Fatwa ID: 05609

Answered by: Maulana Mohammed Dilwar Hussain

Question:

After careful consideration, a sister decided to marry a brother who had asked her about marriage. She then made istikhara to seek guidance from the Almighty.  

Within days or weeks of completing a week of istikhara, communication between the brother and sister comes to an end.  

She was informed by a mutual friend that the brother was looking for other options for marriage. When the sister tried to contact the brother to confirm this, he blocked her. Communication before istikhara had been limited to email. Please note both the brother and sister are of mature age,  in their 40’s.

The sister believes that this communication has ended due to misunderstandings between the two, the brother had been waiting a while for the proposal to be taken to the families and may have assumed things were not going to happen.   The sister is happy to accept that this could be the answer to istikhara that Allah SWT has taken away a proposal that is not good for her Deen and Dunya.

On the other hand, she would like to know that should this brother return with a proposal again, should she decline it based on this istikhara results and if she was to accept the proposal, would she be going against the guidance of Allah SWT and be sinful?

Or would his return be a sign that the marriage is good for the sister and this was another hurdle or test for the sister?

Should this brother come back and ask regarding marriage, could she do another istikhara?

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

The purpose of doing Istikhara is to seek good from Allah Ta’ālā. Istikhara can be repeated as many times as one would like but doing it once is sufficient. After performing Istikhara, one should not become reliant on seeing a dream or awaiting a particular outcome. The method is, after performing Istikhara, whatever decision one arrives at will be the best decision available to you. So, one can and should pursue that unless there are other extenuating circumstances restricting that.

“…Allah intends (to provide) you with ease and does not intend (to create) hardship for you…” [Surah Baqarah; 2;185]

Only Allah knows best.

Written by Maulana Mohammed Dilwar Hussain

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham