A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is a comprehensive du’a istikharah from the wird of Sayyid Muhammad ibn al-Habib ( q.s. ).   The istikharah taught by the Prophet ( s.a.w. ) is the submission of one’s affair for Divine Approval and a supplication for guidance and blessings in it.   The concept that istikharah is some kind of oracle whereby you can dodge making a decision on something the Real has confronted you with, is utterly misguided; our Rabb has Empowered us to make decisions relating to our own concerns by providing us with faculties of perception and intellect, and the emphasis in doing istikharah is not on getting a reply, but on the act of submission – the realisation of our Islam.   As such it represents the very matrix, on which the intent and approach of all our ud’iyyah should be based.   The great importance of this is indicated in a reliable hadits , in which Sayyidina Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah ( r.a. ) related, “Rasulullah ( s.a....

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ A visionary exchange between Prophet Muhammad ( s.a.w. ), and Sayyid Muhammad ibn al-Habib ( q.s. ) went like this, as recounted by the shaykh .   “‘Know, my son, that God will honour you with sweet and pleasant waters.’   I said, ‘Are these the waters of Islam, iman and ihsan ?’   He said to me, ‘They are’.   I said, ‘O Messenger of God, shall I alone drink these waters, or myself and whoever follows me?’   He said, ‘You and all who follow you of my community shall drink them.’”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Sayyid Muhammad ibn al-Habib ( q.s. ) said, “Indeed, phenomenal beings are merely meanings set up by forms.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “Sidi ‘Ali ( q.s. ) lived a rugged, hard-drinking life in lumber camps in the Atlas Mountains without a thought for salvation until an accident that nearly took his life, changed his life.  In Morocco, logs from felled trees were loaded on flat-bed trucks and held in place with thick hemp ropes or chains.  The bindings on one shipment Sidi ‘Ali ( q.s. ) was loading, broke and a massive log slid off the truck and crashed into his face, nearly killing him.  He was taken to a hospital in a coma, where he hovered between life and death.  He briefly emerged from the coma in darkness and silence; deaf, dumb, blind and paralyzed. In this abyss he swore that if he lived, the first thing he was going to do was to go to a mosque and embrace Islam.  Then he relapsed into a coma.   When he finally regained consciousness, he had the sig...