The How’s and Why’s of Istikhaara

When we make important decisions in life, we usually seek the opinions of the experts. For example, if we are deciding on which school to go to, we would ask those who have graduated. If we are deciding on which career path to take, we would ask those who have successful careers that they find fulfilling. If we are deciding to start a new business, we would ask those who have launched successful businesses and so on.

All of this is a necessary part of decision-making in life. But let’s pause and think about it for a second. Is it necessarily the case that the opinions we get from those experts will be the best for us? Is it possible that those experts may not have known every aspect of our lives and thus the suggestions they give might even cause us a loss?  Is it possible that those suggestions might not even be suitable for us, considering that those experts may not know the hidden parts of our personalities and thereby not know which path will benefit us most in the long run?

The answer to those questions is a big yes! So now the question is, how to we make sure that the decisions we make are the absolute best? Well, we go seek the counsel of the One Who Knows us and everything around us the best! We seek the counsel of Allah. And the way we seek His counsel is through a sunnah prayer named Istikhaara.

The word Istikhaara means ‘seeking goodness’. There is this beautiful hadhith where the Prophet (SAW) teaches a companion about istikhaara prayer. The hadhith goes as follows:

Jabir bin Abdullah (RA) said: The Prophet (SAW) used to teach us to seek Allah’s Counsel in all matters, as he used to teach us a Surah from the Quran. He would say: When anyone of you has an important matter to decide, let him pray two Rak’ahs other than the obligatory prayer and then say:

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْتَخِيرُكَ بِعِلْمِكَ وَأَسْتَقْدِرُكَ بِقُدْرَتِكَ وَأَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ فَضْلِكَ الْعَظِيمِ فَإِنَّكَ تَقْدِرُ وَلَا أَقْدِرُ وَتَعْلَمُ وَلَا أَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتَ عَلَّامُ الْغُيُوبِ اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذَا الْأَمْرَ خَيْرٌ لِي فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي فَاقْدُرْهُ لِي وَيَسِّرْهُ لِي ثُمَّ بَارِكْ لِي فِيهِ وَإِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذَا الْأَمْرَ شَرٌّ فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي فَاصْرِفْهُ عَنِّي وَاصْرِفْنِي عَنْهُ وَاقْدُرْ لِيَ الْخَيْرَ حَيْثُ كَانَ ثُمَّ ارْضِنِي بِهِ

Meaning of the dua:

O Allah, I seek the counsel of Your Knowledge, and I seek the help of your Omnipotence, and I beseech You for your Magnificent Grace. Surely, You are Capable and I am not. You know and I do not know, and You are the Knower of the unseen. Oh Allah, if You know that this matter (mention the matter here) is good for me in my religion and in my life and for my welfare in the life to come in both the short term and the long term, the ordain it for me and make it easy for me, then bless me in it. And if You know that this matter is bad for me in my religion and in my life and for my welfare in the life to come in both the short term and the long term, then distance it from me, and distance me from it, and ordain for me what is good wherever it may be and help me be content with it.

(Hadhith is from Sahih al-Bukhaari 1166, Book 19, Hadhith 45)

As we know from this hadhith, it’s just a sunnah two raka’h prayer that we can pray at any time of the day (Except during the times that are prohibited to pray sunnah prayers: Between asr and maghrib and at the time of sunrise – see link in the comment for reference)

After we pray istikhaara, we can still ask the experts of this world for their opinions. From the moment we pray istikhaara, we will be guided to make the decision that’s best for us. Even from the answers we will be getting from the experts because at the end of the day, Allah is in control of even the words we hear from others. We will get exactly what we asked for in that dua. That is, if the decision is good for us, Allah Will make it easy for us in every possible way. If the decision is bad for us, He Will distance it from us and difficulties will come our way when we try to go ahead with that decision. If we are distanced from something because of istikhaara, we will find another ‘good’ and Allah Will help us be content with it as it’s described in the dua. (To read about my istikhaara experiences, go to the link in the comment below)

Something that amazes me about the hadhith of istikhaara is that Rasool (SAW) used to tell the companions about istikhaara as he would teach them a surah of a Quran. So, we could only imagine just how important this prayer is, in the life of a muslim. Wallaahi from my experience I can tell you that istikhaara prayer played a huge role in teaching me to put my trust in Allah and to be content with whatever He decrees for me. And we all know that this is a huge part of our faith.

So if you want to have an unwavering trust in Allah, hold onto this magical prayer of istikhaara!