The Concept of Istikharah | Sheikh Mahdi Rastani

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Ashura 2022 | English Program | Night 9

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[0:12]foreign was i foreign foreign for the love of our beloved prophet

[2:07]and his beloved progeny please recite a second loud salawat for the

[2:16]hastening in the return of our beloved 12th imam a third final

[2:21]loud the topic that we'll be discussing tonight inshaallah is the topic

[2:29]revolving around the practice of al-istikhara if you had told me maybe

[2:36]5 6 10 15 years ago when i was studying in the

[2:39]hausa that there would come a day where we would have to

[2:42]discuss this topic on these special nights that we are going through

[2:45]i might have laughed it off i might have said you know

[2:49]this is a topic that doesn't affect too many people it's not

[2:51]too much of a serious issue but when you look into our

[2:55]communities you find that this topic of istikhara is becoming more and

[2:58]more prevalent and more misunderstandings with regards to it are also becoming

[3:03]more prevalent it is a practice that we go towards when we

[3:05]are in difficult situations when we are in situations where we don't

[3:11]know what the best decision is to make you find yourself in

[3:14]a position where you want to for example go ahead with a

[3:16]marriage this is a place where you might find that many will

[3:19]start anestheta or will perform in istakhara you might find yourself in

[3:24]a situation where you want to choose a field you want to

[3:28]study in college there are many who might do is situations maybe

[3:31]you want to make an investment maybe you want to start a

[3:36]business there's a ton of different situations where you'll find different individuals

[3:39]will then try to incorporate the practice of istakhara and try to

[3:45]seek some guidance from allah subhanahu wa ta'ala i'm stuck i don't

[3:48]know what to do i don't know if i'm supposed to go

[3:50]left i don't know if i'm supposed to go right and hence

[3:53]this person might perform is tahara and the other reason why it's

[3:56]important to discuss this topic is because we'll also discuss it from

[4:02]a more broad and general perspective of just understanding how we can

[4:06]bring more hair into our life so if you're not in this

[4:08]position of starting a business or marriage or college or wanting to

[4:12]have children or not this topic will still relate to you in

[4:15]its own ways because there are fundamental principles islamic principles that we

[4:20]will discuss as we go through this topic of istakhara how can

[4:24]i bring more into my life what is allah expect from me

[4:29]to do for him to make my life a blessed life these

[4:33]are general principles that we will also discuss as well we might

[4:36]find ourselves in situations where we don't know the outcome of a

[4:41]particular decision because we don't know the outcome of this particular decision

[4:45]we turn to this this is a reality of life many times

[4:49]when you're younger you might assume you know the outcomes of many

[4:52]things when you're younger and you have less experience in life you

[4:57]might think for example that you know this person that you're spending

[5:00]time with you might think that you know your friend very well

[5:02]but you speak to people who have more experience in life you

[5:06]realize that no there are many times there are people who have

[5:09]friends these friends god forbid they might break your trust they might

[5:12]not have the loyalty that you assumed when you're younger you reach

[5:18]certainty and japin very quickly things look very black and white to

[5:23]you so this person is the person i want to marry his

[5:24]person is my soul mate if i marry this person it's going

[5:27]to be perfect you ask someone with more experience in life they'll

[5:30]tell you listen you can't be that sure you can't be that

[5:33]certain about things yes the reality is there are many things in

[5:37]life that we are not sure about we are not certain about

[5:39]and in order to solve this problem many of us might turn

[5:44]towards this uh this practice of al-ist but what is istakhara what

[5:49]does it even mean when am i supposed to do it when

[5:52]am i not supposed to do it what are the situations that

[5:54]ah taught us to go towards istakhara if a marriage proposal has

[5:58]been brought to me is this a place to do is tahara

[6:01]is it not a place to do istakhara there are many questions

[6:05]that can be brought up with regards to this practice and therefore

[6:08]tonight we want to take some time to delve into this topic

[6:10]by posing the following questions number one what is the literal meaning

[6:17]of the word number two can istakhara tell me what lies ahead

[6:20]of me in my future if i do istakhara for a marriage

[6:25]and this sahara turns out well if i do is to figure

[6:28]out which school i should attend and the isahada turns out well

[6:32]does this mean that if i go to this college the outcome

[6:36]will be exactly what i predicted it was going to be or

[6:41]does istakhara not tell me that at all number three why was

[6:43]the mother of maryam hannah why was she so sad when allah

[6:48]let her know and when she saw that the child that she

[6:52]had brought into this world was not in fact a boy it

[6:57]was a girl and how did allah show her that so much

[7:01]hair lied in the fact that she had given birth to a

[7:04]girl versus a boy number four when should i even do istikhara

[7:10]and when is my isahara not even valid number five what are

[7:14]the different forms of istikhara is there one way or are there

[7:16]a multitude of different ways to perform istakhara number six can i

[7:22]do is multiple times for the same issue if it doesn't turn

[7:24]out to be the result that i was looking for or not

[7:29]and number seven and finally what is the best way to bring

[7:31]into my day-to-day life with these inshallah we'll delve into these seven

[7:36]questions let us begin from here is literally means when you ask

[7:50]for something that is good this is the literal meaning of istikhara

[7:53]and as we'll mention is should be a very prevalent practice in

[7:57]our life not the israel that we commonly know of that's a

[8:02]separate thing this is the literal meaning of meaning i'm constantly asking

[8:08]allah for good things in my life this is a form of

[8:09]dura is there any limitation on dura in islam definitely not in

[8:15]islam the more you ask the better it is but as a

[8:19]term as an istala is not just used when you ask allah

[8:24]for good things it's used for those situations where you have two

[8:27]options in front of you and you want to choose between these

[8:31]two options you can't figure out which one of them is better

[8:33]for you this is what they call a form of and the

[8:39]reality is as we go through life there are many decisions and

[8:44]then many situations in our lives where we don't know the outcome

[8:47]of things how they're going to turn out you might choose a

[8:48]particular career path for yourself you don't know if this career path

[8:53]is actually going to work out the way that you want it

[8:56]to work out you might want to marry someone you don't know

[8:59]is this person going to be the right person for me are

[9:02]they not going to be the right person for me you have

[9:04]doubts you might have questions and these are all valid these are

[9:08]all natural in fact if someone goes through a marriage and has

[9:11]no doubts about the person that they're married this shows they don't

[9:15]have much experience in life because the reality is you can never

[9:18]know who you've married until after you marry them if what you're

[9:21]looking for is knowing them 110 so we all find ourselves in

[9:27]these positions where we don't know which one we're supposed to choose

[9:29]and the more serious the decision is the more difficult it's very

[9:35]difficult that's why you'll find sometimes people in life they're very undecisive

[9:38]they can't even make decisions say but what if i'm supposed to

[9:43]go this but what if this one is the right but what

[9:44]if that one is the right one it's difficult this idea of

[9:48]not knowing what my future holds is innate to the human being

[9:52]and it bothers the human being a lot of times it's a

[9:54]source of anxiety for the human being you sit there and say

[9:58]if only allah would have told me what the right decision is

[10:01]if only allah would have told me which way i'm supposed to

[10:04]go i'll go through it it's not a problem i just want

[10:07]him to tell me which way i'm supposed to go this is

[10:09]a valid reason but we as human beings we are ignorant we

[10:12]don't know what the future holds for us so much so that

[10:16]in the verses of the quran even the prophet of allah when

[10:19]he's asked of certain things he says listen i don't know these

[10:25]things when the jewish people used to come to the prophet and

[10:27]ask the prophet ya rasulullah when is the when is the day

[10:29]of judgment going to show up give us a time he said

[10:35]i don't know this was part of the trick of the jews

[10:39]of that time they said we'll ask this muhammad this question if

[10:43]he gives us a time we'll tell him that was the wrong

[10:45]answer musa said no one knows the answer to this question if

[10:48]he doesn't give us an answer to the question and he says

[10:51]i don't know we'll say okay what kind of prophet are you

[10:53]you don't even know the answer to this question this is part

[10:57]of their tricks but nonetheless the prophet said i don't know and

[11:00]then the verses of the quran continue this is 1 verse 188

[11:04]from surah al-araf he said this is the part that relates to

[11:14]us he said listen i don't hold any benefits for myself i

[11:17]don't have this ultimate knowledge it's in the hands of allah sometimes

[11:22]things go my way sometimes things don't go my way allah the

[11:32]prophet says if i had the full knowledge of the unseen i

[11:39]would have chosen the best options at all time meaning the best

[11:44]options in terms of outcome and this has opened a discussion among

[11:46]scholars that we're not going to get into and that is this

[11:50]what is the extent of the knowledge of the prophet does he

[11:52]know everything at all times does he know some things when allah

[11:57]wants to teach him from does he have some resource or book

[12:02]that he refers to that he can know whenever he decides there

[12:05]is a multitude of different opinions amongst islamic theologians as it relates

[12:10]to the knowledge of the prophet and by extension the bait and

[12:13]the imam of our time as to do they know everything at

[12:18]all times or do they pick and choose or is this in

[12:20]the hands of allah nonetheless the verse of the quran is saying

[12:25]listen if i had knowledge of everything i would have chosen of

[12:27]course the best things for myself at all times if i knew

[12:31]going on this trip is going to lead to this problem of

[12:32]course i choose not to go on this trip this is how

[12:35]the human being is this is how you and i are if

[12:38]we had full knowledge we would always choose the things that have

[12:40]the best outcomes for ourselves we would never go through any difficulty

[12:44]in life if we had that knowledge the problem is you and

[12:48]i don't have that knowledge we're stuck a lot of times we're

[12:54]stuck and so in order to solve this problem then you say

[12:56]you know what i've heard of this concept known as istikhara let's

[13:00]do this so that we can know if i go down this

[13:03]road what will the outcome be how will things turn out if

[13:08]i go down this road so how do you know i did

[13:12]is the came well that means i'm supposed to go down this

[13:16]road and many think that when they do it this is a

[13:19]window into the future for them they assume that if they do

[13:25]a sahara they can tell what's going to happen in the future

[13:28]and that is not what a sukhara is at all so what

[13:33]is this is what allah wants me to do yes which road

[13:39]he wants me to take but he's not guaranteeing that the road

[13:43]that he tells you to take is it going to be a

[13:44]smooth ride or is it going to be an extremely bumpy ride

[13:49]doesn't tell you that no one can tell you that it's a

[13:54]difficulty of life he's not going to tell you if you go

[13:57]down this road will the outcome be the thing you wanted or

[14:02]it's going to be the exact opposite of it sorry i can't

[14:07]tell you that so what can you tell me allah tells you

[14:10]which one is better for you at the end of the day

[14:13]but better for you what does that mean does it mean it's

[14:16]going to be easy no not necessarily this is difficult there were

[14:20]times in history allah would order the muslims to do something you

[14:23]have to do this and then the outcome from a worldly perspective

[14:28]was not the best outcome at all there are times where allah

[14:34]choose something for someone it would turn out better than what they

[14:37]thought it can go either way the prophet he turned to zainab

[14:43]said zainab you have to marry zayd zade was this young man

[14:49]that had come into the house of the prophet from a very

[14:51]young age the prophet had freed him at a young age but

[14:56]he himself decided to stay with the prophet when the father of

[14:58]zade came to visit him and he said zade you can come

[15:02]back with us he said no i want to stay with muhammad

[15:04]this is how much he had loved being with the prophet in

[15:08]the household of the prophet zaid ali ibn abi talib these were

[15:11]individuals that the prophet raised in his own household so allah subhanahu

[15:17]wa sent this command to the prophet that zainab needs to marry

[15:20]zade it's a command from allah how rare is a command like

[15:25]this that a marriage is ordained by allah if it ever happens

[15:28]this was one of the rare incidents where this happened the command

[15:33]came they came and told zainab they said there is a marriage

[15:39]proposal and because the person coming was on behalf of the prophet

[15:42]she initially said yes because her assumption was that the prophet himself

[15:46]is making this proposal he said yes then she found out no

[15:52]it's not for the prophet it's for zayd the one who the

[15:56]prophet has raised then she said no i don't no and in

[16:01]this particular way of course this rarely happens allah had ordained for

[16:04]it to happen it commanded for it to happen and allah revealed

[16:10]the verses of the quran he said when we decide something when

[16:18]allah decides something here they don't get to choose anymore this is

[16:25]one we have ordained we have commanded it okay so zainab finally

[16:32]went through with this now this thing that allah told her you

[16:36]have to go through with it and it has to happen and

[16:40]it's ordained and allah yes forget about islam verses of quran will

[16:45]reveal to tell her she has to do this so there's no

[16:49]doubt this is the road allah wants her to go down did

[16:52]it go so smoothly no before you know it zainab and zaid

[17:00]were having issues and the quran says the prophet used to tell

[17:02]zade you have to be able to control your marriage you have

[17:07]to be able to be nice with your wife yes be fearful

[17:11]of god they didn't do this at the end of the day

[17:13]at the end of the day what happened they divorced from one

[17:17]another see but i thought allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted this yes

[17:21]allah wanted this but when he wants something for you or for

[17:24]me it doesn't mean that road is not going to be a

[17:28]bumpy road it's difficult pill to swallow but this is the reality

[17:31]of how things are sometimes it's like this sometimes you know the

[17:36]thing that allah decides for you is going to be much much

[17:41]better than even you can imagine it can go either ways when

[17:46]did this happen where a person had something in mind recitation please

[17:56]one more salah please where did this happen where a person allah

[18:15]told that you have to go down this road allah chose an

[18:20]option for them and they thought you know what this is not

[18:23]what i want in other words they thought their is not in

[18:29]this but then allah subhanahu ta'ala showed them listen you have no

[18:32]idea what your hair lies in you have no idea where your

[18:34]hair is who was this this was the mother of maryam the

[18:40]story of the mother of maryam is a very interesting one her

[18:44]name was hannah khanna when she wanted to give birth of course

[18:47]she was person of faith so before she even gave birth to

[18:52]this child her thought process was that i'm going to devote my

[18:56]child to the temple i'm not going to tell this child to

[19:01]work for us i'm not going to tell this child to come

[19:02]and you know take care of our affairs when you had a

[19:05]child back in the day this is what the child was helping

[19:07]out with yes with the affairs in the household she said i

[19:11]am going to devote my child to the temple he's going to

[19:14]go worship it's not going to do anything else and of course

[19:18]in order for this child to be one to be able to

[19:22]serve in the temple he has to be what he has to

[19:26]be a male has to be a boy these are the rules

[19:31]of the jewish temple so she goes into this birth with this

[19:37]idea and before the birth even starts to initiate what does she

[19:41]say he says i have devoted my son to you i hope

[19:44]that you accept this from me it's a very religious moment it's

[19:48]a very spiritual moment yes she's devoting her son to allah okay

[19:54]so what happened then the mother of maryam went into the birth

[19:58]and then all of a sudden they say no this is a

[20:03]girl and what did the mother of maryam say in those moments

[20:09]when she gave birth she said i was hoping this would be

[20:21]a boy but she turned out to be what she turned out

[20:24]to be a girl what does allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say very

[20:33]beautiful lines she was thinking like this but we knew better what

[20:42]she had given birth to we know what the outcome of this

[20:47]child is going to be you have your personal preference great you

[20:51]want to devote your child to the temple you want your child

[20:55]to do this to do that great it's wonderful you have these

[20:58]great intentions we know better how to guide you we will do

[21:04]something your child forget about just serving in the temple she will

[21:09]do much bigger things than that this is the road allah chose

[21:14]for the mother of maryam and then the quran says the quran

[21:21]says the boy will never be like the girl we had something

[21:27]better in mind for you so what happened this same daughter that

[21:33]the mother of maryam when she was born was a bit sad

[21:37]now of course i have to mention this point here before i

[21:40]move on this preference that the mother of maryam has this is

[21:43]very different from the preferences you know nowadays we have sometimes in

[21:47]our cultures it's still still remaining there yes oh i want a

[21:49]boy i want this i want that mother of maryam wanted a

[21:54]boy not because of her personal preference because she wants to prefer

[21:58]male over female no it wasn't because of this it's because she

[22:00]had a religious you know devotion in mind that's why she was

[22:04]looking for this boy and beyond that when allah gave her the

[22:08]girl what happened did she sit there and say oh this isn't

[22:12]what i wanted no then she took maryam she raised maryam to

[22:16]be who maryam was you and i can have our preferences someone

[22:18]says i want a boy someone says i want a girl but

[22:21]when allah blesses you end of discussion yes then you take the

[22:24]blessing of allah because this little one that you're holding in your

[22:31]hands right now is the same one allah said when allah chooses

[22:36]for you before you might have your preferences no problem we all

[22:40]have our preferences there's no problem but when he chooses for you

[22:42]it's done nonetheless the quran says the same maryam that the mother

[22:49]of maryam thought you know what she's never even going to make

[22:53]it into the temple allah made it such that maryam was so

[22:57]much sought after there was a fight over who's going to take

[23:02]over her custody in the temple and the quran says you weren't

[23:11]there you weren't there when those moments came where maryam was in

[23:20]so much demand that they were fighting over who's gonna have her

[23:25]custody in the temple this is what we did and this mother

[23:30]of maryam had in mind if i have a boy i want

[23:34]this boy to be devoted to the temple to worship in the

[23:35]temple not only did her child not only did her daughter end

[23:40]up serving in the temple worshiping in the temple number one not

[23:44]did not only did she break some of the false norms of

[23:49]society at that time that did not allow for the women to

[23:51]enter number two she gave birth to someone who became a savior

[23:56]for that ummah you don't know where your hair lies maryam had

[24:03]the best of intentions and allah says scratch that i have something

[24:06]better in mind does it always turn out as great as what

[24:10]happened with the daughter of the mother of maryam no not necessarily

[24:17]you know sometimes you see these uh inspirational quotes people put out

[24:21]your best days are always to come tomorrow will always be better

[24:27]than yesterday maybe maybe not we don't know but that doesn't mean

[24:30]you don't you lose hope you rely on allah yes many times

[24:32]this verse of surat is translated they translated they said that means

[24:39]tomorrow is going to be better than today your best days are

[24:43]to come no better than the dunya not that tomorrow is definitely

[24:50]going to be a better day we don't know might be better

[24:51]might be ten times better or maybe not it's all in the

[24:57]hands of allah in the marriage of zainab and zayd allah and

[25:01]it turned out the way that it turned out in the daughter

[25:04]of the mother of maryam the daughter of hannah he was the

[25:06]one who ordained it and it turned out better than any of

[25:11]them could imagine that is exactly the point we don't know and

[25:13]when we perform istakhara is tahara cannot tell us what the future

[25:18]holds for us is sahara can simply tell us am i supposed

[25:20]to go left or am i supposed to go right is left

[25:22]a bumpy road or is it a smooth road this is not

[25:27]something that is say okay fine i'm in a position now i

[25:36]don't even want to know the future i just want to know

[25:38]which way i'm supposed to go so can i do this and

[25:42]what are the different ways of doing a sahara great the first

[25:47]and most solid and most encouraged form of istikhara is that form

[25:51]of istikhara that is a form of dura you constantly raise your

[25:56]hand and say oh allah i'm stuck i don't know in fact

[25:59]it's not even limited to situations when you're stuck because even when

[26:04]situations where you're sure of the outcome technically you're not sure you

[26:09]got in your car today yes i got in my car was

[26:15]i sure nothing terrible was gonna happen on my way no the

[26:17]debate teaches even when you're sure raise your hands and say oh

[26:21]allah put hair even when you're sure what does that tell you

[26:25]about the knowledge of the human means we know nothing it means

[26:29]we know nothing about anything we can't tell what the outcomes are

[26:33]the first form of istikhara is i raise my hands i say

[26:37]oh i'll put in whatever i do even if i know which

[26:41]way i want to go i still ask allah subhanahu wa and

[26:44]the number of narrations that we have on this form of istikhara

[26:49]is many there are many because it's a form of durable and

[26:53]who did this dura and allah subhanahu ta'ala blessed him in a

[26:57]way that you and i could not have even expected musa when

[27:02]musa had left the people of firaoun he was on his way

[27:05]out in many ways he was homeless he had no where to

[27:10]go he goes back to egypt they'll tell him they'll kill him

[27:13]because he had killed one from the other side so he's homeless

[27:18]he has no shelter he's nowhere to go what did he do

[27:22]he came across the well the famous story when he came across

[27:25]the well all he knew he had to do was i should

[27:28]help these two women i don't know where i'm gonna sleep tonight

[27:31]i don't know where i'm gonna get food i don't know anything

[27:34]i just know i'm supposed to help them if they need help

[27:37]i'm going to help them and he did that and the quran

[27:42]says he helped them with the water so what did he do

[27:48]then then he went to sit in the shade and he raised

[27:53]his hand and said i need your hair put hair in what

[28:02]i do from this dura musa went from homeless no shelter to

[28:05]what a person who has shelter he has a family he has

[28:08]a job then he's going to go be chosen as a prophet

[28:13]because he said allah this is this is the first form of

[28:16]istakhara that by the way many of us have disregarded and ignored

[28:23]altogether constantly constantly raise your hands oh allah put hate in it

[28:26]but i'm sure i'm not even in doubt i know i'm supposed

[28:29]to get in my car to go to my job still you

[28:32]say oh look this is not for situations where you don't know

[28:34]even when you know this form of istakhara you're supposed to do

[28:40]it this is the first form of islam okay no it's not

[28:42]that type of a situation i want to figure out which path

[28:48]i'm supposed to take can i do a sahara in these positions

[28:50]okay the first condition when i want to do is figure out

[28:55]which way i'm supposed to go is well listen first of all

[28:59]you have to see if allah has already told you which of

[29:01]these paths is wrong you can't do is when one of the

[29:07]options is haram when one of the options is haram that's kind

[29:10]of a little bit of a sign that god maybe doesn't want

[29:15]you to do this i don't know if we should have a

[29:19]mixed wedding or not let's ask allah sometimes it's not even haram

[29:27]on one side sometimes one option it goes against the general values

[29:32]in islam i don't know if i should take this job but

[29:34]i know that if i take this job i'm not going to

[29:38]be able to spend much time with my family with my children

[29:41]with this with that sometimes it's okay sometimes no i want to

[29:45]raise these kids i want to help i want to be in

[29:49]the family mother father they both have their roles so i'm going

[29:54]to take this job but this job if i take it my

[30:00]teenager will see me once a month this is against the general

[30:04]direction that islam wants you to move in it's not haram per

[30:07]se but this is not what islam wants for your family your

[30:10]family wants the mother the father they both have roles they have

[30:13]to be present in the household take a look at the statistics

[30:17]single-parent households what the outcome of it is like yes may allah

[30:23]bless our single parents who try their best but it's difficult it's

[30:28]not easy so this is not haram but allah obviously doesn't want

[30:33]you to go down this road so this is number one i

[30:37]can't be choosing for those options where it's not allowed and in

[30:39]order to know what's not allowed and what is allowed i have

[30:40]to learn these rulings i can't just guess this is number one

[30:45]number two you have to sit down and think about it you

[30:48]have to put some thought into it that's number two moving on

[30:53]you say i thought about it i'm still not sure number three

[30:55]you have to consult others on this you have to do your

[31:00]due diligence is the last option last option you consult others how

[31:07]many times did the prophet consult people left and right the prophet

[31:11]was consulting and there is a discussion in islamic theology when the

[31:15]prophet was consulting others did he know which option to choose and

[31:19]he was still consulting people or no in that moment allah had

[31:24]left it to him to decide which one there's a long discussion

[31:26]on this why is there such a disc because he was consulting

[31:29]people so much battle of badr let's consult battle of let's consult

[31:35]this battle let's consult battle of ah [Music] the trench let's discuss

[31:43]they sat down they discussed salman gave this idea it was such

[31:48]a great idea the mushrikeen of quraysh when they were heading out

[31:51]not just the mushroom of quraish the whole all of the parties

[31:55]who had come because it was azab it was the parties the

[31:57]whole arabian peninsula when they were leaving some of them shouted out

[32:02]to the army of the muslims and the camp of the muslims

[32:04]they said you got lucky that you had this trench otherwise we

[32:09]had come to put an end to you did the prophet get

[32:13]lucky or did he consult he consulted he did how many narrations

[32:19]do we have on consulting people more than you can count say

[32:24]well i did all of this i'm still in doubt this number

[32:29]four this fourth condition is probably the condition that most people get

[32:34]wrong when they move towards istakhara this is the main point of

[32:37]tonight's talk say while i it's not haram on one side i

[32:41]thought about it i consulted people i still don't know what decision

[32:46]i'm supposed to make are you leaning towards one side it's like

[32:52]50 60 70 80 percent towards one side based on your understanding

[32:55]based on the facts are you completely 50 50 and lost because

[33:03]the narration say is for those situations where you're completely lost like

[33:10]you have no idea not when everything looks good and then deep

[33:15]down you still have a little bit of doubt you know how

[33:21]many times people have reached out this person's just not a hundred

[33:26]percent sure and they think in order to become 100 sure well

[33:30]let me just tag on this takara for the last ten fifteen

[33:34]percent we'll tag on and then this will be a hundred percent

[33:36]and we'll move forward with it no this this is not where

[33:41]is done sometimes you'll hear marriage is falling apart because of this

[33:46]so if your a family will say listen you want to talk

[33:50]to our daughter first we'll do is you can even talk to

[33:54]our daughter why does he have some red flags if he has

[33:56]some red flags sure no no red flags great young man but

[34:01]we're not sure so in order to be sure we have to

[34:06]do did alibaba tell you to do is these positions or did

[34:09]they say when you have means what 80 leading towards no means

[34:15]i'm completely lost i don't even know what to do there are

[34:20]some things they're creating seriously in my mind i don't know what

[34:22]to do someone says well shaykh i you know i've thought about

[34:29]it i've consulted i'm not a hundred percent sure i still have

[34:32]10 15 percent of doubt in my mind if you still have

[34:37]10 15 percent of doubt in your mind and you're not 100

[34:39]sure you don't need an istihara you know what you need now

[34:44]you need something else it's called tawakori that 10 15 percent that's

[34:51]left it is supposed to take care of that supposed to rely

[34:58]on allah this is my best guess but i'm not 100 sure

[35:02]by the way do you think you're 100 sure about all the

[35:05]other things you don't do as takara about what do you do

[35:08]with all of those other things you're not sure about are you

[35:12]sure you're supposed to take this job even though it looks amazing

[35:15]no even in those situations you're not sure you're never 100 what

[35:19]do you do in those situations you do tawakkul you say oh

[35:23]allah this is the best that my mind guides me and i've

[35:28]consulted others the last 10 15 percent oh allah i rely on

[35:30]you so that hopefully the outcomes that i want you will deliver

[35:33]them this is not a place for istakhara i say i have

[35:38]this 10 15 let me just get a stamp of approval from

[35:40]god the 80 70 that's built into your mind already is god's

[35:45]stamp of approval is he's telling you to go down this road

[35:47]so sheikh if i go down this road it's going to turn

[35:50]out the way i wanted to no i don't know it might

[35:53]turn out that way turn out better it might turn out worse

[35:57]we don't know is only for situations where i am completely lost

[36:02]someone comes ahead with a marriage proposal there are no serious red

[36:10]flags oh but i don't know this person 100 welcome to the

[36:13]real world this is how it is this is what you need

[36:17]to account for business opportunity shows up but i'm not 100 sure

[36:22]yeah that's how life is if you don't see red flags then

[36:27]you move forward with it this is what allah wants from us

[36:29]and what you have thought about and what has come to your

[36:33]mind in and of itself look at it as a stamp of

[36:37]approval from allah this is why hadith says allah sends two prophets

[36:40]to the human being so one is the external prophet these prophets

[36:43]we know of one is the internal prophet who's the internal prophet

[36:47]or prophet is your it's your intellect so allah is telling you

[36:51]to move in this direction and if you're not a hundred percent

[36:56]sure no problem you do and you move on with it recycle

[37:00]salawat please hence if i do i isn't 50 50.

[37:10]i didn't have hair i wasn't lost i felt like i'm supposed

[37:15]to do this but i just did it for the 10 15

[37:17]is this a valid sahara it doesn't seem to be and you'll

[37:24]find many scholars like many of them will tell you it's only

[37:30]for those situations where you are completely 50 50 you have hair

[37:34]you're completely lost 50 50 is a figure you might say i'm

[37:39]51 49 you get the point you're completely lost in this situation

[37:41]oh well this marriage is going what we did is it didn't

[37:45]turn out well so now we have to ruin the future of

[37:48]this young man and this young woman because sahada didn't turn out

[37:53]well were you guys lost did you have no just as an

[37:57]extra stamp of approval we wanted to make sure sorry there is

[38:00]no making sure you have to go ahead with it if it

[38:04]looks like a good option the last 10 15 percent you won't

[38:08]know in fact you won't know until three four years into the

[38:10]marriage you might not even know that's how it works okay i'm

[38:16]completely lost how do i then do this form of istikhara there

[38:18]are many ways to perform istikhara maybe someone opens the quran that's

[38:22]a little bit more of a complex way of doing istakhara looks

[38:25]at the verse that shows up maybe someone picks up a tasbih

[38:29]and does istakharam sometime is done with different pieces of paper but

[38:32]the one form of istikhara that i want to draw your attention

[38:36]to that is very much disregarded amongst our communities but in fact

[38:39]in terms of the narrations that are there to support it has

[38:42]stronger narrations than any of these other forms of istakhara is known

[38:46]as istikharatul what is this this is the isahara where you pray

[38:53]to allah you ask for his guidance maybe you do turakat salat

[38:59]and then you wait to see allah places in your heart this

[39:06]is more solid narrations than all of the previous forms of sahara

[39:11]i talked about setting aside of course the form of a sahara

[39:13]that's a form of dura that one is of course a form

[39:16]of dura and so on and so on but these other forms

[39:20]of this one has the strongest one and we have multiple narrations

[39:22]about it and the number of them are narrations in which this

[39:26]person comes to the imam and says i'm stuck i don't know

[39:31]which decision to make he says you know what when you pray

[39:32]then go to sajdah worship allah subhanahu wa then when you come

[39:36]up see which one allah subhanahu ta'ala places in your heart see

[39:42]which one you seem to be leaning towards and you go ahead

[39:45]with that and it's interesting we have this common practice of giving

[39:49]istakhara to someone else to do yes in these narrations you don't

[39:52]find the companion of the prophet coming to the prophet say yabna

[39:56]do this is sahara for me the imam tells him what to

[40:02]do in fact originally is built in this way you're supposed to

[40:06]do it now some scholars allow for someone else to do it

[40:08]on your behalf but what is definitely accepted is for you to

[40:12]do it on your own behalf you see what allah places into

[40:18]your heart when this is turns out and the result of it

[40:24]from it turns out can i then go against this sakada i'm

[40:29]choosing between two fields and a turned out to be bad because

[40:34]of this but you know what now i want to choose a

[40:38]it's like i like to do it i don't know i have

[40:41]this new pound newfound passion for it i want to do a

[40:45]can i go against the staccato and many of our scholars including

[40:52]aitla sistani say firstly it is not haram you can go against

[40:55]the sahara if that's what you choose number one and number two

[40:57]if you're worried that there was something that was going to happen

[41:01]you can give sadaqa so that allah removes that difficulty if you

[41:05]were to go down the road that is going against the israel

[41:11]but nonetheless it is not haram to go against this is that

[41:13]you have made can i make multiple istakharas for the same thing

[41:18]well the answer is no because the first is the khara you

[41:20]made it's supposed to remove that moment where you were lost allah

[41:24]already told you what to do so if he told you what

[41:27]to do the second is sakhara has no grounds anymore allah already

[41:31]told you what you are supposed to do yes i can keep

[41:35]opening up the quran until this opportunity starts to turn out to

[41:38]be positive at one point or another but this is not a

[41:42]valid istikhara yes now all of this is sahada that we said

[41:46]i want to bring hait into my life and we say ya

[41:47]allah how can i do this how can i figure out which

[41:50]one is the best option brothers and sisters if you truly want

[41:55]to bring hair into your life if you truly want to bring

[41:57]barakah into your life if you want to make it such that

[42:01]your life is blessed is its place for its particular situations but

[42:07]the situations you and i deal with every single day those are

[42:13]situations you can bring it into your life how what's the best

[42:16]thing to do for me to bring blessings in my into my

[42:19]life for me to bring faith into my life it's quite simple

[42:23]you have to refrain from sinning there is no life that is

[42:30]full of sin and then you do a couple isthakaras and then

[42:33]you hit the jackpot jackpots haram anyone is wondering it's the you

[42:40]know a term of speech of course there is no life where

[42:47]you're actively disobeying allah and then on the night of the wedding

[42:52]we kiss the quran and masha'allah this life is a blessed life

[42:55]now why is it a blessed life because they're obedient to allah

[42:58]no no because look they kiss the quran this life is not

[43:03]a blessed life if i'm continuously disobeying allah subhana wa ta'ala and

[43:06]then i throw a zyada in the middle of it yada is

[43:09]powerful the other can remove sins yes but if i continuously afterwards

[43:13]disobey allah how is this life a blessed life we have to

[43:18]be careful not to trick ourselves brothers and sisters there's no shortcuts

[43:23]there's no way out of this you want to bring blessings into

[43:27]your life you want to bring hair into your life bismillah it's

[43:30]in front of you when you come across that haram say no

[43:33]to it and blessings will come into your life sometimes hair will

[43:36]come into your life you won't even realize it 20 years later

[43:38]you'll realize this thing you didn't even work for allah gave it

[43:43]to you this is the way to bring hate into our lives

[43:45]so verses of the quran say this verse is for you and

[43:53]i and with this i will wrap up if the people had

[43:57]believed in us number one accepted our message which alhamdulillah you've already

[44:00]done if you're sitting here you've already accepted this message okay great

[44:06]and they were fearful of our presence they had refrained sin left

[44:17]we would have opened the windows and the doors of blessings upon

[44:21]them from the heavens and the earth we would have showered them

[44:25]with blessings but no this person he decides to disobey allah all

[44:30]of a sudden when it comes time for his takara he thinks

[44:33]he can crack the code just with one istakhara you and i

[44:38]have bigger problems you and i have bigger issues yes istakhara has

[44:42]its own place you want to bring into your life you want

[44:45]to bring so many blessings into your life as the quran says

[44:50]from every corner bismillah refrain from sin try to remove sin from

[44:57]your life and the doors of the blessings of allah will open

[45:00]upon us this is the promise of the quran it's a difficult

[45:03]promise to believe in to embrace but it's the promise of the

[45:06]quran i can act like my life is a blessed life because

[45:11]i do some one or two based practices here or there but

[45:15]as long as the mainstream part of my life is a life

[45:18]of sin well then these other blessed things are going to get

[45:21]lost in the midst of all of the sin you can put

[45:25]on your ring and you can touch the ka'ba and you can

[45:28]go for ziada and you can do istakara and you can kiss

[45:29]the quran but that night when you kiss the quran and then

[45:34]the gathering is a gathering of sin what blessing what blessedness what

[45:39]barakah the quran said away from sin and the doors of the

[45:45]blessings of allah will then open unto you with that inshallah we'll

[45:52]bring tonight's talk to and and let's take a moment to recite

[45:55]suratul fatiha for all of your mean and with allah muhammad

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