ISTIHARA or ISTIKHARA

Sadeta was dressed in slightly shabby, modest blouse and skirt. She was a friend of the landlord we were staying with, and he contacted her after I gave a short introduction about Islam and dreaming on Bosnian Federation morning television. Sadeta was very friendly, with a smiling, happy face and very good eye contact. She seemed a happy and very genuine person, did not ask for money although I later pressed her to take a small amount to cover her bus fare in Sarajevo. She said she did Istikhara without charging money but accepted gifts of money. An imam who had told her she had a gift from Allah told her to do Istikhara from

others and gave her two books to work with: a guide to Qur'anic healing and one for Istikhara practice.

In dreams Sadeta had been called, arguably similarly to shamanic dream calling examples, to be a Qur'anic and Istikhara dream healer. She said:

-I dreamed, dreamed a lot and I didn't know the meaning „why“ I had been dreaming. Therefore I went to visit one well-educated imam whom I told about my dreams.

Sadeta practiced two types of Islamic healing, saying specific prayers from the Qur'an for conditions such as exam nerves, as the interview took place during the exam season:




- It depends, case from case, as to what is needed. This doesn't mean a medical curing but curing with the Qur'an. In this book (giving specific guidance concerning reading specific Qur'anic verses for specific medical conditions) I usually find what is needed and then I take the Qur'an and pray with the Qur'an. Look at this book, you can see which prayers are appropriate for particular illnesses. For example, nowadays I am very busy because many young people are preparing for their exams, and they might be very nervous and lacking in confidence (Qur'anic healing) something when you can't drink any pill to calm you, otherwise you would be sleepy and so on. Ehh, and now, I do pray for them to lose their nervousness, to liberate themselves, and success, to pass the exams. However, it can't help everybody, only for those who believe that I have such a capacity to help. Look at the books, they are small; I find later in Qur'an „the number“ referred to in the book and „how many times“ it is necessary to pray the particular prayer. Afterwards I'll take the Qur'an and do the prayer.




Belief in the efficacy of the healer, Sadeta, and the Islamic faith are both apparently indispensable requirements for successful healing to take place. The healing is done from Allah, and Sadeta is a vehicle for this form of divine grace. She prayed for her clients on certain days and times of her own choosing:

I do it alone. And why? Because when you pray to Allah, I could pray all day but God couldn't receive my prayers. Therefore, I ask God, between akšam and jacija. Akšam (fourth daily prayer) is now about 8:30 PM and Jacija (fifth daily prayer) about 10:30 PM, and between the two prayers I do remember the complete name of the one I am praying for and then the particular prayer. And again the following morning when I do pray Sabah (first morning prayer); I do it again because I don't know whether God wants to receive my prayers or not. It isn't like doing shopping when you take a loaf of bread and the work is done. Therefore I usually repeat everything two or three times to make sure that God will help, but I can't guarantee 100 percent success. But I have success, thanks to Allah. I do not advertise myself anywhere, neither in newspapers nor on radio as many others do. Nothing like this. People just come and I am glad that God helps and still I have a lot of work to do.

Sadeta also does Istihara using another little book given her by the imam (Hodza). Sadeta describes doing Istikhara:

-Eeh, to pray Istikhara, I have another book, look. Do you know how to pray Istikhara? You have to wake up during the night, about 1:00 AM and you pray a „nonobligatory“ prayer, nonobligatory because we (Muslims) have to pray times a day, but you pray Istikhara. When I do pray the prayer, I remember the person I am praying for and subsequently I go to sleep. Morcover, I do remember the prayer and the person I prayed for again while I am already lying in my bed. And then I do dream, but the dream has to be interpreted later on.

Sadeta usually dreams after undertaking her prayer practice:

-Yes, I usually have a dream. It might happen that I don't have one, but it's rare. Sometimes, the meaning of a dream is rather unclear and has to be interpreted. For example, „a house“: the nice house with flowers around might symbolize organizing the mevlud (special prayer honoring the birth of the Prophet Muhammed or for a special celebratory occasion) prayer at home; for somebody without success or with problems, so the message of the dream might be for example to slaughter kurban (sacrifical ram/sheep) and to give food to people. Or sometimes I do dream and the interpretation is that I have to pray the sura „Yusuf“, ehh, Yusuf suffered a lot in his life-so if someone suffers like Yusuf than I do pray the sure „Yusuf“, but there is written (in the book) how many times I have to pray the sura.

Sadeta gives examples of the Istikhara practice:

Eeh, one young woman asked me for Istikhara, she gave me her name and surname. I dreamed about a house (she didn't tell me where she lives), I came (in the dream) in front of a house. I see a house with two entrances. When I've entered the house I see a small, wild garden and there were lambs and sheep. While I was in the garden I heard a voice saying: „I am interested in the young woman, I want to marry her, she will have much happiness in her life.“ When I told her about the dream, she said that her boyfriend has the some house. So, it means their fate is to stay together. Moreover, sheep and lambs are usually slaughtered during such an occasion like a marriage; and also wool makes life easy so everything was beautiful in the dream.

Sometimes the interpretation of a dream might be sorcery. One woman had a flat in Sarajevo and she bought a door, but she couldn't place it properly; it was impossible. Therefore, I did pray Istikhara for her; I dreamed. It's very bad when you dream like this, that in front of the door someone hooked an ox. And now, I see an ox clearly, I see his meat is rotting, it isn't good. So, when I dreamed about the rotting ox, the dream itself was terrible, I told her-you have to dig up the threshold and the doorframe, there has to be sihir (sorcery). Moreover, I had to pray various prayers against the evil powers for her to protect herself. I got a special prayer from one hafiz (educated Muslim who knows the Qur'an by heart) and it needs to be prayed thirty-seven times. When the woman had dug up the threshold around the door, she found everything that you can imagine (sorcery items).

Sadeta started to dream in 1990, her dream guide being a young handsome man dressed in white. She does not know him but thinks he may be a former, now deceased, shadida (martyr):

-I started to dream in 1990 in the flat that I now live in. I have lived in about five flats during my life, before, during and after the war; in one flat I lived for more than eighteen years, but I do Istikhara dreaming only in this one flat. No one else has dreamt Istikhara in the flat.

I've dreamed about a young man aged twenty-five to thirty, very nice, in a white shirt, and he tells me what I have to do, to help people, to heal people. And this has been since the very beginning. What is interesting is that I do dream only in the kitchen, not in other rooms. It's unbelievable but during the war, everything was damaged roundabout, except for my flat where even the windows stayed untouched. I couldn't believe it. What is there, in the flat, I don't know. I didn't pray Istikhara before; it happened when I told other people about my dreams. They explained to me that I could have the capacity for dreaming Istikhara and healing.