Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 2

The Book of Prayer · Salah (prayer) for Istikharah (asking Allah to Choose for One What Is Good) · Volume 3, book 4, chapter 93, Hadith 2

Original Arabic text

2ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ أَبِيهِ عَنْ عُثْمَانَ بْنِ عِيسَى عَنْ عَمْرِو بْنِ شِمْرٍ عَنْ جَابِرٍ عَنْ أَبِي جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) قَالَ كَانَ عَلِيُّ بْنُ الْحُسَيْنِ (صلّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَآلِه) إِذَا هَمَّ بِأَمْرِ حَجٍّ أَوْ عُمْرَةٍ أَوْ بَيْعٍ أَوْ شِرَاءٍ أَوْ عِتْقٍ تَطَهَّرَ ثُمَّ صَلَّى رَكْعَتَيِ الاسْتِخَارَةِ فَقَرَأَ فِيهِمَا بِسُورَةِ الْحَشْرِ وَبِسُورَةِ الرَّحْمَنِ ثُمَّ يَقْرَأُ الْمُعَوِّذَتَيْنِ وَقُلْ هُوَ الله أَحَدٌ إِذَا فَرَغَ وَهُوَ جَالِسٌ فِي دُبُرِ الرَّكْعَتَيْنِ ثُمَّ يَقُولُ اللهمَّ إِنْ كَانَ كَذَا وَكَذَا خَيْراً لِي فِي دِينِي وَدُنْيَايَ وَعَاجِلِ أَمْرِي وَآجِلِهِ فَصَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَآلِهِ وَيَسِّرْهُ لِي عَلَى أَحْسَنِ الْوُجُوهِ وَأَجْمَلِهَا اللهمَّ وَإِنْ كَانَ كَذَا وَكَذَا شَرّاً لِي فِي دِينِي وَدُنْيَايَ وَآخِرَتِي وَعَاجِلِ أَمْرِي وَآجِلِهِ فَصَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَآلِهِ وَاصْرِفْهُ عَنِّي رَبِّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ وَآلِهِ وَاعْزِمْ لِي عَلَى رُشْدِي وَإِنْ كَرِهْتُ ذَلِكَ أَوْ أَبَتْهُ نَفْسِي.

Published English translation

2. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from ‘Uthman ibn ‘Isa from ‘Amr ibn Shimr from Jabir who has said the following: “Abu Ja’far (a.s.), has said, ‘Whenever Ali ibn al-Husayn (a.s.), would think of performing Hajj, ‘Umrah or buying, selling or setting free a slave, he would first cleanse himself (take Wudu’ or bath), then perform two Rak‘at Salah (prayer) for Istikharah in which he read chapters 55 and 59. After completing Salah (prayer) he would read chapters 113, 114 and 112 while still in a sitting position. He then say, ‘O Lord, if such and such thing is good for me in this world and for my religion, immediately or later, Allahumma Salli ‘Ala Muhammad wa ‘Ali Muhammad, (O Allah grant Muhammad and his family a compensation worthy of their serving Your cause), please make it easy for me in the best manner and make it come beautiful. O Lord, if such and such thing is bad for my religion and my worldly matters immediately or later, Allahumma Salli ‘Ala Muhammad wa ‘Ali Muhammad, (O Allah grant Muhammad and his family a compensation worthy of their serving Your cause), please keep it away from me. O Lord, Allahumma Salli ‘Ala Muhammad wa ‘Ali Muhammad, (O Allah grant Muhammad and his family a compensation worthy of their serving your cause), please grant me determination with guidance even if I dislike it and my soul refuses.”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: ضعيف

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (15/451)

Assessment transcribed from the source's named scholar and reference. No new grading or consensus is asserted; differing entries remain separate.

Shaykh Baqir al-Behbudi: Catalogue non-inclusion note (not an authenticity grade)

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Kāfī

Source records non-inclusion in this scholar's selection; this is not itself a weak or authentic grade.

Source, rights, and attribution

dataset Name
Thaqalayn public library, via ThaqalaynAPI snapshot
source Url
https://thaqalayn.com/hadith/3/4/93/2
license
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
edition
Al-Kafi, volume 3, Thaqalayn digital edition / Muhammad Sarwar translation
imported At
2026-10-18T21:36:12.871Z
license Url
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
rights Statement Url
https://thaqalayn.com/terms
attribution
Source: Thaqalayn (Stichting Thaqalayn). Compiler: Shaykh Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb al-Kulaynī. Translation: Muhammad Sarwar. Data transport: MohammedArab1/ThaqalaynAPI. No endorsement implied.
translator
Muhammad Sarwar
source Revision
becbad600b693ce23735d7403c4126ce7c896d34
content Hash
b3130c4f1039dd3bd17efbea4f35537cf0b4e9801372529477741301ae0cff80
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/93/2
changes
Arabic and English texts preserved verbatim from pinned snapshot. Compiler introduction excluded where present; references mapped to fields; assessment whitespace trimmed; source-supplied English sanad retained separately. Search normalization is not applied to displayed text. Snapshot URL's erroneous volume 1 segment corrected to volume 3 using the reviewed file/book/volume metadata and publisher chapter structure; original URL retained for audit.
verification Note
Publisher content rights, translator attribution and structural checks, with independent publisher-page spot checks—not scholarly authentication or printed-edition collation. Historical text and scholarly reference strings may contain source errors; they are not silently corrected. No full commentary prose or inferred narrator identity is added. Muʿjam coverage, where present, is only the supplied excerpt, not the complete work.