A Stranger and Shalat Istikharah

…And Allah reminds us in many ways…

We never know how our future is going to look like
and we never know if one stranger we might meet on the street is a special person that God sends to us to remind us about something…Here is my story…

I love travelling. Lucky enough for me, whenever I travel alone, I always meet nice and friendly people. People who have inspiring stories of their lives; such as an environmental activists who was dealing with deforestation in Indonesia, a stock analyst,  or a woman who quit from her job as a programmer in IBM to see the world by being an au pair in Amsterdam till a person who is having a long distance relationship between Eindhoven-Bordeaux for 20 years. Everyone has their own stories and sometimes, by story-sharing, we get good and useful knowledge that we do not know before. And not to forget, another good thing about your travel stranger-who-turn-to-become-a-companion is that it will make you feel less-lonely and eventually make the travel hours seems shorter J.

It was that day, just like any other time, I travelled by myself (again) to France.  And on my way back to Rotterdam, I met a person who is, a Dutch (but wasn’t born in Holland), who also happens to be a Muslim. We talked about many things; about life, about how he has a lot of Indonesian friends. Oh, I didn’t know that he was a Muslim up until he was mentioning that he is trying to keep his shalat 5 times a day. Then, since that, we began to talk about Islam. Actually, I was amazed by how much he knows about Islam despite that he spend most of his life in Holland. I was a bit embarassed as he appears to know Islam better than me even though I was born and spend most of my life in a country where the majority of its populations are Muslims.

Then we came into a discussion about shalat istikharah.

I didn’t know a lot about Shalat Istikharah. I have never done it before as I used to think that shalat Istikharah is only used to ensure our choice regarding which one that we should marry. And while I haven’t had a plan of marriage in near time, so I thought I shouldn’t really bother about this. But actually, I am wrong, this shalat is much more than that.

Shalat Istikharah can be done in order to get the feeling of secure and sure whenever we need to make an important choices  of our lives. Besides to ask Allah whether our choice of a person that we are going to marry is the right one, we can also pray to Him and ask for guidance regarding which businesses that we should pursue, which school/universities that we should choose, etc.  This Shalat Istikarah is indeed a magic form of communication between us and our Creator,  Allah SWT. Since He is our Creator, He knows us much better than we do. He knows what we need and what we don’t need, and what is bad and good for us.

Shalat Istikharah is not an obligation but it is recommended by Rasulullah SAW whenever we need to decisions, especially an important one. And this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t think hard to make certain decisions and just pray Istikharah, but we do both simultaneously.

How to do it? It is best if we do it in the 2/3 night. It can be done from 2 to 12 rakaat (6 times of salam). If we do 2 rakaat, the first rakaat after we read Al Fatihah, we continue with reading Surah Al Kafiruun. And in the second rakaat, after we read Al Fatihah, we read Surah Al-Ikhlas. And after we finish praying, we continue with a special du’a.

Allaahumma, innii astakhiiruka bi’ilmika, wa astaqdiruka biqudratik.
Wa as-aluka min fadhlikal ‘azhiimi, fa innaka taqdiru wa laa aqdiru, wa ta’lamu wa laa a’lamu, wa anta ‘allaamul ghuyuub.
Allaahumma, in kunta ta’lamu anna haadzal amra khairul lii fii diinii wa ma’aasyii wa ‘aaqibati amrii, faqdurhu lii, wa yassirhu lii, tsumma baarik lii fiih.
Wa in kunta ta’lamu anna haadzal amra syarrul lii fii diinii wa ma’aasyii wa ‘aaqibati amrii, fashrifhu ‘annii, washrifnii ‘anhu, waqdur liyal khaira haitsu kaana, tsumma radhdhinnii bih

And this is the translation of the du’a (in Indonesian)

“Ya Allah, sesungguhnya aku memohon pilihan [yang tepat] kepada Engkau dengan ilmu [yang ada pada]-Mu, dan aku memohon kekuasaan-Mu [untuk menyelesaikan urusanku] dengan kodrat-Mu.
Dan aku memohon kepada-Mu sebagian karunia-Mu yang agung, karena sesungguhnya Engkau Mahakuasa sedangkan aku tidak berkuasa, dan Engkau Mahatahu sedangkan aku tidak tahu, dan Engkau Maha Mengetahui perkara yang gaib”
After praying Istikharah, InshaAllah, He shall gives you a sign in a form of feeling of sure in your heart of a certain choices, or your effort that leads to certain choice seems easier. Thus the sign is not necessarily appear through the dream. And if the feeling of sure is not yet appear, we can do the shalat again in the name of Allah only and ask purely for his guidance for the best choice. InshaAllah..

And for me, I thank You, Allah for giving me a solution to my problems through a stranger…

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