1. The Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam has said: "If one of you is concerned about some practical undertaking, or about making plans for a journey, he should perform two Raka'aats (cycles) of voluntary prayer." Then he should say the following Du'aa: اللَّهمَّ إنِّي أستَخيرك بعلمكَ،و أستقدرك بقُدرتك، و أسْألك مِن فضلك العظيم، فإنّك تَقْدر و لا أقْدِر، و تعلم و لا أعلم، و أنت علاَّمُ الغُيوب. اللَّهمَّ إنْ كنتَ تعلم أنَّ هذا الأمْرِ خيرٌ لي في ديْني و معَاشي و عاقِبة أمري – او قال عاجِل أمري و آجِله – فاقْدِرْهُ لي و يسِّرْه لي ثمَّ بارِك لي فِيه، و إن كنتَ تعلم أنَّ هذا الأمرِ شرٌّ لي في دِيني و معآشِي و عاقبةِ أمْرِي – او قال في عاجِل أمرِي و آجِله – فاصْرِفْه عَنِّي، و اصْرفْنِي عَنه، و اقْدِر لِيَ الخيْرَ حَيْثُ كان ثُمَّ ارْضِنِي بِه. Oh Allah! I seek Your guidance by virtue of Your knowledge, and I seek ability by virtue of Your power, and I ask You of Your great bounty. You have power; I have none. And You know; I know not. You are the Knower of hidden things. Oh Allah! If in Your knowledge this matter is good for my religion, my livelihood and my affairs, immediate and in the future, then ordain it for me, make it easy for me, and bless it for me. And if in Your knowledge this matter is bad for my religion, my livelihood and my affairs, immediate and in the future, then turn it away from me, and turn me away from it. And ordain for me the good wherever it may be, and make me content with it. Salatul Istikhara We all turn to Allah during timeswhen we are in need, and one of the most common methods and reasons for turning to Him is to seek His guidance throughthe Salaah of Istikhara. Istikhara, in reality, means “to seek goodness from Allah” according to some Ulamaa and according to some it is “to seekguidance from Allah”. Whichever meaning we take, it is a prayer and supplication which is made by a believer to His Lord to help him in the time of need and confusion. However, it is also a known factthat many people experience confusion about this particular prayer. The main reason for theoccurrence of confusion is because the person who is offering this prayer is expecting divine guidance from Allah Ta'ala and therefore has this belief in this heart that whatever result and path he is shown to take will be the correct path and the most beneficial path for him chosen by Allah Himself. However, when people offer this prayer, it is witnessed that the confusion of a person is not removed. Furthermore, the path that one appears to have been told to take is sometimes not a smooth and clear path; instead, the person apparently faces more difficulty in taking that path. It is for this reason that it is vital to clear a few misconceptions and furthermore present a wonderful insight of a great scholar from the followers of Imaam Shafi'ee Rahimahullah. First View The first and most common view of Istikhara is that it is a prayer through which one seeks the guidance from Allah Ta'ala. It is a prayer that removes the confusion a person is experiencing in a matter he wishes to undertake; be that matter should you marry this certain person? Should you attend this graduate school? Should you take this job offer or that one? Therefore, the person who performs this prayer does so inorder to seek guidance from Allah Ta'ala and hopes that his heart will be inclined towards one of the two matters thus enlightening him as to what decision to make. However, as mentioned before,we sometimes see that we do not receive any sort of inclination after the Istikhara, or that once the decision is made we go through difficulties in the option we followed due to the Istikhara. Explanation Primarily, it should be understood that, according to this view, we are seeking Allah's complete knowledge to guide us and therefore we should understand that whatever path we take is the right path for us and no matter what apparent difficulties we go through there is some benefit for us within this path that Allah has inclined our hearts towards. Furthermore, if we feel that there is no inclination towards a certain matter then the scholars have mentioned that we should perform the prayer several times until we do receive an answer from Allah Ta'ala. Second View Istikhara rather than being a prayer for guidance it is a supplication (Du'aa) to Allah Ta'ala and a prayer to seek goodness from Him. It is through this prayer that a person asks Allah Ta'ala to put goodness in whatever he decides to do and a supplication to Allah asking Himto guide him towards that in which there is goodness for him and keep him away from that which has no goodness for him. (The explanation of the Imam that is given is very lengthy and takes a great effort to explain. Alhumdulillah I am in the process of completing the translation of this article which I will post in the near future, Insha Allah.);/ - - - :-> Transtors: 1.http://free-translation.imtranslator.net/lowres.asp 2.http://translate.google.com/m?twu=1&hl=en&vi=m&sl=auto&tl=en