Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2
Table of Contents
PREFACE________________________________________________________2
INTRODUCTION___________________________________________________3
AL GHAIB________________________________________________________5
What is Al Ghaib?____________________________________________________________5
FORTUNE-TELLERS_______________________________________________18
The Jinn______________________________________________________________________20
Du’a -al-Istikhara___________________________________________________________35
Temporal World_____________________________________________________________41
BIBLIOGRAPHY___________________________________________________44
1
Bibliography
Preface
It is a guide
for those who are God conscious, who believe in [the
existence of] that which is beyond the reach of human
perception, and are constant in prayer, and spend on
others out of what We provide for them as sustenance;
Ayah 2-3, Suratul Baqarah
Tawheed is a vast subject and I set foot in this undertaking – which falls within the
realm of Tawheed – with the prayer that Allah (swt) guides and maintains me on the
right path. Many Ulama have written and expounded on the subject. Yet people
constantly fall into the welcoming hands of deceptive soothsayers in the guise of
scholars, leaving their Iman behind. As an Ummah of learning, we should ask
ourselves, where did we leave this noble heritage to find ourselves in the middle of
Jahiliyya (period of ignorance)?
I pray this book will be of help to fellow Muslims in avoiding these deceptive
distractions from the one and only path of guidance through the Qur’an and the
Sunnah of the last Prophet and Messenger of Allah (swt), Muhammad B regarding the
exclusivity of Al Ghaib to Allah (swt) alone.
The majority of people that seek out the knowledge of al Ghaib through illegal means
do so either to benefit by doing or avoiding an action and to avoid grief or anxiety.
Grief is caused by things that have happened or are happening, while anxiety is caused
by worrying about events in the future. This is where soothsayers in various garbs
cash in.
If we understand al Ghaib and its exclusive ownership by Allah (swt), we avoid all
entrapment by the assortment of fortune-tellers, soothsayers or anyone that falls into
these categories owing to their actions.
1
Introduction
• Believing that certain people possess the power to know Al Ghaib, the Unseen
Knowledge of Allah (swt). That is to say, the knowledge of future events or the
knowledge of past or present events that are naturally impossible to know due
to the person not been in attendance at the time and scene of such event.
• Using items i.e. amulets and charms that are supposed to make one more
appealing, have mental control over someone else, protect one from harm, etc.
1
Essentially these ways represent a vain attempt to escape Qadr or in
other words, fate. Ignorance leads to the belief that if one knows
what is in store for him or her tomorrow, he or she can prepare for it
today. In that way, one may avoid the bad and ensure the good. Yet,
Allah commanded His Messenger B:
3
Al Ghaib
What is Al Ghaib?
Al Ghaib: literally means a thing not seen. But this word includes vast
meanings: Belief in Allah, Angels, Holy Books, Allah’s Messengers, Day of
Resurrection and Al-Qadar (Divine Pre-ordainments). It also includes what
Allah and his Messenger B informed about the knowledge of the matters of
past, present, and future e.g., news about the creation of the heavens and earth,
botanical and zoological life, the news about the nations of the past, and about
Paradise and Hell. 1
• the knowledge of the past that has not been revealed by Allah (swt) through any
of His messengers,
• knowledge of events in the present that do not occur in the presence of the
person claiming such awareness without prior information and
3
The last is the most popular with fraudsters, as it entails potential
benefit that will supposedly accrue to the unsuspecting victim.
Allah has informed us of al Ghaib in the Qur’an in very clear commands to his
Messenger B and several examples. We learn from the beginning of Suratul Baqarah,
Allah (swt) declares:
2
Say: “None in the heavens or on earth knows the hidden
reality (al Ghaib) [of anything that exists: none knows
it] save God.” And neither can they [who are living]
perceive when they shall be raised from the dead.
Surah An Naml, 65
Say
[O
Prophet]: “I do not say unto you, ‘God’s treasures are
with me’; nor [do I say], ‘I know the things that are
beyond the reach of human perception’ (al Ghaib); nor
do I say unto you, ‘Behold, I am an angel’: I but follow
what is revealed to me.” Say: “Can the blind and the
seeing be deemed equal? Will you not, then, take
thought?”
Surah Al An am, 50
And also:
Say
[O
Prophet]: “It is not within my power to bring benefit to,
1
or avert harm from, myself, except as God may please.
And if I knew that which is beyond the reach of human
perception (al Ghaib), abundant good fortune would
surely have fallen to my lot, and no evil would ever have
touched me. I am nothing but a warner, and a herald of
glad tidings unto people who will believe.”
Surah Al A'raf, 188
The Messenger does not know the Unseen, and He cannot bring benefit or harm
even to himself.
Allah commanded His Prophet to entrust all matters to Him and to inform,
about himself, that he does not know the unseen future, but he knows of it only
what Allah informs him. Allah said in another Ayah,
(He Alone is) the All-Knower of the Ghaib (Unseen Knowledge), and He
reveals to none His Ghaib.) (Surah Al Jinn, 26) 4
The possessive pronoun “His” in the phrase ‘ala ghaybihi’ evidently indicates
God’s exclusive knowledge of “that which is beyond the perception of any
created being” (al-Ghaib)…5
Narrated Masruq:
'Aisha said, "If anyone tells you that Muhammad has seen his
Lord, he is a liar, for Allah says: 'No vision can grasp Him.'
(6.103) And if anyone tells you that Muhammad has seen the
Unseen, he is a liar, for Allah says: "None has the knowledge of
the Unseen but Allah."8
All this does not mean that Allah’s Messenger B knows al Ghaib.
Miracles and prophecies are signs of messengership; they in
themselves are not certification of partnership to the attributes of
Allah (swt). It may have occurred to some of us that some of Allah
(swt)’s other prophets are even more famous than Prophet
Muhammad B as regards miraculous feats. Prophet Musa (as) and
Isa (as) for instance. Thus if we follow this line of reasoning, the
more miracles one performs the greater he is! Of course, we know
that is not so.
3
In order to render this in perspective we need to look at the
subsequent Ayah:
Here, the Creator declares “you were not with them”, i.e. the
Messenger B was not there in relation to time nor physically when
the events related in the Ayah took place. It also defines another
facet of Al Ghaib; news of the past can also be Al Ghaib – it is not
limited to the future. Again in Surah An-Najm Ayahs 2-5:
This explicitly indicate that Allah informs his Messenger B only what
He (swt) wishes from al Ghaib.
He then said: I have come to ask you about the child. He (the
Holy Prophet) said: The reproductive substance of a man is
white and that of a woman (i.e. ovum central portion) is yellow.
When they have sexual intercourse and the male's substance
(chromosomes and genes) prevails upon the female's
substance (chromosomes and genes), it is the male child that is
created by Allah's Decree. When the substance of the female
prevails upon the substance contributed by the male, a female
child is formed by the Decree of Allah. The Jew said: What you
have said is true; verily you are an Apostle. He then turned
round and went away. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon
him) said: He asked me about such and such things of which I
had no knowledge until Allah gave it to me.14
14 Sahih Muslim, 146
3
The Prophet and Messenger of Allah has spoken the truth, with
wisdom and humility.
4
The Understanding of the Sahaba
…The Prophet had sent some people called Al-Qurra who were
seventy in number, to some pagan people who had concluded
a peace treaty with Allah's Apostle. But those who had
concluded the treaty with Allah's Apostle violated the treaty
(and martyred all the seventy men). So Allah's Apostle said Al-
Qunut after Bowing (in the prayer) for one month, invoking evil
upon them…15
Note that As-Sa'ib’s aunt asked Allah’s Apostle B to invoke Allah (swt). She did not
offer any invocation towards the Prophet B himself. The next Hadith also sheds
further light on this premise.
These Ahadith clearly indicate that when the Sahaba ask, they only
ask the Prophet B to invoke Allah (swt) on their behalf. They do not
ask from anyone for what they know is Allah (swt)’s alone to give.
Naturally, what they do ask from the Prophet B is his invocation to
Allah (swt) because of his exalted position.
3
In his tafsir to this ayah, Ibn Kathir says:
This Ayah refutes the idolators who worshipped others besides Allah and
associated the Jinns with Him in worship. Glory be to Allah above this Shirk
and Kufr. If someone asks, how did the idolators worship the Jinns, although
they only were idol worshippers The answer is that in fact, they worshipped the
idols by obeying the Jinns who commanded them to do so. Allah said in another
Ayat:
(They invoke nothing but female deities besides Him, and they invoke nothing
but Shaytān, a persistent rebel! Allāh cursed him. And he [Shaytān] said: ``I
will take an appointed portion of your servants. Verily, I will mislead them, and
surely, I will arouse in them false desires; and certainly, I will order them to slit
the ears of cattle, and indeed I will order them to change the nature created by
Allāh.'' And whoever takes Shaytān as a protector instead of Allāh, has surely
suffered a manifest loss. He [Shaytān] makes promises to them, and arouses in
them false desires; and Shaytān's promises are nothing but deceptions. 18 (An-
Nisaa, 117 – 120)
Narrated Aisha:
Some people asked the Prophet regarding the soothsayers. He
said, "They are nothing." They said, "O Allah's Apostle! Some of
their talks come true." The Prophet said, "That word which
happens to be true is what a Jinn snatches away by stealth
(from the Heaven) and pours it in the ears of his friend (the
foreteller) with a sound like the cackling of a hen. The
soothsayers then mix with that word, one hundred lies."19
Practitioners of occult arts, which claim to reveal the unseen and predict the
future, can be divided into two main categories:
1. Those who have no real knowledge or secrets but depend on telling their
customers about general incidences which happen to most people. They often
go through a series of meaningless rituals, then make calculatedly general
guesses. Some of their guesses, due to their generality, usually come true. Most
people tend to remember the few predictions that come true and quickly forget
the many which do not. This tendency is a result of the fact that after some time
all the predictions tend to become half-forgotten thoughts in the subconscious
until something happens to trigger their recall. For example, it has become a
common practice in North America to publish, at the beginning of each year the
various predictions of famous fortune-tellers. When a survey was taken of the
various predictions for the year 1980, it was found that the most accurate
fortune-teller among them was only 24% accurate in her predictions!
2. The second group are those who have made contact with the Jinn. This group
is of most importance because it usually involves the grave sin of Shirk, and
those involved often tend to be highly accurate in their information and thus
present a real Fitnah (temptations) for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike.20
We shall devote the next section to the Jinn due to the importance of
these beings as regards there association with human beings to
falsely mislead yet others into believing that a combination of Jinn
and Man can unlock the secrets of al Ghaib. May Allah (swt) protect
us from the evil of shayateen and their hosts.
The Jinn
The noun Jinn comes from the verb Janna or Yajunnu which denotes
“to cover, to hide or conceal”21. That is to say the Jinn are hidden
from our perception. While there is sufficient evidence in the Qur'an
and Sunnah for their existence, some chose not to believe in Jinns
but are quite ready to believe in the dead returning as ghosts and
poltergeists.
Both Man and Jinn were created by Allah (swt) for one purpose: to
worship Him.
The Jinn share certain qualities with man; they have intellect, the
freedom to choose from right and wrong or truth from falsehood.25
‘A company of Jinns’ indicates that the listeners from among the Jinn
became believers. An aside in the first Ayah says, “It is revealed
unto me…” indicates the Prophet B’s reliance on Allah (swt) for that
information also. Within the same Surah it is further clarified that
the Jinn can choose from right and wrong:
The Prophet set out with the intention of going to Suq 'Ukaz
(market of 'Ukaz) along with some of his companions. At the
same time, a barrier was put between the devils and the news
of heaven. Fire commenced to be thrown at them. The devils
went to their people, who asked them, "What is wrong with
you?" They said, "A barrier has been placed between us and
the news of heaven. And fire has been thrown at us." They
said, "The thing which has put a barrier between you and the
news of heaven must be something which has happened
recently. Go eastward and westward and see what has put a
barrier between you and the news of heaven."
The futile study of heavenly bodies to learn what influence they may
have on human life is called astrology. Ancient Mesopotamians,
Egyptians, and Greeks studied the regular movements they saw in
the sky.
The divisions of the zodiac are called signs because ancient astrologers assigned
descriptive names, mostly of animals, to various constellations and devised
abstract symbols to fit these names. The position of the sun in one of these 12
constellations at the moment of birth determines an individual's sun sign. 27
Mulk 67.6
The use of items like key chains and teacups that carry signs of the
Zodiac should also be avoided by Muslims. One should not
associate himself with things that clearly proclaim their origins of
kufr. There is no such thing as “harmless” shirk. Anything or
anyone that leads to associating Allah (swt) with his creations
should be rejected. Allah (swt) knows best.
29 Fiqh-us-Sunnah.
30 Sahih Muslim, 1041.
4
Fair in the eyes of men is the love of things they covet:
women and sons; heaped-up hoards of gold and silver;
horses branded (for blood and excellence); and (wealth
of) cattle and well-tilled land. Such are the possessions
of this world’s life; but in nearness to Allah is the best
of the goals (to return to).
Surah Al-i-Imran, 14
And know that your worldly goods and your children are
but a trial and a temptation, and that with Allah there is
a tremendous reward.
Surah Anfal, 28
Inasmuch as love of worldly goods and a desire to protect one’s family may
lead a person to transgression (and, thus, to a betrayal of the moral values
postulated in Allah’s message), they are described as fitnah – which, in this
context, is best rendered by the words “trial and temptation”. This reminder
connects with verse (Al Anfal 25), “beware of that temptation to evil which
does not befall only those who are bent on denying the truth,” since it is
acquisitiveness and a desire to confer benefits on one’s family which often
tempt an otherwise good person to offend against the rights of his fellow-men.
It is to be borne in mind that, contrary to the New Testament, the Qur’an does
not postulate a contempt for worldly attachments as apre-requisite of
righteousness: it only demands of man that he should not allow these
attachments to deflect him from the pursuit of moral verities.31
With total disregard for these Ayahs, many Muslims resort to what
they consider a mubah (allowed) tradition, of seeking out charms
and methods of gaining the favour of their husbands, employers, etc
by magical or supernatural means. This is haram.
The use of amulets and charms with the excuse that “it is for a good
cause” is also prohibited.
There are women that go from house to house, selling soaps, local
perfumes and other paraphernalia. It is within these items that you
find charms & amulets sold to wives with audacity. Several items
will come with instructions as to time of application, concealment of
charms in victims vicinity, incantations of doubtful origin and so on.
These all fall into the category we have already mentioned: the most
heinous of sins, i.e. shirk. So husbands beware! For Allah, Most
Merciful has rendered the responsibility of wives and children
squarely on your shoulders, and surely you will account for them:
Abdullah narrated:
It will not be fair to categorize all the activities of people that sell
local medication as haram; some items, like herbs that aid in normal
medical treatments are allowed in Islam, as long as they are not
associated with anything that fall into the categories of shirk.
Though it is crucial to consider the Prophet’s B Hadith narrated by
An Numan bin Bashir:
I heard Allah's Apostle saying, 'Both legal and illegal things are
evident but in between them there are doubtful (suspicious)
things and most of the people have no knowledge about them.
So whoever saves himself from these suspicious things saves
his religion and his honor. And whoever indulges in these
suspicious things is like a shepherd who grazes (his animals)
near the Hima (private pasture) of someone else and at any
moment he is liable to get in it. (O people!) Beware! Every king
has a Hima and the Hima of Allah on the earth is His illegal
(forbidden) things. Beware! There is a piece of flesh in the body
if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good
but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the
heart. 35
Qadr, or Divine Decree of Allah (swt), is a subject that has been interpreted by many
in various ways. We shall continue to try to stay with evidence from Qur’an and
Sunnah.
Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) said: The first thing which Allah created was
the Pen. He commanded it to write. It asked: What should I write? He said: Write the
Decree (al-Qadr). So it wrote what had happened and what was going to happen up to
eternity. 36
The first principle which Islam lays down in regard to Taqdir (derived from Qadr,
Divine Decree/Destiny) is that man is neither completely the master of his fate nor is
he bound to the blind law of predestination. So far as the sovereignty of Allah's Will is
concerned, it is all-pervading and nothing falls outside its orbit. Not even a leaf,
therefore, stirs without His Will:
For, with Him are the keys to the things that are beyond the reach of a created
being’s perception: none knows them but He. And He knows all that is on land
and in the sea; and not a leaf falls but He knows it; and neither is there a grain
in the earth’s deep darkness, nor anything living or dead, but is recorded in
[His] clear decree.
Suratul An’am Ayah 59
If they were truly rightly guided they would know that we have been commanded to
be contented with Al-Qadr (the Measure of Allah) and be patient with its injunction
only in the calamities which afflict us such as poverty, sickness, and fear. Allah
Ta'aala said:
No calamity can occur but with the leave of Allah, and whosoever believes in Allah,
He guides his heart (aright). [At-Taghaabun:11]
Some of the righteous predecessors said about this: "It is the man who was afflicted
with a calamity, but he knows it is from Allah (AWJ) and therefore contentedly
accepted it."
Allah Ta'aala said:
No misfortune can happen on earth or in yourselves but it is recorded in a Scripture
before We bring it forth into existence. Verily, that is easy for Allah. In order that you
may not be sad over matters that you fail to get, nor rejoice because of that which has
been given to you. [Al-Hadeed:22-23] 37
His mighty grasp is, therefore, over everything. The Almighty Lord, Who has created
everything and has determined its nature and course, has in His infinite wisdom and
mercy conferred upon man a limited autonomy according to which a man is free to do
or not to do a certain thing. It is because of this autonomy enjoyed by man that he is
36 Transmitted by Ahmad and Tirmidhi, also in Al – Aqeedat-il-Wasitiyah by Ibn Taimiyah.
37 Al Uboodiyyah, Ibn Taimiyyah.
6
held accountable for his deeds. The concept of human responsibility and that of his
answerability for his deeds and misdeeds becomes meaningless if he is supposed to be
deprived of this autonomy. There are a large number of verses in the Holy Qur'an
which make a pointed reference to the autonomy conferred upon man.
Man shall have nothing but that what he strives for (liii. 39).
Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (viii.
53; xiii. 11).
Those who strive in His path, are guided in the right path, while those who persist in
denial and sinful living have their hearts sealed against faith (ii. 7, 26; iv. 155; v;. i.
102).
Allah does not compel belief and leaves the people free to believe or disbelieve (vi.
35, 150; xvi-. 9).
Whoever has done an atom's weight of good shall meet with its reward and whoever
has done an atom's weight of evil shall meet with its consequences (xcix. 7-8).
Ali (ra) reported: We were in a funeral in the graveyard of Gharqad that Allah's
Messenger (may peace be upon him) came to us and we sat around him. He had
a stick with him. He lowered his head and began to scratch the earth with his
stick, and then said: There is not one amongst you whom a seat in Paradise or
Hell has not been allotted and about whom it has not been written down
whether he would be an evil person or a blessed person. A person said: Allah's
Messenger, should we not then depend upon our destiny and abandon our
deeds? Thereupon he said: Acts of everyone will be facilitated in, that which
has been created for him so that whoever belongs to the company of the blessed
will have good works made easier for him and whoever belongs to the
unfortunate ones will have evil acts made easier for him. He then recited this
verse (from the Qur'an):" Then, who gives to the needy and guards against evil
and accepts the excellent (the truth of Islam and the path of righteousness it
prescribes), We shall make easy for him the easy end and who is miserly and
considers himself above need, We shall make easy for him the difficult end".
(Suratul – al-Lail, 5-10).38
It is narrated on the authority of Yahya ibn Ya'mar that the first man who
discussed Qadr (Divine Decree) in Basrah was Ma'bad al-Juhani. Humayd ibn
AbdurRahman al-Himyari and I set out for Pilgrimage or for Umrah and said:
Should it so happen that we come into contact with one of the Companions of
the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) we shall ask him about what is
talked about Taqdir (Division Decree).
Accidentally we came across Abdullah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab, while he was
entering the mosque. My companion and I surrounded him. One of us (stood)
on his right and the other stood on his left. I expected that my companion would
authorize me to speak. I therefore said: AbuAbdurRahman! There have
appeared some people in our land who recite the Holy Qur'an and pursue
38 Sahih Muslim, Kitab ul Qadr (http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muslim/smtintro.html)
2
knowledge. And then after talking about their affairs, added: They (such
people) claim that there is no such thing as Divine Decree and events are not
predestined.
He (Abdullah ibn Umar) said: When you happen to meet such people tell them
that I have nothing to do with them and they have nothing to do with me. And
verily they are in no way responsible for my (belief). Abdullah ibn Umar swore
by Him (the Lord) (and said): If any one of them (who does not believe in the
Divine Decree) had with him gold equal to the bulk of (the mountain) Uhud and
then spent it (in the way of Allah), Allah would not accept it unless he affirmed
his faith in Divine Decree. He further said: My father, Umar ibn al-Khattab,
told me: One day we were sitting in the company of Allah's Apostle (peace be
upon him) when there appeared before us a man dressed in pure white clothes,
his hair extraordinarily black. There were no signs of travel on him. None
amongst us recognized him. At last he sat with the Apostle (peace be upon him)
He knelt before him placed his palms on his thighs and said: “Muhammad,
inform me about al-Islam.”
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: “Al-Islam implies that you
testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of
Allah, and you establish prayer, pay Zakat, observe the fast of Ramadan, and
perform pilgrimage to the (House) if you are solvent enough (to bear the
expense of) the journey. He (the inquirer) said: You have told the truth. He
(Umar ibn al-Khattab) said: It amazed us that he would put the question and
then he would himself verify the truth. He (the inquirer) said: Inform me about
Iman (faith). He (the Holy Prophet) replied: That you affirm your faith in Allah,
in His angels, in His Books, in His Apostles, in the Day of Judgment, and you
affirm your faith in the Divine Decree about good and evil. He (the inquirer)
said: You have told the truth. He (the inquirer) again said: Inform me about al-
Ihsan (performance of good deeds). He (the Holy Prophet) said: That you
worship Allah as if you are seeing Him, for though you don't see Him, He,
verily, sees you. He (the enquirer) again said: Inform me about the hour (of the
Doom). He (the Holy Prophet) remarked: One who is asked knows no more
than the one who is inquiring (about it). He (the inquirer) said: Tell me some of
its indications. He (the Holy Prophet) said: That the slave-girl will give birth to
her mistress and master, that you will find barefooted, destitute goat-herds
vying with one another in the construction of magnificent buildings. He (the
narrator, Umar ibn al-Khattab) said: Then he (the inquirer) went on his way but
I stayed with him (the Holy Prophet) for a long while. He then, said to me:
Umar, do you know who this inquirer was? I replied: Allah and His Apostle
knows best. He (the Holy Prophet) remarked: He was Gabriel (the angel). He
came to you in order to instruct you in matters of religion.39
The Hadith informs us that one’s Iman is not complete until he believes in six things
as outlined and which include belief in Qadr (Destiny/Divine Decree). We have to
understand that voicing out belief in something is negated by acting out it’s opposite.
39 Sahih Muslim, 1218.
3
For instance, one does not believe in Qadr if he tries to change its outcome by visiting
a fortune-teller.
4
Du’a: The Solution to the Unknown
Allah (swt) did not leave us with a paucity of methods for asking for
His protection, provision and guidance. This is provided through the
Qur'an al Karim and explained and practiced by the Prophet of Islam
B in his Sunnah. Allah (swt) declares:
Allah (swt) has set conditions for His acceptance of the du’a
(supplication) of his servants:42
Sincerity in supplication
Ahmad records that Abu Sa'id reported that the Prophet, peace
be upon him, said, "Any Muslim who makes a supplication
containing nothing that is sinful and nothing that involves
breaking ties of blood relationships, will be given for it by Allah
one of these three things: He may accept his request, or assign
its reward for him in the next world, or turn away from him an
equivalent amount of evil." Those who heard it said, "We
would, then, make many supplications." The Prophet, peace be
upon him, replied, "Allah is more than ready to answer what
you ask."45
Do not be impatient
Du’a -al-Istikhara
Allah (swt), has not left us to our own designs, which will always fall
either short or be completely off-course – which is usually the case.
Through our beloved Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him, the Almighty bestowed du’a al-Istikhara for our
requirements concerning choices of the unknown. Choices ranging
from marriage partners to jobs fall into the domain for performing al-
Istikhara. Since only Allah (swt) knows what is best for us, it is only
natural to pray to Him for the right choice in matters of selection.
Matters for what we usually become anxious and desirous for there
resolution are usually of al Ghaib substance.
Qatadah said:
"Every people who seek the pleasure of Allah and consult with one another are
guided to the best course in their affairs."
Ibn Taimiyyah said, "He who seeks guidance from the Creator and consults the
creatures (other people) will never regret it."46
46 Fiqh-us-Sunnah.
3
Al-Istikhara is a most comprehensive du’a as narrated by Jabir bin
Abdullah that the Messenger of Allah used to teach the Sahaba as
he taught them the Ayahs of the Qur’an47. Please note the
association of Istikhara and the Qur’an in this Hadith. This shows
the importance the Messenger of Allah (swt) attaches to Du’a-Il-
Istikhara.
He said: 'If one of you is deliberating over an act, he should pray two non-
obligatory rak'at and say:
"O Allah, I consult You as You are All-Knowing and I appeal to You to give
me power as You are Omnipotent, I ask You for Your great favour, for You
have power and I do not, and You know all of the hidden matters. O Allah! If
you know that this matter (then he should mention it) is good for me in my
religion, my livelihood, and for my life in the Hereafter, (or he said: 'for my
present and future life,') then make it (easy) for me. And if you know that this
matter is not good for me in my religion, my livelihood and my life in the
Hereafter, (or he said: 'for my present and future life,') then keep it away from
me and take me away from it and choose what is good for me wherever it is and
please me with it."
An-Nawawi holds that "after performing the istikharah, a person must do what
he is wholeheartedly inclined to do and feels good about doing and should not
insist on doing what he had desired to do before making the istikharah. And if
his feelings change, he should leave what he had intended to do, otherwise he is
not completely leaving the choice to Allah, and would not be honest in seeking
47 Sahih Bukhari 2.263.
3
aid from Allah's power and knowledge. Sincerity in seeking Allah's choice,
means that one should completely leave what he himself had desired or
determined.”48
Al-Istikhara
48 Fiqh-us-Sunnah
4
In Bukhari’s words, Anas relates:
The Qur’an informs us that the Almighty did not put us on earth as
mere sport – we are here for a purpose: to worship Him.
4
We are not put on earth for entertaining Allah (swt), He has no need
for being entertained. Note the word need. To connote need by
Allah (swt) is to suggest a deficiency on His part, may He protect us
from this unwholesome thought!
Know that those that attribute the opposite to the declarations in the
Ayahs above are the disbelievers as mentioned in Surah Sad:
We have not created the heaven and the earth and all
that lies between them in vain. That is the fancy of the
unbelievers. Such disbelievers should be aware of the
hellfire.
Surah Sad, 27
Temporal World
50 Yusuf Ali.
2
○ And those who, when they commit an immorality or
wrong themselves [by transgression], remember Allah
and seek forgiveness for their sins - and who can
forgive sins except Allah? - and [who] do not persist
in what they have done while they know.
○ Those - their reward is forgiveness from their Lord
and gardens beneath which rivers flow [in Paradise],
wherein they will abide eternally; and excellent is the
reward of the [righteous] workers.51
Surah Ali Imran, 133-136
In conclusion, one should avoid anyone that claims the ability to see
into the future, or the past. Avoid those that claim ability to know of
things that are otherwise naturally hidden from them that is without
any scientific or other proven method. For example if someone in
New York declares: “your brother is having tea while reading the
evening paper in his pyjamas, in London right now” without recourse
to a telephone or any tangible evidence of similar facility for
communicating over such large distances, then that should not be
accepted, even if it turns out to be true. Al-Ghaib is Allah’s (swt)
reserve.
May Allah (SWT) guide us away from hellfire towards his mercy and
Jannah.
51 Saheeh International.
1
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