assalamualaikum mufti saab. hope you are fine by the grace of ALLAH the Almighty. my question is regarding istekhara.i pray 5 times a day and read the holy quran every day after fajar prayer. i am in love with my cousin and she also loved me. due tyo family problems i came to dubai and could not keep good contact with her. i sometimes behaved very badly. but 1 day i realised what i am doing was not good at all. so i seek ALLAH’s forgivness and seek her forgiveness. but by that time due to my bad behaviour she started hating me. any ways now she is not in my life anymore. i tried to convince her and tried to contact her but the refused.wat she says is if ALLAH wants us to get married we will get married so there is no use of talking. as i m religious i beleived this.mufti saab we both talked to each other for three years but never met or had any physical relationship, though she was my cousin, because my family and her family alhamdulillah we are religious. my question is she saying me the truth that because it is a sin so she will not talk to me or she started having affair with some one thats why she is ignoring me. is it possible to check this by doing istekharah. and plz tell me the way of doing istekharah. and plz advice me in regards to quran and shariah. thank you. jazak Allah khair.
Answer:
(Fatwa: 1291/267=TL/1430)
Istikharah is meant for lawful matters i.e. in which doing and not doing both are lawful. Performing istikharah in order to discover defect of someone is unlawful, rather we should think good about a Muslim. Therefore, it is unlawful for you to perform istikharah to discover the aforesaid matter.
You may see the details about istikharah and its occasions in the book ?Islami Shadi?. Get the book and study the same.
Allah (Subhana Wa Ta’ala) knows Best
Darul Ifta,
Darul Uloom Deoband