Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
Wa'alaykum 'Assalam wa Rahmatullahi wa BarakatuhuAll Praise be to Allah who is the Lord of the Worlds, and may Endless Blessings be showered upon His Most Beloved, and Final Messenger of Islam, Hadrat Muhammad Mustafa (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa aalihi wa Sallam)Jazak'allah for your valuable question and apologies for the time it has taken in answering your question.
Istikhara means to seek, or to find what is good for you, or what is the best for you. There are many ways of seeking.
Istikhara is the Sunnah of the Beloved Messenger of Allah
(Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam), and there are many prescribed methods of using it.
One of the ways of seeking what you require, is recorded in the 'Shajrah-e-Qadiriyyah, Chishtiyyah, Ashrafiyyah', to which this whole website is affiliated to. Within it, is the following :
'To seek from the Noble Ghawth al A'zam
(Radi Allahu ta'ala anhu), first one must make ablution, then one must perform two cycles of superogotory (
nafil)
Istikhara prayer. After the salaam, the
surah Fatihah alongwith the
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem, and the
Third Kalima Tamjid must be recited 11 times. Then one must recite
'Ya Shaykh Abd al Qadir aghithni' 11 times.
Once again, two cycles of superogotory (
nafil) prayer is to be recited, in such a way that, when one reaches
'Nasta'in' in the first rak'ah of the '
Fatihah', one must shut his eyes tight, and loosen his body, while reciting
'Ihdi nas sirat al mustaqim'. He must keep on reciting this until the face sways to the left or right, and when it does , he must complete the
'Fatihah'. He must then recite the '
Fatihah' another 10 times, so that it makes 11. He will then recite
surah 'Ikhlas' (Qul Huwallah) 11 times and then go into 'ruku', and then 'sujud' etc. In the second rak'ah, he will then recite 11 times the '
Fatihah', and 11 times the '
Ikhlas', and finish his prayer with '
ruku', and '
sujud', normally.
If the face had turned to the right, the deed can be continued, or one should go ahead with what one intended. However, if it turned to the left, one should not go ahead with that deed. After a period of three days, insha'Allah, by performing this '
Istikhara' on each day, one should do/not do, according to the result. This
istikhara is established and experienced.
Note: Do not dwelve in to matters of those who say, this is
'bid'ah, or '
shirk', as this is far from it. Help can be granted to anyone, from whomever Allah wills, especially those who are close to His Proximity.
May Allah the Almighty help us all to be guided, and to seek guidance, in the manners prescribed by those who are close to Him, and may He fulfill eveyones wishes, in that respect.Wallahu A'lamu BiththawaabM. Waseem Ashrafi
