Decision making is the process of making choices by setting goals, gathering information, and assessing alternative occupations. As you can see, there are seven steps in effective decision making. In psychology, decision-making is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several alternative possibilities. Every decision making process produces a final choice that may or may not prompt action. Decision making is the process of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision-maker.
In order to manage things effectively, one needs to take good decisions at regular intervals. From the life of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) we get to know the steps to be adopted to make effective decisions. Once the Blessed Prophet asked Muadh bin Jabal, whom he had named as a judge in the new environment of Yemen, “Through what will you judge?” Muadh replied, “Through the Book of Allah”. The Prophet then asked, “And if you find nothing in the Book of Allah?”, Muadh went on to say, “I shall judge according to the tradition (Sunnah) of Allah’s Messenger”. The Prophet further asked, “And if you find nothing in the Messenger’s tradition?”, Muadh answered confidently, “I shall not fail to make an effort (ajtahidu) to reach an opinion.” This answer satisfied the Prophet, who concluded, “Praise be to Allah, who has guided His Messenger’s messenger to what satisfied Allah’s Messenger.” (At-Tirmidhi, An-Nisai and Abu Dawood)
Thus, from this hadīth we understand that in order to make a decision, the first source of reference should be the Qur’ān and then the life of Prophet, if nothing is found in both the sources then one should use his intellectual and reasoning ability to make decisions.
LEVELS
From the hadīth we can understand that, in order to make decision, the following levels should be adopted:
- QUR’ĀN
When one wants to take any personal, professional, social or political decision, he should look into the Qur’ān for guidance. As Allah the Exalted says in the Qur’ān, “Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His Servant that he may be to the worlds a warner.” (Qur’ān 25:1). The Criterion is another name of the Qur’ān, which means that which distinguishes truth from falsehood, right from wrong and good from bad.
The Qur’ān is the touchstone on which the real and artificial can be differentiated, and in all problems of life, the Qur’ān is the standard of judgement. Seeing the overabundance of religions and their contradictory claims, man is at a loss to know what should be his choice. To help him out of this tangle and to show him the clear straight path, the Qur’ān has been revealed. On this Criterion the claim of every religion can be examined, and it can be ascertained whether it is really pure. People are aware of the criterion which helps them find out the pure from the artificial. But the biggest tragedy is that, a set of people are unaware that the Qur’ān is the criterion and another set of people are not using it as the criterion, due to which they take wrong decisions most of the times and become victims of tangles and complications.
- SUNNAH (LIFE OF PROPHET MUHAMMAD)
When one does not get the solution from the Qur’ān, then one should look into the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) for the answer and he would surely find the answer to his issue.
In the last sermon, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said, “I leave behind me two things, the Qur’ān and my example, the Sunnah, and if you follow these, you will never go astray.” (Bukhari) From this we can learn that, when one wants to take any kind of decision, he should look into the life of Prophet Muhammad for guidance.
Allah says in the Qur’ān, “And We have not sent you, (O Muhammad), except as a mercy to the worlds.” (Qur’ān 21:107) The ayat states that, the Prophet was sent to the earth as a mercy for the entire mankind, thus, taking guidance from his life, would only lead people to peaceful and productive conclusions.
Allah also says in the Qur’ān, “There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and (who) remembers Allah often.” (Qur’ān 33:21) The ayat states that the life of Prophet is the best example, thus one should use his life as a model to make decisions and to solve problems.
- IJTIHAD (INDEPENDENT REASONING)
When one is not able to find any guidance either from the Qur’ān or from the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him), one should use his ability to reason, to make decisions. It basically means to ‘struggle with oneself’ through deep thought. It is defined as a process of legal reasoning and hermeneutics through a rationalised approach, on the basis of the Qur’ān and the Sunnah.
It also refers to the utmost effort an individual can put forth in an activity. Using the Qur’ān and the Sunnah as the base, it is required to carefully rely on analogical reasoning to find a solution to the problem, which is considered a religious duty for those qualified to conduct it. Directly employing independent reasoning, without considering the Qur’ān or the life of Prophet Muhammad, would make a person take wrong decision and would land him in trouble.
Life is full of decisions, some decisions are big and some decisions are small, some decisions have a long term effect and some have a short term effect. Every decision has an impact on one’s life, thus, one should be very cautious in taking decisions. One takes a decision to select a career, to select his spouse, to opt for a particular job, to start a new business, to decide about their children’s future, to decide about an investment, etc. Thus, in all these aspects, if one uses the process of the Qur’ān, Sunnah and Ijtihad respectively, he would land up taking an effective decision, which would prove to be beneficial in this world and the hereafter.
[Syed Kazim is Assistant Professor at Acharya Bangalore B School, Bengaluru. He can be contacted at [email protected]]