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Sunday, September 29, 2013

Decide - Part of Life. Isthikharah.


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In the Name of Allah, The Most Beneficent, The Most Merciful
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds
Any kind of language coming from Him
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Assalamualaikum. Have a great day today?

Lately i got so many things to do. Deciding is a huge thing to be considered. Well it make sense.
Hmm,will  talk about it.

Thinking about how to manage your daily life? Having problems,works and everything to settle down. Or still thinking about how to make it clear. Well,you wake up in the morning, no idea what to do for that day, open your e-mails, check your facebook account, sleep some more, go to work,university,school, do something to act busy, wait for the time to clock out, go home, watch TV more and more, speak to some people on the phone, listening to the music,then sleep.

The example above is of a person who is not decisive. When they woke up, they didn’t decide what they had to do, they didn’t decide what their plans for the day would be, that can lead a productive life.
Emotions such as love, hope, enthusiasm, determination…etc are strongly encouraged in the Quran and teachings of The Prophet, as they result in a positive attitude for the Muslim at home, in public, and in relation to the rest of the world including all other creations. The Prophet teaches that no one's faith is complete until they love for others what they love for themselves, which is a very positive state of mind. Love is recognized and respected as the noblest emotion.
Decisiveness is the characteristic of a productive Muslim,because only by making effective decisions will you be moving forward in your life. The more you linger, and let shaytaan play with your mind, the more you’ll be slowed down and become unproductive.


*this is the example of a great decision in your life as a muslimah.


Think. Thinking is the best way to make a decision or to clarify something in your life. Because Islam taught so. And by thinking, it doesn’t  mean spending few minutes staring at the ceiling waiting for a revelation to come! Or penetrating to your phone’s screen waiting for someone to make a plan. No its not. Thinking means brainstorming, analysing, drawing from your experience of how best to go about a certain course of action and really taking the time to measure the implications of your decision.

Consult. When you’ve  done with the thinking part, now you’ve many of questions… no problem, do some researches! Look around, ask around, and consult others, bounce ideas from family, the eldest,friends. Make sure the implications. People around you. Either its gonna affect your whole life or just for a couple of days.

Istikharah. SubhanaAllah, Allah is so Merciful to us, He knew that it would be hard for us to make decisions easily, so He opened a special lines of communication for us to Him when it comes to decisions.. it’s called Istikharah prayer! Just read this hadeeth carefully and understand its meaning:

On the authority of Jaabir Ibn ‘Abdullah he said: “The Prophet (peace be upon him) would instruct us to pray for guidance in all of our concerns, just as he would teach us a chapter from the Qur’an. He would say ‘if any of you intends to undertake a matter then let him pray two supererogatory units (two rak’ah naafilah) of prayer and after which he should supplicate:
‘O Allaah, I seek Your counsel by Your knowledge and by Your power I seek strength and I ask You from Your immense favour, for verily You are able while I am not and verily You know while I do not and You are the Knower of the unseen. O Allaah, if You know this affair -and here he mentions his need- to be good for me in relation to my religion, my life, and end, then decree and facilitate it for me, and bless me with it, and if You know this affair to be ill for me towards my religion, my life, and end, then remove it from me and remove me from it, and decree for me what is good wherever it be and make me satisfied with such.’

You’re asking Allah, The One who knows everything about what’s best for you… if you must belive to Allah(certainty) in your dua, do you think Allah will make you take a “bad” decision? Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) said, the one does istikharah will not regret! Imagine someone saying to you, I’ll give you a formula, if you follow it, you’ll never ever ever regret any decision you make! Will you take up the offer? So be sure.

Action. You’ve thought about it, asked others, and most importantly asked Allah for guidance tru an Istikharah prayer, now what? Hummm.. DECIDE! Take action! And jump into your decision full force taking every conceivable first step you can make, so that you can’t reverse your decision! You wanted to open a business, and taken the above steps, NOW open it and invest your money! You want to further your studies….now make a move,ask your parents. Musyawarah.You wanted to propose to a particular person and you’ve done the above, pick up the phone and call her waly now! Make the decision and act upon it quickly before shaytaan comes to whisper in your mind and puts doubt.

Doa and Tawakkal. You’ve made the decision, taken some actions… it’s not over yet. Make dua and have trust in Allah. You may have made the right decision, but to follow through a decision correctly needs lots of dua, and trust in Allah….so don’t give up! And don’t regret decisions you’ve made after doing all the above, you only have 2 possible scenarios: either you’ve made good decisions and things are working great, or you’ve made a decision that challenged you which you can either learn from or you’ve learnt to overcome!

Yes, making decisions isn’t easy, but instead of dodging them and suffering the consequences in this life and hereafter, develop your decision making muscle by making decisions daily using the above steps – whether for small decisions or big decisions – just make a decision!

This is something I recently began to practice: when I have a decision I need to make, I ask myself, "What would Allah want me to do?"

Alhamdulillah, when I remember that my decisions and actions will be judged by Allah subhana wa ta’ala and taken into account on the Day of Judgement, that really helps me to choose carefully what my decision will be.
Allah knows best.




Mumtaz for Ummah. Mari Jadi Hamba Superb! ^^

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