An administrative problem arose in our office because a certain employee failed to take the necessary action when I put in my requests. That employee pleaded that he was not informed. A couple of days later our boss accused me of lying, stating that the said employee told the truth. When I asked on what basis he made his judgment, he said that he used the prayer known as salat al-istikharah. May I ask whether this prayer can be used in this way and for such a purpose?
(Anwar Abd)
The short answer is that it cannot. It is not a method to establish facts. Otherwise, Muslim judges would have resorted to it in all cases where they needed to establish the truth and find out the guilty person in any case they are considering. At no time did the Prophet’s companions or leaders or judges in any subsequent generation feel that they could know the truth through offering this prayer. Your boss is relying on evidence that does not exist. The istikharah prayer is recommended by the Prophet to help us choose a course of action, particularly when more than one option looks appealing. Therefore, it is offered to help find an answer to questions like: Should I undertake this travel? Should I buy this car? Will the project I am considering be successful? Would I benefit from this course of action?
In such cases where the answer is indeterminable because we have no way of looking into the future, we offer the istikharah prayer to appeal to God to help us choose what is best for us. The form is to offer two rak’ahs and then to say a particular supplication. The supplication merely requests God to make the choice for us and to make us happy with it. Thus, it removes the burden of making the decision from us and makes us trust to God to do it for us.
How the choice is made has its own importance. Many people have the impression that they would have a dream telling them which course to follow. This is not right. There is no suggestion that a dream should follow pointing out which action to take. When we have done the istikharah prayer, we should simply let things take their own course. Thus, if it is a matter of travel and you find out that you cannot make your travel arrangements easily, then this is an indication that it is better not to travel. If you want to change your car and you encounter difficulty in selling your old car in order to buy a new one, this indicates that you better keep the one you have for the time being. On the other hand, if you call a travel agent and discover that everything about your travel can be arranged quickly and easily, you have a clear indication that undertaking that trip is the better option.
Now your boss is using the istikharah prayer to find out which of his two employees is telling the truth. This is wrong and he cannot use it in this way. Any decision he makes on this basis is faulty. What he should do is to establish the fact through solid evidence. If he cannot because it is a case of your word against the other employee’s word, he should overlook the matter as a case of an unintended error. He cannot label you as liar on the basis of his istikharah prayer.
A woman died five years ago, leaving behind her husband, one adopted son, her father who died subsequently, and a number of brothers and sisters. Could you please explain who inherits her and what is the share of each heir? (M.B. Hameed)
Islam does not recognize adoption. If the young man is not related by blood to the deceased lady, he does not inherit anything from her. Her only heirs are her husband and her father. As she had no children of her own, her husband takes half of her property, whether this is in cash, real property, jeweler, or any other form. Her father takes the other half. Her brothers and sisters inherit nothing from her. As her father died subsequently, and his wife predeceased him, his heirs are his children, i.e. the deceased woman’s brothers and sisters. Thus, if the woman’s estate was not divided among her heirs, it should be divided now. Her brothers and sisters will share among themselves the one half which was due to their father. They divide this half among themselves on the basis of one share for each sister and two shares for each brother.