The purpose of istikhara
Q: I did istikhara for my son's marriage. Both times the dreams were good, so we decided to go ahead with the proposal, but before we gave a final answer, we were told by someone that the girl had run away with a non-muslim boy and she was forced to come back home. So naturally we backed out. My question is, why did I have positive answers in my istikhara dreams, when the girl was not suitable for my son and we were being deceived by her family?
A: Istikhara is a dua through which one seeks goodness from Allah Ta'ala for some thing permissible one wishes to carry out in the future (e.g. nikaah, business, etc). Istikhara is not carried out to gain knowledge of the future. Hence, seeing a dream is not the purpose and object of the istikhara. At times Allah Ta'ala guides a person through a dream. However it should be borne in mind that dreams can be influenced by feelings and thoughts. Hence a dream cannot be regarded as a conclusive proof for doing an action.
And Allah Ta'ala (الله تعالى) knows best.
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