Numerical Istikharah

In his book entitled al-Dhikra, Shaykh al-Shahid, may Allah have mercy upon him, says: One of its famous types is the numerical Istikharah, which was, however, not famous in the past ages before the time of the great Sayyid of ‘Amil (i.e. southern Lebanon), Razi al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Awi al-Husayni, the neighbor of the holy shrine of Imam ‘Ali (‘a) in the holy city of al-Najaf. May Allah have mercy upon him.Just like all of his reports, I have reported this type of Istikharah from him according to the following chain of authority: A number of our mentors have reported on the authority of the grand and virtuous Shaykh Jamal al-Din ibn al-Mutahhar on the authority of his father, may Allah be pleased with both of them, on the authority of Sayyid Razi al-Din on the authority of the Patron of the Matter; Imam al-Mahdi (‘a) who said: Surah al-Fatihah is repeated ten times, or at least three times, or at the least one time. Then Surah al-Qadr is repeated ten times and then this supplicatory prayer is repeated three times:

اللّهُمَّ إنّي أَسْتَخيرُكَ لِعِلْمِكَ بِعاقِبَةِ الاَمُورِ ، وَأَسْتَشيرُكَ لِحُسْنِ ظَنِّي بِكَ في المَأمُولِ وَالَمحْذُورِ ، اللّهُمَّ إنْ كانَ الاَمْرُ الفُلاني مِمّا قَدْ نيطَتْ بِالبَرَكَةِ أَعْجازُهُ وَبَواديهِ وَحُفَّتْ بِالكَرامَةِ أَيّامُهُ وَلَياليهِ فَخِرْ لي اللّهُمَّ فيهِ خيرَةً تَرُدُّ شَمُوسَهُ ذَلولاً وَتَقْعَضُ أَيَّامَهُ سُرُوراً ، اللّهُمَّ إمَّا أمْرٌ فَأئْتَمِرُ وَإمَّا نَهيٌ فَأنْتَهِي ، اللّهُمَّ إنّي أسْتَخِيرُكَ بِرَحْمَتِكَ خِيرَةً في عافِيَةٍ.