Hadith #555

Arabic Text

English Translation

Abu al-Qasim narrated to us, he said: Ibn Abi Habibah informed me, from Dawud ibn al-Husayn, from 'Ikrimah, from Ibn 'Abbas (رضي الله عنهما) who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to teach us the Istikharah supplication just as he would teach us a surah from the Quran. He said: 'When one of you intends something, let him pray two rak'ahs other than the obligatory prayer, then let him say: O Allah, I seek Your guidance by Your knowledge, and I seek ability by Your power, and I ask from Your great bounty. For You are able and I am not, You know and I do not, and You are the Knower of the unseen. O Allah, if You know that this matter is good for me in my religion, my livelihood, and my end — or he said: in my immediate affairs and my future — then decree it for me and facilitate it for me, then bless me in it. And if You know that this matter is bad for me in my religion, my livelihood, and my end, then turn it away from me and turn me away from it, and decree for me what is good wherever it may be, then make me content with it.'