Azami 3000

Ibn Hibban (886), Bukhari in his Tarikh (4/258), Ibn Adi in Kamil (4/1367), and Tabarani in Duaa (1306) all narrated it through various chains from Ibn Abu Fudayk, who said, "Abu Mufaddal bin Ala bin Abdul-Rahman told us, from his father, from his grandfather, from Abu Hurairah," and he related it. The wording given is that of Ibn Hibban. Ibn Abu Fudayk is Muhammad bin Ismail, one of the narrators found in the collections of all the major compilers, except that he is "truthful."As for Abu Mufaddal, Ibn Hibban said following the hadith, "His name is Shibl bin Ala bin Abdul-Rahman, sound in his handling of hadith." And he said in Thiqat (6/452), "He narrated from Ibn Abu Fudayk a sound collection, which Mufaddal bin Muhammad Attar related to us at Antakya, saying, 'Ahmad bin Walid bin Burd Antaki told us, saying, Ibn Abu Fudayk told us, Shibl bin Ala told us, from his father.'" Its chain is hasan, and Ibn Hajar also graded it hasan. See Futuhat Rabbaniya (3/347).This serves as a corroborating witness for the hadith of Jabir regarding the basic principle of istikhara, not regarding its manner of performance, since this hadith does not mention "let him pray two units of prayer other than the obligatory prayer." That detail is only mentioned in the hadith of Jabir, so scholars have restricted the ruling to what is found there.On this subject there is also a report from Saad bin Abu Waqqas, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Part of the happiness of the son of Adam is his contentment with what Allah has decreed for him, and part of the misery of the son of Adam is his abandonment of seeking Allah's guidance through istikhara, and part of the misery of the son of Adam is his misery at his displeasure with what Allah has decreed."Tirmidhi (2151) narrated it from Muhammad bin Bashshar, who said, Abu Amir told us, from Muhammad bin Abu Humayd, from Ismail bin Muhammad bin Saad bin Abu Waqqas, from his father, from Saad, and he related it. Tirmidhi said, "This is a gharib hadith, we do not know it except through the report of Muhammad bin Abu Humayd, who is also called Hammad bin Abu Humayd, and he is Abu Ibrahim Madini, and he is not considered strong among the people of hadith."Imam Ahmad (1444) and Hakim (1/518) also narrated it, both through the route of Muhammad bin Abu Humayd, with an addition, "Part of the happiness of the son of Adam is his seeking istikhara from Allah." Hakim said, "sahih in its chain." But this is not correct, for Muhammad bin Abu Humayd Ibrahim Ansari Zarqi Abu Ibrahim is the very one about whom Tirmidhi said, "He is not considered strong among the people of hadith." The critics of hadith have spoken against him, among them Imam Ahmad, Ibn Main, Bukhari, Abu Zura, Nasai, Abu Dawud, Daraqutni, and many others. Dhahabi himself said in Kashif, "They weakened him."On this subject there is also a report from Abu Saeed Khudri, who said, I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, "When one of you intends to do something, let him say, 'O Allah, I seek Your guidance through Your knowledge, and I seek ability through Your power, and I ask You from Your immense bounty. For You have power and I have none, and You know and I do not know, and You are the Knower of the unseen. O Allah, if You know this matter' — naming the matter he intends — 'to be good for me in my religion, my livelihood, and the outcome of my affairs, then decree it for me, make it easy for me, and bless me in it. And if You know this matter to be bad for me in my religion, my livelihood, and the outcome of my affairs, then turn it away from me, and turn me away from it, and decree for me what is good wherever it may be, and make me content with it.'"Ibn Hibban (885), Bazzar (4/56), Abu Yaala (1342), and Tabarani (1304) all narrated it through various chains from Yaqub bin Ibrahim, who said, my father told us, from Ibn Ishaq, who said, Isa told me, from Muhammad bin Amr bin Ata, from Ata bin Yasar, from Abu Saeed Khudri, and he related it.In this chain is Isa bin Abdullah bin Malik, about whom Ibn Madini said, "unknown." But Ibn Hibban mentioned him among the Thiqat, and included his hadith in his Sahih. This confirms what has been said about his practice of validating unknown narrators. For this reason Ibn Hajar said of him, "acceptable," meaning when corroborated, but since he was not corroborated here, he is "weak in hadith."On this subject there is also a report from Abu Ayub Ansari, companion of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him, "Conceal the proposal, then perform ablution and perform it well, then pray whatever Allah has prescribed for you, then praise your Lord and glorify Him, then say, 'O Allah, You have power and I have none, and You know and I do not know, You are the Knower of the unseen. If You see that so-and-so' — naming her by name — 'is good for me in my religion, my worldly life, and my hereafter, then decree her for me. And if another is better for me than her in my religion, my worldly life, and my hereafter, then grant her to me,'" or he said, "then decree her for me."Imam Ahmad (23596) narrated it from Hasan, who said, Ibn Lahia told us, Walid bin Abu Walid told us, from Ayub bin Khalid bin Abu Ayub Ansari, who related it from his father, from his grandfather Abu Ayub Ansari, companion of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he related it.In this chain is Ibn Lahia, who has poor memory, but he was corroborated. Imam Ahmad (23597) narrated it right after the aforementioned hadith from Harun, who said, Ibn Wahb told us, Haywa informed me, that Walid bin Abu Walid informed him, and he related it with its chain and its meaning. Ibn Wahb is Abdullah, and through his route it was also narrated by Ibn Khuzayma (1220), Ibn Hibban (4040), and Hakim (1/314, 2/165).Hakim said in the first place, "This is the sunnah of the prayer of istikhara, which is rare, unique to the people of Egypt, and its narrators, all of them, are reliable, and the two of them (Bukhari and Muslim) did not narrate it." And he said in the second place, "sahih in its chain, and the two of them did not narrate it."I say, there is a problem with his grading it sahih. For Ayub bin Khalid is Ibn Safwan bin Aws bin Jabir Ansari Madani, known as Ayub bin Khalid bin Abu Ayub Ansari. Abu Ayub was his maternal grandfather, his mother being Amra bint Abu Ayub Ansari. No one deemed him reliable except Ibn Hibban, and Yahya bin Saeed and those like him would not record his hadith. Ibn Hajar said of him, "there is weakness in him." His father Khalid is unknown, and his son alone narrated from him.As for Walid bin Abu Walid, who is Abu Uthman Madani, even though Ibn Hajar said of him, "weak in hadith," the correct view is that he is reliable. Abu Zura deemed him reliable, as found in Jarh wa Tadil, and so did Dhahabi in Kashif.On this subject there are also other hadiths from Ibn Masud, Ibn Abbas, and others, but none of them is free of some issue. However, some scholars have cited the gradings of sahih given by Ibn Hibban and Hakim and affirmed them, treating them as corroborating witnesses for the hadith of Jabir. See Fath al-Bari (11/184).This is because Imam Ahmad criticized Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Mawal, who narrated from Muhammad bin Munkadir, from Jabir bin Abdullah, the hadith of istikhara, saying, "He narrated from Muhammad bin Munkadir the hadith of istikhara, and no one narrates it besides him, and he is munkar in hadith." Ibn Adi mentioned this in Kamil (4/1616), and then listed several hadiths for Abdul-Rahman and said, "He is sound in his hadith, and the one who criticized him regarding the hadith of istikhara, it has in fact been narrated by more than one of the companions, just as Ibn Abu Mawal narrated it."Ibn Hajar said, "He means that the hadith has corroborating witnesses," and then he mentioned some of those witnesses.I say, perhaps what is meant by "munkar" here is the fact that Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Mawal alone narrated it from Muhammad bin Munkadir, since Imam Ahmad sometimes uses the word "munkar" to refer to a solitary narration, even if the sole narrator is reliable. Otherwise, the hadith is sahih, because Abdul-Rahman bin Abu Mawal was deemed reliable by Ibn Main, Ibn Madini, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nasai, and others, so his being the sole narrator does not harm the hadith, as is established in the sciences of hadith.As for the claim that one repeats the istikhara seven times until one's heart feels at ease, this has not been established. What has been reported on this from Anas, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "O Anas, when you intend to do something, seek your Lord's guidance concerning it seven times, then look to whatever comes first to your heart, for the good lies in it," is daif.Ibn Sunni narrated it in Amal al-Yawm wal-Layla (598) from Abu Abbas bin Qutayba Asqalani, who said, Ubaydullah bin Humayri told us, Ibrahim bin Bara bin Nadr bin Anas bin Malik told us, my father told us, from his father, from his grandfather, who said, and he related the hadith.Nawawi said in Azkar (358), "Its chain is gharib, for it contains narrators we do not recognize." I say, in it is Ibrahim bin Bara bin Nadr, who is extremely daif. Ibn Adi said, "This Ibrahim bin Bara, the hadiths of his which I have mentioned, and those I have not mentioned, all of them are munkar and fabricated, and whoever examines his hadith will know that he is extremely daif, and he is discarded in hadith." Kamil (1/254). And the narrator from him, Ubaydullah bin Humayri, is not known who he is. For this reason Ibn Hajar said, its chain is extremely weak.As for what the one seeking istikhara should do afterward, scholars hold two views on this. The first is that he does whatever occurs to him, choosing either to act or to refrain as he wishes, even if his heart does not feel settled toward either option, for whatever he does contains good and benefit within it, since he will only be guided toward the side of good. The second is that after the istikhara he acts according to whatever his heart feels at ease with, to the point that it is recommended for him to repeat the prayer and the supplication for the same matter if the correct course has not become clear to him. This is the position Nawawi chose in Azkar.Shawkani and others favored the first view, saying, "One should not rely on a feeling of ease that was already present due to personal inclination before the istikhara. Rather, the one seeking istikhara should abandon his own preference entirely, otherwise he would not truly be seeking Allah's guidance but rather following his own desire, and he might not be sincere in seeking guidance, nor in disavowing knowledge and power and attributing them to Allah alone. If he is sincere in that, he disavows all reliance on his own strength and ability, and on his own choice for himself." Nayl Awtar (2/298).This is also among the preferences of the hadith scholar Ubaydullah Rahmani, may Allah have mercy on him, in Miraat (4/365), where he said, "The view I consider stronger is that the one seeking istikhara acts after the istikhara according to whatever occurs and comes about, for in my view the matter is not tied to a feeling of ease or to a dream, since the hadith does not stipulate that the heart must feel at ease, nor does it mention sleep after the istikhara, nor discovering what is good for one through a dream." End of his words.