Istikhara Dua: Arabic Text, Meaning, and How to Pray It

The istikhara dua is the supplication the Prophet ﷺ taught for making a decision: you pray two voluntary rak'ahs, then ask Allah to decree the matter and bless it if it is good for you, and to turn it away from you if it is not (Sahih al-Bukhari 1166). Below is the full text line by line, then how to pray it, when not to, and what the four Sunni schools say comes after.

Key takeaways

• Istikhara is two rak'ahs other than the obligatory prayers, followed by a dua the Prophet ﷺ taught his Companions the way he taught them a surah of the Quran (Sahih al-Bukhari 1166).
• All four schools place the dua after the prayer; some Shafi'i scholars and the Maliki scholar al-Adawi also allow it in prostration or after the tashahhud.
• You name your need in the dua: the hadith ends with "and he names his need."
• Avoid the times when voluntary prayer is disliked, such as after Asr until sunset. If you cannot pray, the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi'i schools allow the dua on its own.
• No dream is required. The four schools treat a heart that opens to the matter as the sign in its favour, and being turned away from it as the sign against.

The istikhara dua in Arabic, with transliteration and meaning

Jabir ibn Abdullah said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to teach them istikhara in their affairs as he taught them a surah of the Quran. He would say: "When one of you intends to do something, let him pray two rak'ahs other than the obligatory prayer, and then say:" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1166). Each line below gives the Arabic, a transliteration in italics, and the meaning in English.

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْتَخِيرُكَ بِعِلْمِكَ وَأَسْتَقْدِرُكَ بِقُدْرَتِكَ

Allahumma inni astakhiruka bi-'ilmika, wa astaqdiruka bi-qudratika,

O Allah, I ask You to choose what is best for me by Your knowledge, and to give me the ability by Your power,

وَأَسْأَلُكَ مِنْ فَضْلِكَ الْعَظِيمِ

wa as'aluka min fadlikal-'azim,

and I ask You from Your immense bounty.

فَإِنَّكَ تَقْدِرُ وَلاَ أَقْدِرُ وَتَعْلَمُ وَلاَ أَعْلَمُ وَأَنْتَ عَلاَّمُ الْغُيُوبِ

Fa innaka taqdiru wa la aqdiru, wa ta'lamu wa la a'lamu, wa anta 'allamul-ghuyub.

For You are able and I am not, You know and I do not, and You are the Knower of all that is hidden.

اللَّهُمَّ إِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذَا الأَمْرَ خَيْرٌ لِي فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي ـ أَوْ قَالَ عَاجِلِ أَمْرِي وَآجِلِهِ ـ

Allahumma in kunta ta'lamu anna hadhal-amra khayrun li fi dini wa ma'ashi wa 'aqibati amri (aw qala: 'ajili amri wa ajilihi),

O Allah, if You know that this matter is good for me in my religion, my livelihood and the outcome of my affairs (or he said: in my affairs, now and later),

فَاقْدُرْهُ لِي وَيَسِّرْهُ لِي ثُمَّ بَارِكْ لِي فِيهِ

faqdurhu li, wa yassirhu li, thumma barik li fihi.

then decree it for me, make it easy for me, and then bless me in it.

وَإِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنَّ هَذَا الأَمْرَ شَرٌّ لِي فِي دِينِي وَمَعَاشِي وَعَاقِبَةِ أَمْرِي ـ أَوْ قَالَ فِي عَاجِلِ أَمْرِي وَآجِلِهِ ـ

Wa in kunta ta'lamu anna hadhal-amra sharrun li fi dini wa ma'ashi wa 'aqibati amri (aw qala: fi 'ajili amri wa ajilihi),

And if You know that this matter is bad for me in my religion, my livelihood and the outcome of my affairs (or he said: in my affairs, now and later),

فَاصْرِفْهُ عَنِّي وَاصْرِفْنِي عَنْهُ

fasrifhu 'anni wasrifni 'anhu,

then turn it away from me, and turn me away from it,

وَاقْدُرْ لِي الْخَيْرَ حَيْثُ كَانَ ثُمَّ أَرْضِنِي بِهِ

waqdur lil-khayra haythu kana, thumma ardini bihi.

and decree for me what is good, wherever it may be, and then make me content with it.

Sahih al-Bukhari 1166

Where you name your need

The hadith ends with wa yusammi hajatah (وَيُسَمِّي حَاجَتَهُ), "and he names his need." In Sahih al-Bukhari 7390 this is explicit: after "this matter" the narration says thumma tusammihi bi-'aynih, "then you name it specifically." The commentary at HadeethEnc gives examples such as buying a certain house or marrying a certain person, and the Hanafi fatwa office Darul Ifta Ahle Sunnat says you may say the matter itself in place of hadhal-amr (fatwa FAM-1145).

Small wording differences between the narrations

Al-Bukhari records the same hadith twice more, in 6382 and 7390. There the last line reads thumma raddini bihi, which means the same as ardini bihi: "then make me content with it." In all three, the narrator was unsure whether the Prophet ﷺ said "in my religion, my livelihood and the outcome of my affairs" or "in my affairs, now and later", and in 7390 the first half gives the two in reverse order. Either wording is correct to say.

For another supplication the Prophet ﷺ taught, this one said inside the Witr prayer, see dua qunoot.

How to pray istikhara, step by step

1. Think the matter through and, if you can, ask the advice of someone you trust.
2. Pray two rak'ahs with the intention of istikhara, outside the obligatory prayers.
3. After the prayer, praise Allah and send blessings on the Prophet ﷺ, then say the dua, naming your matter where it says hadhal-amr.
4. Go ahead with what seems right, and see whether the matter opens up for you or is turned away from you.

Before you pray: think it through and ask

The Kuwaiti Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence (vol. 3, p. 243) notes that the hadith's wording, "when one of you intends", suggests making istikhara when the matter first comes to mind, before your heart is set on it, because a strong pull toward one option can keep you from seeing what is right, though the word may also mean a settled intention rather than every passing thought. Al-Nawawi recommends first consulting someone known for sincere advice and care for you (same page). Ibn Hajar al-Haytami gave consultation priority, since a sincere adviser's view is more reliable than your own inclinations (3/243).

The two rak'ahs

The hadith specifies two rak'ahs "other than the obligatory prayer" (min ghayril-faridah). The four schools agree that two is best, and Shafi'is permit more, treating two as the minimum (Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 3/244). Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi'is recommend reciting Surah al-Kafirun after al-Fatiha in the first rak'ah and Surah al-Ikhlas in the second; al-Nawawi saw both as suiting a prayer of sincere reliance on Allah. Hanbalis prescribe no particular recitation for this prayer (3/245).

Saying the dua

All four schools place the dua after the prayer (Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 3/245). Some Shafi'i scholars, among them al-Shawbari, and the Maliki scholar al-Adawi also allow it inside the prayer, in prostration or after the tashahhud (3/246). Hanafis, Malikis and Shafi'is recommend opening and closing the dua with praise of Allah and blessings on the Prophet ﷺ. The Encyclopedia adds, from Ibn 'Allan's al-Futuhat al-Rabbaniyya, that you face the qibla, raise your hands and keep the usual manners of supplication (3/245).

When to pray istikhara

Istikhara has no set time of its own; what matters is avoiding the times when voluntary prayer is disliked. The Maliki and Shafi'i texts say this explicitly of istikhara, and Hanafis and Hanbalis reach the same result through their general ban on voluntary prayer at those times (Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 3/244). Those times are after the Fajr prayer until sunrise and after the Asr prayer until sunset (Sahih al-Bukhari 581), and the three moments Uqbah ibn Amir reported: from sunrise until the sun is up, when it stands at its height until it passes the meridian, and when it begins to set until it has set (Sahih Muslim 831). If you cannot pray, the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi'i schools allow the dua on its own, and it can be said at any time, since supplication is never forbidden (3/243–244).

These windows shift daily with the sun: see the prayer times for your city, and how prayer times are calculated for why they move through the year.

What happens after istikhara?

What the schools treat as the sign

The four schools agree that the sign in favour is inshirah al-sadr, an opening of the heart toward the matter, and you go ahead with it (Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 3/246). The Shafi'i scholar al-Zamlakani held that it is not a condition: after istikhara you do what seems right to you, whether or not you feel that opening, because the good lies in it. The sign against is being turned away, and the Encyclopedia records no disagreement on this: your heart stops being attached to the matter, as the dua asks with fasrifhu 'anni wasrifni 'anhu (3/247). Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani adds a caution: if you already strongly wanted something before the istikhara, the ease you feel toward it afterwards is not what decides (Fath al-Bari 11/187, quoted in the Encyclopedia of Islamic Etiquette).

Do you have to see a dream?

No. The hadith says nothing about sleep or dreams. A practice reported from earlier Hanafi teachers is to sleep in a state of wudu, facing the qibla, after saying the dua, and to take white or green in a dream as a sign of good and black or red as a sign of harm (relayed by Ibn Abidin; see the Darul Ifta Ahle Sunnat fatwa FAM-1145). Egypt's Dar al-Ifta, in a 2018 fatwa by Shawki Allam, says a person may see a dream that points to a choice, but that this is rare and is not a condition, as some people think (fatwa 4356). Both are scholarly views about a possible sign, not a promise that a dream will come or a reason to wait for one.

Repeating istikhara

If nothing becomes clear, the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi'i schools say you repeat istikhara, prayer and dua together, up to seven times (Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 3/246). Their basis is a report from Anas ibn Malik in Ibn al-Sunni's collection that mentions seven times and looking to what first comes to your heart. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani graded its chain very weak (wahin jiddan), so the number is the schools' position, not an established hadith. Shafi'is allow continuing after the seventh time, and the Encyclopedia found no Hanbali position on repeating it (3/246).

Don't rush the answer

The Prophet ﷺ said that a person's supplication is answered as long as he is not hasty, saying, "I made dua, but I was not answered" (Sahih al-Bukhari 6340). The Kuwaiti Encyclopedia applies this to istikhara: do not hurry the answer, and be content with what Allah chooses for you (3/246).

What istikhara is not

The four schools agree istikhara is only for matters whose right course you do not know, so it has no place in what is obligatory, forbidden or disliked; for an act of worship or another good deed, it is made only about the details, such as whether to travel for Hajj this year or with a particular companion (Kuwaiti Encyclopedia, 3/242). Nor is it a way of reading the unseen: seeking that by opening the Mushaf at random, by marks in sand or by casting lots is not permitted, and al-Turtushi, Abu al-Hasan al-Maghribi and Ibn al-Arabi counted it a form of the divining arrows (azlam) forbidden in the Quran (3/242; al-Ma'idah 5:3). And it does not replace thinking, asking advice and doing your part. It comes alongside them.