#116: Advice to the One who Opens a New Company.
Assalaamu Alaykum .Please kindly help me out… What is the best thing to do when opening a new company…My attention was draw that it is wrong to call a Muslim cleric to come and pray before starting…I wish learned brothers would guide us concerning this so that others may know, it has become a norm among some Muslims to invite clerics to come and pray to our new houses, cars, businesses etc.”_
*ANSWER*
Wa alaykum salām Warahmatullāh Wabarakātuh
Alhamdulillāh!
What we advise the one that intends to open a new company to do is to make a sincere intention in the first place by ensuring that he is doing that to earn pure Halāl earnings so as to assist himself, his family and the Muslim society.
Second is to ensure that every brick that is used in its construction is from Halāl earnings. This is to ensure that the Barakāt of Allāh accompanies the Company.
Third is to ensure that you make sincere du’ā before and during its building. You may do the same after its building has been complete.
There is nothing forbidding you from making tawassul in this du’ā of yours through one or more of the three permissible ways of making tawassul which are:
1. By seeking Allah’s assistance by virtue of some of the good deeds you have done in the past.
2. By asking someone you consider pious to make a du’a to Allah on your behalf.
3. Using some of the Names of Allāh
4. Engaging in Ibādāt and making the du’ā in its course.
Concerning item 2 above, it ahould be known that the Ulamā have agreed that in times of distress, the du’ā you make for yourself with sincere and desperate humility is better than the one that is made for you on your behalf.
Some of the Ulamā recommend that one observes the fast whenever one is doing a thing he wants Allāh to bless. It is mentioned that the Ālimah Fātimata Al-Fihriyya – rahimahallāh – who built the Qarawiyyīn Madradah fasted all through the days it was been built.
As for inviting a cleric as is mentioned in the question, this is an innovation as you have referred if the main intent of doing so is merely to pray for you as the Cleric may pray for you without the visit. If however the purpose of his invitation is for Barakāt then it is also an innovation. If then it is as a way of honouring the Cleric and respecting him, there is nothing wrong in that – Allah willing.
May Allah bless your company and make it a source of Halāl earnings for you and your family, and a blessing for the Ummah, āmīn.
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran.
17th Safar 1438.
