Salah al-Istikharah

Salah al-istikharah, which means wishing for the good and the beneficient, is the ritual prayer that a person performs before the supplication for Allah (swt) to guide and inspire him to the right thing when he is unsure about which of the two things will give the best result. This ritual prayer and supplication are actually a plea to Allah (swt) to make something happen if it is good, and not make it happen if it is not good. When we are about to do something, Prophet Muhammad (saw) wants us to perform a two rak’ah ritual prayer and ask for the good with the following supplication: “Allah, I trust Your knowledge and ask You for whatever is good for me, I ask You to make me stronger.  I ask for Your endless blessings. I do not know but You do, I am incapable but You are capable. O Allah! If this [matter] is good for my religion and my subsistence and in my Hereafter, Then ordain it for me and make it easy for me to attain, and then bless me with it.  However, if this is harmful to me in my religion and subsistence and in the Hereafter, then keep it away from me and keep me away from it.  Ordain for me whatever is good, and make me satisfied with it!” (Sahih Bukhari, Tahajjud, 25; Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Witr, 15)