Istikhara: The Guidance and Practice of Islamic Dream Incubation Through Ethnographic Comparison

Abstract

This paper introduces and contextualizes Istikhara, Islamic dream incubation practice, as a way to approach the dynamics of Muslims’ inner and outer worlds as an interrelated process of embodied well‐being. We introduce an anthropologically informed debate on healing dreaming in Islam and Islamic healing dreaming practices. Based on our research, we discuss ethnographic examples of Istikhara as practised by British Pakistanis, Pakistanis and last but not least a case study from a corner of the Muslim world, Muslim Bosnia. We explore a shared propensity to dream, though a culturally informed one, and situate the practice into a general economy of Muslim well‐being.

Keywords:

• Dreaming
• Healing
• Islam
• Istikhara
• Pakistan
• Bosnia

Notes

[1] Aydar is a Turkish academic living in Istanbul.

[2] Allen (2006: 28) also reports that salat al Istikhara (prayer of proper guidance) is commonplace among Palestinian refugees in Shatil refugee camps.

[3] Some of them are in the Bosnian language.