Hadith collections / Al-Kafi

Al-Kafi · Hadith 3

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

Original Arabic text

3ـ غَيْرُ وَاحِدٍ عَنْ سَهْلِ بْنِ زِيَادٍ عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ الْبَصْرِيِّ عَنِ الْقَاسِمِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ الْهَاشِمِيِّ عَنْ هَارُونَ بْنِ خَارِجَةَ عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ الله (عَلَيْهِ الْسَّلام) قَالَ إِذَا أَرَدْتَ أَمْراً فَخُذْ سِتَّ رِقَاعٍ فَاكْتُبْ فِي ثَلاَثٍ مِنْهَا بِسْمِ الله الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ خِيَرَةً مِنْ الله الْعَزِيزِ الْحَكِيمِ لِفُلاَنِ بْنِ فُلاَنَةَ افْعَلْهُ وَفِي ثَلاَثٍ مِنْهَا بِسْمِ الله الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ خِيَرَةً مِنَ الله الْعَزِيزِ الْحَكِيمِ لِفُلاَنِ بْنِ فُلاَنَةَ لاَ تَفْعَلْ ثُمَّ ضَعْهَا تَحْتَ مُصَلاَّكَ ثُمَّ صَلِّ رَكْعَتَيْنِ فَإِذَا فَرَغْتَ فَاسْجُدْ سَجْدَةً وَقُلْ فِيهَا مِائَةَ مَرَّةٍ أَسْتَخِيرُ الله بِرَحْمَتِهِ خِيَرَةً فِي عَافِيَةٍ ثُمَّ اسْتَوِ جَالِساً وَقُلِ اللهمَّ خِرْ لِي وَاخْتَرْ لِي فِي جَمِيعِ أُمُورِي فِي يُسْرٍ مِنْكَ وَعَافِيَةٍ ثُمَّ اضْرِبْ بِيَدِكَ إِلَى الرِّقَاعِ فَشَوِّشْهَا وَأَخْرِجْ وَاحِدَةً فَإِنْ خَرَجَ ثَلاَثٌ مُتَوَالِيَاتٌ افْعَلْ فَافْعَلِ الأمْرَ الَّذِي تُرِيدُهُ وَإِنْ خَرَجَ ثَلاَثٌ مُتَوَالِيَاتٌ لاَ تَفْعَلْ فَلاَ تَفْعَلْهُ وَإِنْ خَرَجَتْ وَاحِدَةٌ افْعَلْ وَالأخْرَى لاَ تَفْعَلْ فَأَخْرِجْ مِنَ الرِّقَاعِ إِلَى خَمْسٍ فَانْظُرْ أَكْثَرَهَا فَاعْمَلْ بِهِ وَدَعِ السَّادِسَةَ لاَ تَحْتَاجُ إِلَيْهَا.

Published English translation

3. More than one person has narrated from Sahl ibn Ziyad from Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Basriy from al-Qasim ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Hashimiy from Harun ibn Kharijah who has said the following: “Abu ‘Abd Allah (a.s.), has said that when you think of doing something, take six pieces of paper and write on three of them, ‘In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. It is to ask from Allah, the Majestic, the Wise, what is good for so and so son of so and so, “do it.’” On the other, three write, ‘In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. It is to ask from Allah, the Majestic, the Wise, what is good for so and so son of so and so, “do not do it.’” Keep them under your prayer rug and perform two Rak‘at Salah (prayer). After completing Salah (prayer), make a sajdah and say one hundred times, ‘I ask Allah, through His mercy, to choose what is good and safe.’ Then sit straight and say, ‘O Lord, pick and choose for me in all matters with ease and safety.’ Then mix the pieces and take out one. If three times, consecutively it comes ‘do it’, then you may do what you wanted to do. If three times consecutively it comes ‘do not do it,’ then do not do what you wanted to do. If one comes ‘do it’ and the other comes ‘do not do it’ continue taking out up to five pieces, then see which side is more then follow the side which is more and ignore the sixth piece.’”

Narrator and transmission

See the transmission information preserved in the original source text.

Attributed scholarly assessments

Allamah Baqir al-Majlisi: ضعيف على المشهور

Mirʾāt al-ʿUqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl (5/452)

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/3/4/93/3
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
3630b833c543d0f5209d58be3658bfab45abe479071d1d4931ee93819f962a93
source File Hash
c1963d9c5ae304c52e135f93552237f5ab876e0b12123bbc2d513a90dbd36cc2
original Source Url
https://thaqalayn.net/hadith/1/4/93/3
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.