Before any transaction you engage in…

…whether it is a marriage contract, business deal, or any act of worship you intend to perform, make sure you do it according to the Quran and Sunnah and are honest with everyone involved and honest with yourself.

Allah will test you in business transactions and Allah may test you in marriage or even test you in simple acts of worship between you and Allah, in a manner that exposes your weakness and desire for a quick cementing of the deal to enjoy the benefits thereof or move on with life. But if it is not done properly, you won’t find Allah’s barakah (blessing) in what you’ve gained.

For example, many Muslims trying to get married frequently begin marriage talks without a wali or mahram involved OR the mahram will have a far off secondary role OR the mahram will be involved in the beginning but be quickly forgotten as communications between the man and woman heat up. They may then agree to meet each other in public places and then private places until finally they are intimate with one another and no one knows except Allah, the angels recording their deeds, and the devils that are egging them on. If these two individuals get married, they can rest assured that the marriage has fewer blessings in it from Allah, even if Allah’s religion says that the final ceremony was done Islamically. The marriage may be plagued with suspicion, dislike, and a myriad of other ills before it succumbs to divorce.

Barakah, in Arabic, means abundance (although frequently translated as “blessing”), but what is meant by Muslims and Islamic texts when they refer to barakah is an abundance of good that happens, seemingly coincidentally, as a result of those involved being true to Allah. For example, in business transactions, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said, “Both parties in a business transaction have the right to annul it so long as they have not separated; and if they speak the truth and make everything clear they will be blessed in their transaction; but if they tell a lie and conceal anything the blessing of their transaction will be blotted out.” Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

So when a person gains that wealth or that material, knowing they did not disclose important information to the other party, whatever is gained is actually lost. This is from the sunan of Allah, that when you gain that money in a dishonest manner, you won’t be able to enjoy it, but rather, it may be stolen from you, or you’ll spend it all paying debts, repairs and health bills for things you didn’t know of beforehand. However, when you take a leap of faith and clarify to the other party what they need to know, no matter what little you get in return, Allah will see that it goes a long way for you. This is an important principle to remember in everything you pursue in life. As for your relationship with Allah, you have to be honest and do what you feel deep down inside to be right, even if it appears harder, and not follow the fatwa of a person solely because it is easier to practice yet doesn’t settle well in your heart.

And how to increase the blessings in your life…

You face small decisions in your life every day and great decisions from time to time as well. Allah has prescribed the best procedure for directing you towards the best choice and providing for you the best outcome no matter the decision before you. This method is called “al-istikhaarah” which literally means: seeking the best choice and outcome. It is an invocation that is to be said during or immediately after you pray any two voluntary units of prayer (not from the five prayers) intending to make them for this purpose. During your prostration or after you say the salaam, left and right, you can raise your hands and pray as follows:

“O Allah! I ask guidance by Your knowledge, and Power from Your Might and I ask for Your great blessings. You are capable and I am not. You know and I do not and You know the unseen. O Allah! If You know that this act is good for my religion and my subsistence and in my Hereafter, then decree it for me and make it easy for me to get, and then bless me in it; and if You know that this act is harmful to me in my faith and subsistence and in the Hereafter or worse for my present and later needs, then keep it away from me and let me be away from it; and ordain for me whatever is good for me, and make me satisfied with it.” And then mention to Allah that specific thing you are considering.^[1]Extracted from a hadeeth recorded by al-Bukhaaree, no. 1166, book 19 no. 45, English reference vol. 2, book 21 no. 263.

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ advised us with this prayer for any matter we consider. I myself have found that even if I make this prayer for something seemingly “insignificant” or a “no-brainer” like getting gas for my car, or going out to a restaurant to eat, or choosing which masjid to pray at, amazing things happen for my benefit.

In addition to the istikhaarah prayer mentioned above, Allah also says what means,

{… وَشَاوِرْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ ۖ فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّـهِ ۚ …} ﴿١٥٩﴾ سورة آل عمران

“And consult them in the matter, and once you have resolved, then place your reliance upon Allah” [3:159]

So seek the advice of those with knowledge, experience, wisdom and you trust that they want good for you concerning any great undertaking, and then when you have come to a conclusion, go forward with it and seek Allah’s Help and trust in Him. However, you may meet people with conflicting advices, and they each have strong argument to steer you in a certain direction and you cannot stay put in one choice.^[2]The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said “Ask your heart, righteousness brings serenity to the soul and tranquility to the heart; sin is what waves in the soul and shakes in the chest, even when the people … Continue reading In that case, then I suggest relying more on the first method, istikhaarah. Many of those who experiment with istikhaarah will notice that when they consider one of their options they will feel a worry or insecurity deep within themselves, but when they consider another option, they feel a lightness or ease. This is in accordance with a prophet’s mention.^[3]However, many scholars consider this sign of istikhaarah to stem from an unauthentic or “dha’eef”, meaning weak, hadeeth. In other words, we cannot be confident that it is truly from the speech … Continue reading Some others see dreams that indicate the best choice in their matter, while most simply find that the matter they prayed about works out well for them or that they see something in their lives that appears to beckon to the right choice. In every case, once you know what you want in life, continue making du’aa for its realization—even if it takes years to procure, and then do necessary research about the proper means to accomplish it, and push to get it forward and you watch how Allah helps you along the way, and, from time to time, challenges your resolve.