Istihara

Prayers of istihara are said specifically to predict the future. People, usually women, will come to the bula and ask if she can pray istihara on their behalf to find out whether a certain project will succeed, for example. Before going to sleep the bula will pray for a dream that will reveal whatever it was the person in question wanted to know about her future. The bula will then interpret the dream. The istihara is said to demand intense concentration and be mentally very tiring; not every bula can do it. While shari'at-oriented Islamic scholars consider much of the divination practiced by Bosniaks in Bosnia to be against the spirit of Islam, the bula I spoke to emphasized that the istihara is a practice referred to in the Qur'an.