The Meaning of Tatayyur, Its Forms, and Its Ruling

The Shaykh : ... and it was known that he was ignorant and in need of knowledge. So he said: "O Messenger of Allah, among us are people who practice tatayyur (taking an omen as a bad sign)." He said: Tatayyur is well known; the tatayyur among you is pessimism. And with great regret, Muslims today, especially the world of women, the world they call today the fair sex, there is no one more pessimistic than them. Soap today, this is not permissible to bring into the house. The broom and the door, you must not use it, things and things that cannot be counted, even though Islam said: This man lived in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, then Allah guided him and he believed in the Messenger of Allah. So when he realized that he had made a mistake in prayer, he thought, "I must take the opportunity of being in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and ask him." He said: "Among us are people who practice tatayyur." Look now, the teaching of the Messenger does not burden people with what they cannot bear. He did not say to them, "Do not practice tatayyur." No. Because tatayyur, which is pessimism, comes to a person suddenly without his intention, but with the intention of whether to respond to the tatayyur or not. There is no harm in drawing your attention to why it is called tatayyur. In the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, among their superstitions and narrowness of mind, as many civilized nations live today, they claimed to be civilized but are at the bottom of soundness of mind, even the Europeans and Americans and others. Because, by the testimony of the Qur'an, do not overlook the Qur'an, they have no intellect. You think they are intelligent; we must distinguish. They are clever, but they are not intelligent. Therefore, they ascended to the sky, to the moon, to the stars, and so on, as they say, "the rope is long." These are clever, but they are not intelligent. The point is that the Arabs in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance used to practice tatayyur. One of them, if he intended to travel, packed his saddle, and left his house, he would look at the first bird he saw. And a bird, when a person sees it flying, it flees from him. If it flew to the right, "what Allah willed," this is a blessed journey. And if the bird, the small animal, flew to the left, this is an ill-omened journey, and he would return to his house and cancel his journey. This is where the word tatayyur came from. And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: I sometimes give an example of a Muslim man who prepared himself for travel, opened the door, and found two men quarreling. One says to the other, "May Allah not make you successful," meaning the one who went out for the journey. A bird descends by His permission, and he becomes pessimistic. No. Go ahead and do not mind it. This is the meaning of the saying of the Messenger: Do not practice tatayyur, meaning do not respond to the tatayyur. He said: "O Messenger of Allah, among us are people who draw lines." Meaning they strike the sand. So he (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) said: Meaning, striking the sand was a means and a miracle for a prophet in that time, the first time. So whoever among you matches the line of that prophet, that is the one who is correct. And this is what the scholars call "hanging on the impossible," meaning this is not possible...