Decision Making from Islamic Perspective

REFLECTION – DECISION MAKING PROCESS

Life is full of choices at every moment of time. There are multitude of possibilities in front of us to choose from. We need to choose one course of action from all available options based on our judgment. That is what constitutes making a decision. If we think about it, life is a series of decisions and consequences that follow them. Smart decisions are the triumphs of judgment while bad decisions are opportunities to learn from and rectify our strategy. The importance of decision making in life is immense as what we eventually become, is a consequence of the decisions we made in the past. We are what our choices and decisions make us to be. Decision making skills are very essentials in so many areas and fields, especially in leadership, business, management, running an organization, also in our personal daily lives. A decision is best defined as a choice between two or more alternatives. If we only have one alternative, we do not have a decision. Decision making can be regarded as the processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice.

The way to get better at making smarter decisions is learning from experience and not repeating the same mistakes again. No decision is perfect in the sense that no decision can guarantee a hundred percent success rate in attainment of objective. However, we must choose the best course of action that has highest chance of success and is backed by logic and confidence in our own judgment. Decisions may turn out to be good or bad but none of them are wasted. Bad or good ones, both add up to what we call wisdom if they are analyzed in the aftermath. One often realizes the importance of decision making only after making a couple of bad ones. Do not avoid making decisions on our own because every decision that we make for ourselves are opportunities to grow and learn.

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