How to reconcile the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibition of taking omens and divination with his dislike of ugly names?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner asks: How do we reconcile the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited taking omens and divination with the fact that he disliked ugly names?
The Shaykh:
It is disliked.
The questioner:
An ugly name.
The Shaykh:
Yes, but he (peace and blessings be upon him) did not reject it. This is not taking omens. He did not reject it because of the intention of taking omens. Taking omens is when you become pessimistic and this pessimism causes you to turn back from what you had resolved to do. That is taking omens. Divination is what makes you proceed or what makes you turn back. As for a person feeling a sense of aversion within himself...
...this is human nature. But he proceeds and relies upon Allah. This does not harm him. Yes. For this reason, 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Divination is shirk (associating partners with Allah). Divination is shirk. Divination is shirk. There is no one among us who does not do it, but Allah removes it through reliance upon Him." Yes.
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. This questioner asks: How do we reconcile the fact that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) prohibited taking omens and divination with the fact that he disliked ugly names?
The Shaykh:
It is disliked.
The questioner:
An ugly name.
The Shaykh:
Yes, but he (peace and blessings be upon him) did not reject it. This is not taking omens. He did not reject it because of the intention of taking omens. Taking omens is when you become pessimistic and this pessimism causes you to turn back from what you had resolved to do. That is taking omens. Divination is what makes you proceed or what makes you turn back. As for a person feeling a sense of aversion within himself...
...this is human nature. But he proceeds and relies upon Allah. This does not harm him. Yes. For this reason, 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Divination is shirk (associating partners with Allah). Divination is shirk. Divination is shirk. There is no one among us who does not do it, but Allah removes it through reliance upon Him." Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، كيف الجمع بين نهى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم عن التطير والطيرة، وبين أنه كان يكره الاسم القبيح؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.