Zia Sheikh – Two Methods Of Seeking Advice ISTIKHARA & ISTISHARAH
AI: Summary ©
The concept of "articipical" in the name of Allah is used to indicate a turnaround, with the use of "naught" and " Volkswagen" to describe a person or situation. The sh defective behavior of people is also discussed, including woodpeckers and luckless things. The speakers emphasize the importance of remembering words like " Volkswagen" and "naught," and stress the significance of sh defective behavior.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
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 crossroads 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, 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 Shaykh al-Bani, he goes as far
as to say that it's a mawduh or
a fabricated hadith.
But the gist of the subject is actually
supported by the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
Both things, the issue of istikhara and the
issue of istishara and taking opinion from people,
they're both supported from the Qur'an 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 is aware that there are certain
categories of ibadat and categories of ahkam that
a person is supposed to be doing.
They are the faraidh, they are the wajibat,
the sunan, the nawafil, the mandubat, meaning the
mustahabbat.
So in these things there's no istikhara.
There's 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 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 point?
This is the time where he should make
istikhara.
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.
That's 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
practice were known as tiyarah.
The Prophet, peace be upon him, he mentioned
in one hadith basically four kinds of superstitions
that the people used to practice.
He said that there's no such thing, everything
is from Allah.
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're flying from left
to right that means it's a good day
today.
Okay, I can proceed with my business, I
should go ahead and do what I'm supposed
to be doing because everything's going to turn
out fine.
But if they're 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 these 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.
So you have a black cat crossing your
path.
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.
Have you heard of these things before?
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.
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?
You say that okay, Alhamdulillah, my job is
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?
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.
You've seen a woodpecker, right?
Who knows what a woodpecker is?
Everybody know?
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.
Okay, so a woodpecker, they used to see
it pecking on the tree.
And they used to say that this woodpecker,
this bird, is 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.
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.
They carry a rabbit's foot around them for
good luck.
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.
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.
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.
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 and 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.
We are not supposed to be engaging in
any type of fortune telling.
Another aspect of that is astrology.
It is very common if you go to
India and Pakistan, they ask you what is
your star sign?
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 a 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 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.
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