Istikharah (seeking Allah's Counsel)
On the authority of Jabir Ibn ʿAbdullah, he said:’The Prophet would instruct us to pray for guidance in all of our concerns, just as he would teach us a chapter from the Quran. He would say’ If any of you intends to undertake a matter then let him pray two supererogatory units two rakʿah nafilah of prayer and after which he should supplicate:
Allāhumma innī astakhīruka bi-ʿilmika, wa astaqdiruka bi-qudratika, wa asʾaluka min faḍlika l-ʿaẓīmi; fa innaka taqdiru walā aqdiru, wa taʿlamu walā aʿlamu, wa anta ʿallāmu l-ghuyūbi, allāhumma in kunta taʿlamu anna hādhā l-ʾmra khayrun lī fī dīnī wa maʿāshī wa ʿāqibati amrī fa iqdurhu lī wa yassirhu lī thmma bārik lī fīhi, waʾin kunta taʿlamu anna hādhā l-ʾamra sharrun lī fī dīnī wa maʿāshī wa ʿāqibati amrī fa iṣrifhu ʿannī wa iṣrifnī ʿanhu wa iqdur liya l-khayra ḥaythu kāna, thumma arḍinī bih
‘O Allah, I seek Your counsel by Your knowledge and by Your power I seek strength and I ask You from Your immense favour, for verily You are able while I am not and verily You know while I do not and You are the Knower of the unseen. O Allah, if You know this affair -and here he mentions his need- to be good for me in relation to my religion, my life, and end, – or he said: its immediate and its later – then decree and facilitate it for me, and bless me with it, and if You know this affair to be ill for me towards my religion, my life, and end, – or he said: its immediate and its later – then remove it from me and remove me from it, and decree for me what is good wherever it be and make me satisfied with such.