Mikraz Fails, Suhayl Arrives, and the Fiqh of Good Omens
historicalShaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:
Alarmed by the Pledge of al-Riḍwān, Quraysh first sent Mikraz ibn Ḥafṣ in haste. Seeing him, the Prophet ﷺ told the Companions he was "a man of evil" (rajulu sūʾ) and that nothing would come of him, and indeed Mikraz arrived without plan or mandate, his conditions unworkable, the talks stalling. Then, in the distance, appeared the delegation that would finally break the deadlock, led by Suhayl ibn ʿAmr. At the sight of him the Prophet ﷺ said, "Qad jāʾa Suhayl, sahula ʿalaykum amrukum" (قَدْ جَاءَ سُهَيْلٌ، سَهُلَ عَلَيْكُمْ أَمْرُكُمْ, "Suhayl has come; your matter has been made easy for you"), playing on Suhayl's name, which shares the root of sahula, to be made easy.
Dr. Qadhi uses this to explain the fiqh of good omens (al-faʾl). The Prophet ﷺ abolished superstition and ill omens, "lā ʿadwā wa lā ṭiyarata wa lā hāmah" (لَا عَدْوَى وَلَا طِيَرَةَ وَلَا هَامَةَ, no contagion, no evil omen, no owl of doom), and warned that believing in ill omens is a form of shirk: "al-ṭiyaratu shirk" (الطِّيَرَةُ شِرْكٌ). A black cat crossing one's path, a broken mirror, and the like have no power to harm. Yet he said, "wa-yuʿjibunī l-faʾl" (وَيُعْجِبُنِي الْفَأْلُ, "and the good omen pleases me"), explaining the faʾl as a good word one happens to hear. Dr. Qadhi frames it by two conditions: the sign must be positive (there is no valid negative counterpart, a clap of thunder during one's duʿāʾ is no sign of rejection), and it must be tied back to Allah. So a person praying on a cloudy day who opens his eyes to a rainbow and takes heart that his duʿāʾ will be answered has done nothing wrong, indeed something good, because a believer should already be optimistic in Allah, and a good omen is simply that optimism given encouragement.