Istikhara Dua

The Istikhara dua is a specific supplication recited after performing two units (rak’ahs) of voluntary prayer, asking Allah to guide the person towards whichever outcome is genuinely good for their religion, life, and the long-term consequences of the matter, and away from whichever is not. You may also see it referred to as istikhara ki dua or dua e istikhara — these all refer to the same supplication set out below.

“O Allah, I seek Your guidance by virtue of Your knowledge, and I seek ability by virtue of Your power, and I ask You from Your great bounty. You have power and I have none, You know and I do not know, and You are the Knower of all unseen things.

O Allah, if You know that this matter is good for me in my religion, my livelihood and the outcome of my affairs, then ordain it for me, make it easy for me, and bless it for me in it.

And if You know that this matter is bad for me in my religion, my livelihood and the outcome of my affairs, then turn it away from me and turn me away from it, and ordain for me what is good wherever it may be, and make me content with it.”

The wording is worth reading slowly. It does not ask Allah to reveal a specific outcome or grant a particular wish; it asks for whichever path is genuinely good, explicitly acknowledging that the person praying does not have the knowledge or power to know this for themselves. The second half asks, just as sincerely, for the matter to be turned away if it is not good — which is why Istikhara cannot honestly be marketed as a way to get what you already want.

Read slowly, the dua turns out to be a remarkably careful piece of language. It opens by asking Allah for guidance by virtue of Your knowledge and ability by virtue of Your power, and asks for what is asked for from Your great bounty. Each of those phrases quietly acknowledges that guidance, ability, and provision all come from Allah rather than from the person praying. The next line is even more direct: You have power and I have none, You know and I do not know, and You are the Knower of all unseen things. That is not decorative language — it is the emotional posture the whole prayer rests on.

The two conditional halves that follow are perhaps the most striking. The first asks that, if this matter is good for the person’s religion, life, and outcome, it be ordained, made easy, and blessed. The second asks, just as sincerely, that if the matter is bad for those same things, it be turned away, and the person turned away from it, and something good ordained in its place, with contentment about it. It is worth noticing that the prayer explicitly asks to be redirected if the direction the person is leaning towards is not good — and to be made content with the alternative. That is the humility Istikhara embodies.

When you read the dua with your specific matter in mind, this shape becomes very tangible. You are asking not for the outcome you have already decided you want, but for the outcome that is actually good for you — and asking to accept that outcome even where it does not match your original preference.

For many Muslims in the UK, Arabic is a language they read in prayer but are not fluent in day to day. That is entirely normal, and it does not affect the validity of the dua. The Arabic text above is the one to read where you are comfortable with it. If you are still learning to read Arabic, the transliteration is a supported and widely used bridge, and it is entirely acceptable to read from it during the prayer.

Where Arabic feels too far off for now, reciting the meaning in your own language — sincerely, with the same intention — is generally considered acceptable, particularly if you continue to learn the Arabic text over time. What matters more than fluency is presence of heart. A person who reads the transliteration slowly, meaning every phrase, is doing something far closer to the spirit of the dua than a person who recites the Arabic quickly with their mind elsewhere.