Can any muslim do Istikhara, or does he have to be praying five times, have thorough knowledge of quran and sunna, be an aalim etc?
The question arose, when someone was carrying out Istikhara, and another person pointed out that it is more beneficial if a pious person does the Istikhara for him E.g a mother or grandmother. Whereas the differing point of view was that the person most directly effected by the decision should do Istikhara him/herself.
Istikhara isn’t a very complicted procedure by itself. However we need to know if there are any essential pre-requisites.
Yes of course,in my humble opinion that is i mean come on where are u going to draw the line and say alright these ppl can perform istikhara and these can’t–its common sense. There is no limit in striving for deen, therefore we’re all learners right?–and so we gotta remember that, some know more some know less, but none of us know all…only Allah swt, Al Alim–the All knowing… wry smile i’m getting off track here, anyways, here’s an article i found on istikhara, http://www.jamiat.org.za/istikhaara.html, Hope it helps…its put up by the ‘Jamiatul Ulama’ based in durbs