He performed Istikhaarah prayer but is still hesitant
Fatwa No: 131800

Question

Salaam
I have Obsessive compulsive disorder, and I cannot keep certain kind of thoughts out of my mind.
On an occasion, I performed salaat Istikharah, and I felt easy with "option 1". After a while, I noticed (or I guessed, as we do not know the future) another option, "option2 " is correct. However, I always had bad dreams about the "option2" and even a dream that frightens me that I will do a specific "mental sin". (the sin was mentioned in the dream). Since then, I have got obsessions, and, I have started to somehow think in the specified direction. I was wondering whether it is better for me to go back to "option 1" or not. However, I think that "option1" has HARAJ for me.
I would like to ask you to make du'a for me.
Thank you very much.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

 

First of all, we ask Allaah to cure you and we advise you to sincerely turn to Him and supplicate Him as He is the One Who answers the supplication of a person in distress and makes a way out for him from every difficulty. For more benefit on how to treat obsessive compulsive disorder, please refer to Fatwa 90425.

As for the Istikhaarah prayer, the scholars stated that among the signs of the result of Istikhaarah is that the matter is facilitated to the person, but it is not a condition that he sees a dream and the like. So, after performing the Istikhaarah prayer about one of these two matters, you should opt for it and if there is any good in it, Allaah will facilitate it for you, and if there is any evil in it, Allaah will drive it away from you. For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa 87309 and 82964.

As regards nightmares, then there is some etiquette that the Sharee’ah guided us to do when we see them, and we have already issued Fatwa 84250 clarifying these etiquettes.

Finally, you should know that there are no religious rulings deducted from dreams, so you should not preoccupy yourself with them. Rather, you should live your life as normal.

Allaah Knows best.

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