allah says in the book of Al-Aziz,
and I seek refuge in Allah from the
accursed Satan, that you may hate something while
it is good for you.
And he said, So what mercy from Allah
would you not have for them?
And if you were a strong hearted person,
they would not have gone astray from you.
So forgive them and ask forgiveness for them
and consult them in the matter.
And when you have decided, then put your
trust in Allah.
Indeed, Allah loves those who put their trust
in Him.
My dear respected elders, brothers and sisters, As
-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
As the introduction was made, the thing that
was mentioned was that many people find themselves
at a crossroad sometimes.
They find themselves at a point where they
seem to be stuck.
They have two options, two roads to traverse
and two decisions to make and they don't
know which decision to take.
There is a hadith or reported hadith which
has been mentioned by Tabarani which says مَا
خَابَ مَنْ اِسْتَخَار وَمَا نَدِمَ مَنْ اِسْتَشَار that
a person who makes istikhara he will never
be unsuccessful and a person who makes istishara
basically he takes advice from people he will
never be a person who becomes upset at
something he will never be sorry.
So this reported hadith according to many scholars
is weak and Sheikh Albani, he goes as
far as to say that it's a mawdu
or a fabricated hadith but the gist of
the subject is actually supported by the Quran
and the Sunnah both things the issue of
istikhara and the issue of istishara and taking
opinion from people they are both supported from
the Quran and the Sunnah So first things
first I'm going to talk about istikhara What
is istikhara?
If you look at it linguistically linguistically it
means to seek khair to seek goodness to
seek the better way and when you are
making istikhara you are basically asking Allah SWT
Oh Allah show me what I'm supposed to
be doing at this particular juncture in my
life So this is what istikhara is about
There are certain things that we need to
be aware when it comes to istikhara Anybody
who is familiar with fiqh or even basic
fiqh he's aware that there are certain categories
of ibadat and categories of ahkam that a
person is supposed to be doing They are
the faraid they are the wajibat the sunan,
the nawafil the mandubat meaning the mustahabbat So
in these things there is no istikhara There
is no istikhara about these things Well should
I get up to pray fajr or not?
Well Do you need to make istikhara to
pray fajr?
No, you have to pray fajr You cannot
basically shirk your responsibility and throw it at
Allah SWT and ask him to guide you
in this respect because he has already laid
down the rules for this thing So in
these ahkam there is no istikhara that you're
supposed to be doing Istikhara is therefore then
only in the things which a person is
supposed to be doing and he is he
has basically for example he has two wajibs
two obligatory things that come up to him
and he doesn't know which option to take
For example the issue of getting married has
come up to him and the obligation of
hajj has come up to him at the
same time So now at that particular juncture
at that crossroads what does he decide?
What does he do at that time at
that point?
This is the time where he should make
istikhara Ok So two girls give a proposal
for marriage or one girl gives a proposal
for marriage Should he proceed with this marriage
or not?
That's when you make istikhara A person gets
a job offer and he is wondering whether
he should take that job or not This
is the time where you make istikhara The
opportunity arises to move from one place to
another place This is a huge step in
one's life especially from moving from country to
country At that point a person should make
istikhara So this istikhara actually if you look
at the history behind it it replaced a
lot of things that the Arabs used to
do in the past which were superstitions So
those superstitions that the Arabs used to they
used to practice were known as tiyarah Ok
And the Prophet ﷺ he mentioned in one
hadith Basically four kinds of superstitions that the
people used to practice He said that there
is no such thing everything is from Allah
SWT One of those things was called tiyarah
Tiyarah is from the word tayf which means
bird And what the people used to do
they used to leave their house in the
morning and they used to see in which
direction are the birds flying So for example
if they are flying from left to right
that means it's a good day today Ok
I can proceed with my business I should
go ahead and do what I am supposed
to be doing because everything is going to
turn out fine But if they are flying
in the opposite direction then that's it go
back inside because it's going to be an
unlucky day It's going to be a misfortunate
day So people used to take this flying
of the birds from left to right or
right to left as an omen And in
this day and age we have similar omens
that we kind of think about and we
even believe in sometimes Alright So you have
a black cat crossing your path Ok So
it's going to be a bad luck day
today Some people say good luck some say
bad luck A person walks under a ladder
and he says I'm going to get 7
years bad luck Alright Have you heard of
these things before?
Alright If you walk under a ladder that's
7 years bad luck Or if you break
a mirror that's 7 years bad luck All
of these are superstitions Ok All of these
are wrong and they are tantamount to shirk
And let me give you a couple more
examples that people practice and think about You've
probably heard the phrase Touch wood, right?
Ok You say that Ok, Alhamdulillah, my job's
going fine And then touch wood You would
go to a table which has wood in
it and you touch the wood Does anybody
even know what the significance of that is?
And where that came from?
Ok If you look at the books of
history you'll find that in the old days
the people that used to believe in these
superstitions and they used to practice pagan rituals
they used to see woodpeckers pecking at the
tree trunks Ok, you've seen a woodpecker, right?
Who knows what a woodpecker is?
Everybody know?
Ok Do they call it a woodpecker in
Australia?
Or is it a kookaburra?
What's a kookaburra?
Is that a kind of a woodpecker too?
No?
Alright Ok, so woodpecker they used to see
it pecking on the tree And they used
to say that this woodpecker this bird he's
actually conversing he's talking to the tree he's
talking to the god which is found in
the tree So they used to think that
touching wood at any given time was good
luck Ok, just like this woodpecker touching the
wood which has the god inside it it
is good luck So that's what they used
to believe Then you may have come across
this thing that people have which is called
a rabbit's foot Ok They carry a rabbit's
foot around them for good luck Ok The
history behind that is that people they used
to see rabbits and if you've ever seen
a rabbit in the wild or even as
a pet it basically rubs the ground Ok
It tries to dig into the ground It
burrows into the ground So the people used
to say that this rabbit is basically conversing
with the gods of the earth Ok So
because this paw of the rabbit the foot
of the rabbit was used to converse with
the gods of the earth that means it
must be very lucky So they used to
keep this rabbit paw with them Ok So
these are examples that people still believe in
and practice yet they are tantamount to shirk
More common examples that you may have heard
of and especially found that are prevalent in
the Indian subcontinent are the issue of palm
reading You go to a palm reader which
is completely haram Any kind of fortune telling
it is not permissible It is haram to
engage in fortune telling and to go to
a person who reads your fortune or reads
your palm and tells you what the future
holds for you We should not be believing
in it and a person who does that
he is basically stepping into the boundaries of
shirk He is not supposed to be We
are not supposed to be engaging in any
type of fortune telling Another aspect of that
is astrology Ok It is very common if
you go to India and Pakistan they ask
you Hey what is your star sign?
Ok Are you a Taurus?
Are you a Pisces?
Are you this or are you that?
Are you Scorpio?
And again all of that is related to
seeing the future by looking into the stars
And again completely haram and complete form of
shirk So all of these things we have
to sideline them and replace them with something
which is known as istikhara Seeking khair from
Allah SWT and seeking this guidance from Allah
SWT And ultimately what is istikhara?
It is a form of dua The sahaba
mention that the Prophet SAW he used to
teach us istikhara just like he used to
teach us a surah of the Quran He
taught us istikhara just like he taught us
a surah of the Quran The famous dua
many of you may know it many of
you may not is Basically
the translation is Oh Allah, I seek khair
from you I seek khair from you I
seek goodness from you And I ask you
to give from your own power your qudra
Let me just pull it up And I
ask you from your generosity Because you know
you are able and I am not able
And you know and I don't know You
are the knower of the unseen Oh Allah,
if you know that this situation that I
am making istikhara about if it is good
for me in my deen, my religion and
my sustenance and in my last abode there
are different wordings found in different versions of
the book then make it easy for me
and then give barakah in it for me
and if you know that this situation is
bad for me then keep it away from
me keep me away from it and then
make khair available for me wherever it is
So this is the istikhara So the Prophet
SAW used to teach the sahaba that whenever
you are at this situation in your life
when you need to make a decision then
you should pray two rakah of istikhara and
then make this dua to Allah SWT Now
there are certain things that people assume about
istikhara which are incorrect Many people assume that
they are supposed to actually get a dream
after making istikhara Alright, they think that I
must get a dream otherwise my istikhara is
invalid Many people also think that I must
get a feeling inside of me that this
is the path that I should tread and
they think that that feeling is the guidance
for them and again this is incorrect So
these two things are kind of myths which
are propagated about istikhara The Prophet SAW didn't
tell people about dreams and if a person
has a dream that's all well and good
but if a person does not he should
not panic A person should continue to make
the dua of istikhara as long as he
is in this quandary as long as he
is in this confusion He will see the
situation will open up in front of him
If for example in the situation of marrying
a girl you know the parents start giving
a hard time they don't accept the proposal
Ok, so what's going to happen is you
will realize that this is not the path
for me to take and you will pull
yourself back Let me tell you something else
while I'm on the subject of marriage Many
people basically get into a relationship and then
they get in so deep to a relationship
that after falling in love head over heels
and then realizing or thinking assuming that I
cannot live with this person anymore that's when
they start making istikhara Alright?
That's not the time to make istikhara Now
your heart is basically with that person You're
in love with that person Ok?
Or you're besotted with that person Ok?
You're devoted to that person So at that
point any kind of istikhara that you do
is going to be contaminated with your own
feelings with your own feelings that you already
have in your heart So now it's too
late to perform istikhara because after performing the
istikhara you're going to think Yes, this is
the person I want to marry and it's
not the istikhara that's going to influence you
It is your own desire that's influencing you
So there's a point where you're supposed to
make istikhara and not cross that point not
get into a situation so deeply that you
want to be in that situation and then
perform istikhara At that point it's too late
At the beginning of the proposal at the
beginning of seeking a job at the beginning
of applying for a job or getting the
job you know, response that's the time when
you make the istikhara and then after that
you will get a realization of what is
correct and what is incorrect Another thing we
need to keep in mind is that ultimately
istikhara is a dua istikhara it's a dua
to Allah SWT and being a dua all
of the rules and regulations that are related
to dua the acceptance of the dua they
are also connected to this particular dua so
if a person is earning haram then the
dua is unlikely to be accepted if a
person is making dua of qatr ur rahm
or he is engaged in sins which would
nullify a dua or make the dua not
accepted or he is making a dua without
the hope in Allah SWT that the dua
is going to be accepted he is despondent
about the acceptance of his duas then this
dua of istikhara will also not be accepted
because ultimately it's a dua so what people
tend to do with this dua and other
duas it's very very common that they think
that I'm a sinner I commit sins I
make mistakes so my dua is unlikely to
be accepted so I'm not going to make
dua I'm going to tell my imam or
the sheikh in the masjid or a pious
person that I know my grandfather my grandmother
to make dua for me okay and there's
nothing wrong with that even the Prophet A
.S. he when Umar was going for umrah
one day he told him don't forget us
in your duas oh my little brother don't
forget us in your duas so asking somebody
for dua there's nothing particularly wrong with that
but with this understanding that I'm such a
sinner and I'm committing so many sins I'm
not praying my five time salat on time
so how is my dua going to be
accepted this is the wrong kind of attitude
you're basically what we call a cop out
you're copying out of your responsibility of being
a good Muslim and then the next stage
of that is that you're not willing to
even raise your hands to Allah because you
feel ashamed to raise your hands to Allah
so if I have that feeling then instead
of copying out of this and telling other
people to make dua for me then I
should actually see within myself the mistakes that
I'm making and the sins that I'm committing
and the deficiencies that I have and then
I should try to fix those deficiencies until
I feel confident in the acceptance of my
dua and then on top of that a
person should never feel that the dua is
rejected or not heard by Allah SWT you
know the ayah why it was revealed is
because will write O my slaves who have
transgressed against themselves do not despair from the
rahmah of Allah SWT who is the person
about whom this ayah was revealed the person
who killed Hamza in the battle of Uhud
which I'll talk about in a few minutes
so the dua is first and foremost we
should learn how to make dua we should
make our lifestyle in such a way that
we feel confident in raising our hands to
Allah SWT and asking from Him where we
spread our hands in front of Allah SWT
and feel confident that my life is pure
and clean to the extent that I can
raise my hands and even if there are
deficiencies in me I should be able to
and I should take my time out to
raise my hands to Allah SWT and make
dua that oh Allah take me out of
the problems that I'm in take me out
of the sins that I'm committing so that
I can be your pious slave so these
things we have to be aware about istikhara
ok this is istikhara and remember this one
of the biggest benefits of making istikhara it's
a huge benefit is that you will never
be depressed about the situation that you're in
you'll never be depressed you'll never feel suicidal
so many people they commit suicide because the
girl that they loved basically rejected them ok
or they commit suicide because they lost money
in the stock market alright but a person
when he makes istikhara he is guided to
such a degree that he realizes that if
that proposal that I sent to that girl
didn't go through then maybe Allah knows something
about that girl that I'm not aware of
right now but I will find out later
that she was not a good choice for
me same thing for the sisters that have
proposals sent to guys to brothers if the
proposal doesn't go through then they will realize
after they perform istikhara maybe Allah SWT He
knows something about that person that I'm not
aware of and He is keeping me away
from that person and it is better for
me that right now He is taken away
from my life so that I don't have
problems in the future so when a person
he loses the thing that he was anticipating
but he did istikhara in the course of
pursuing that thing he will feel comfortable and
at ease that Allah SWT actually saved me
from a problem and didn't allow me to
get into a situation which I might regret
later so this is the biggest benefit of
istikhara now moving on to the other thing
with istikhara there is something that is known
as istishara istishara means that a person actually
takes advice from other people and this is
one of the biggest shortfalls that we have
from the younger generation they don't want to
take advice from the elders because they think
they know it all they assume that just
because they can find everything on google sheikh
google tells them to do this or to
do that then that is the best advice
and it is the most correct advice the
reality is that when you talk to an
older person when you talk to your parents
when you talk to your teacher when you
talk to your sheikh your imam you are
benefiting from knowledge and experience so it is
important to take istishara and to take advice
from people and to sit down this concept
of istishara and shura or mashura is something
that we need to implement in our daily
lives husbands they need to make mashura with
their wives about a decision that they are
about to make should we buy this new
property or not should we buy this house
or not should we move to a new
locality or not so these things both go
hand in hand istihara and istishara and there
are a few verses in the quran which
talk about this issue of istishara first of
all allah swt describes this worldly life everything
you've been given in this world it is
just the benefit of this world and whatever
is with allah swt that is better and
more everlasting and then allah swt goes on
to say this is for the people of
iman and they have trust in allah swt
these people they stay away from maasi they
stay away from the kabair and whenever they
have any kind of situation whenever they want
to decide something they do it by shura
and mutual consultation now let me tell you
a story my time is quickly running out
and this is the story of the battle
of uhud who knows the story of the
battle of uhud hands up like 50%
of you are putting up your hands i'm
sure more of you know the story of
the battle of uhud what happened in the
battle of uhud was this was the second
major battle in islam and this took place
just outside medina the prophet a.s. he
had put on the side it's called the
battle of uhud because it took place right
next to the uhud mountain anybody who's been
to medina knows that in front of uhud
there's a small mountain which is known as
the mountain of the archers the prophet a
.s. had put some archers on top of
this mountain and told them that even if
you see the vultures picking at our dead
bodies do not move from this spot he
told them with such great emphasis that you're
not supposed to leave this place so the
idea was that you're protecting us from being
attacked from behind so what happened was the
battle started and the muslims started getting a
victory they started winning the disbelievers they started
retreating and it looked like victory was in
the hands of the muslims these archers that
were on top of this mountain this small
mountain they got excited they said victory is
ours and they started running down the mountain
thinking that victory was sealed khalid who was
not yet a muslim he saw these archers
had left their position and he decided to
take the battalion behind the muslims that the
place where which had been protected by the
archers up until now he took this battalion
behind the muslims and now the muslims were
sandwiched in between the disbelievers from both sides
they were being attacked in the course of
this confusion what happened was that 70 sahaba
lost their lives 70 sahaba they had lost
their lives it would seem needlessly and amongst
them the beloved uncle of our prophet who
was killed by about whom this ayah was
revealed that i was talking about earlier even
the prophet he was injured in this battle
his face was bleeding his tooth was broken
he was hit to such a point that
somebody hit him and the chain mail the
chain mail of his helmet basically got embedded
into his cheek ok so the metal actually
went into his cheek directly into his cheek
and even there was a rumor spread around
about the prophet that he had been killed
so mass confusion ensued at that particular time
especially when you think that our leader the
person that we've been following all these years
he's been killed you can imagine the confusion
that reigned at that particular time anyway after
the battle finished and the muslims basically went
back to medina the prophet he didn't make
a huge fuss about these archers that had
left their position allah he says about this
attitude of the prophet and he actually tells
him and gives him some advice which is
such beautiful advice for any person who's any
kind of in any kind of leadership position
allah says directly to the prophet alayhis salatu
wasalam ...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
because of the fact oh prophet you have
mercy inside of you and you are gentle
towards them you are gentle towards them and
if you had been severe and hard-hearted
towards them they would have dispersed from around
you so forgive them forgive those people that
because of their mistake 70 people were killed
killed, including your uncle was killed, forgive them,
Allah SWT is saying, forgive them, seek forgiveness
from Allah SWT for them.
And then this is the key point here.
The next point, those same people that made
this mistake, continue to seek their advice, continue
to make shura with them, continue to take
their opinion.
From the people that made this huge mistake,
this shows us the importance of shura.
The Prophet SAW, he could have taken his
advice and guidance directly from Allah SWT, true
or no?
He could have taken his guidance directly from
Allah SWT, but Allah SWT told him no.
Those same companions of yours, yes they made
this mistake, yes they didn't listen to you,
yes they should have stayed on that mountain,
but forgive them because everybody makes mistakes and
continue to seek advice from them.
And after taking their advice, once you've decided
to take a course, then put your trust
in Allah SWT.
So this really should impress upon us the
importance of the shura that even the Prophet
SAW was commanded by Allah SWT, not requested,
commanded by Allah SWT to take shura from
those sahaba.
Those same sahaba that made the mistake, Allah
SWT told the Prophet to continue to take
shura from them.
So obviously, as humans, as families, as people
working in an organisation, within a masjid or
a school, there are people that are going
to obviously make mistakes, because we're all human.
Does that mean that we kind of boycott
those people that make mistakes?
No.
We need to keep them in the fold.
We need to keep them connected.
We need to keep them united.
And this is what will make the community
flourish.
This will make the organisation flourish.
This will make your family flourish.
And you will become a better unit because
of the fact that you are making shura
amongst yourselves.
I'd like to just hit upon one point,
one additional point.
You know when Allah SWT created Adam AS,
it is mentioned throughout the Qur'an in
a few places, he called the angels and
he talked to them.
He told the angels that I'm going to
make a vicegerent on this earth.
I'm going to make a khalifa on the
earth.
So the angels that started disputing or started
objecting gave their opinions to Allah SWT.
You making on the earth somebody who's going
to cause corruption on the earth, and he's
going to cause bloodshed?
The question is, Allah is Allah, right?
He doesn't need to talk to anybody.
He doesn't need anybody's advice.
He doesn't need anybody's opinion.
So why then did he even tell the
angels this?
Why did he tell the angels that he's
going to make a khalifa on the earth?
Some scholars are of the opinion that Allah
SWT did this to impress upon humanity that
it doesn't matter how big you are as
a human and how big your position is.
You should not proceed in making decisions without
taking opinions from your subordinates.
And Allah SWT doesn't need to take shura,
he has the wisdom and the knowledge of
everything that has ever been and will ever
be.
But yet we find him in these places
in the Qur'an consulting with the angels,
not because he needs to, but to impress
upon humanity the importance of consultation.
So these are the two things, to summarize,
istikhara and istishara.
Istikhara is seeking khayr from Allah SWT and
asking Allah SWT for guidance for what is
the thing that a person intends to do
and istishara is following up that guidance from
Allah SWT by taking advice from the people
that are around you.
And again, this concept of shura, you should
be taking advice from people that are experienced
in the particular field that you want to
take advice about.
So if you are wanting to go to
medical school, you would take the advice of
a doctor.
And if you are seeking a religious opinion,
then you would talk to a scholar.
And so on and so forth.
So depending on the person, the thing that
you want to know about and you want
to take an opinion about, that's the person
that you would talk to and that's the
person you would consult.
So both of these things, istikhara and istishara,
have been sanctioned by the Qur'an and
the sunnah.
The more we implement them inshallah, the more
goodness and barakah we will see in our
lives.
I pray that Allah SWT gives us tawfiq
to understand and practice what has been said
and heard.