From the Whispers of Shaytaan

Excerpt from 'The Whisper of the Shaytaan and its Cure' by Shaykh Muhammad Bin Saalih Uthaymeen Rahimahullaah

•    Shaytan Comes to Man in Matters related to his Purification

Firstly, he causes him to doubt his niyah (intention). So you find him making wudoo’ and shaytaan will say to him: “Surely you did not make your intention”.

Mankind does not realize that such thoughts are more than absurdity in his mind, and misguidance in the religion.

Exactly what was it that brought the individual to the place (of wudoo’), caused him to turn the faucet on and made him begin to wash the limbs for wudoo’ except that it was the intention that occurred in his heart and a complete willingness to do the action?!

This is sufficient for the individual to reject what he has thought about and realize that it was a doubt and an incorrect whisper.

A man came to the people of knowledge and asked “O sir, verily I have fallen into a state of sexual impurity so I went to the river and immersed myself in it, to become pure. Then when I came out of it, in my heart I thought, ‘Did I purify myself?’”. So the Shaykh said, “I do not think that you should pray”, so the man asked “why?”. The Shaykh said replied by saying, “The messenger of Allaah (صل الله عليه وسلم) said the pen is lifted on three: the one that is asleep until he awakes, the small child until he reaches puberty, and the one who is insane (until his sanity returns). And you are insane! How can you go to the river and bathe to remove sexual impurity then ask, ‘Have I purified myself?”

So if an individual doubts his wudoo’ or whether he made the intention for it or not, he should simply continue and complete his wudoo’ and disregard the doubt.

Shaytaan comes from another angle as well. He comes to the heart during wudoo’ and will make one think he did not blow the water into his nose for example, and by this point he is now wiping over his head, so we say do not respond to this, rather complete your wudoo’ for verily this is a whisper.

Shaytaan may also come to him after he finished his wudoo’ and say, “You did not make your intentions”, or “You did not wash your face”, or “You did not breathe the water into your nose”, or other whispers and doubts similar to this. So seek refuge with Allah and do not stop, and continue on your way and ignore it.

Likewise, shaytaan comes to an individual during his ghusl saying, “You did not complete your ghusl”. Consequently, you find him washing his body many times. This is from hardship. It is upon the individual to ignore this even if the shaytaan says you did not wash or you did not complete washing this or that part of the body and other similar whispers. So continue and do not pay any attention to this.

If the servant overly thinks about this, surely this issue will cause hardship and cause him to become exhausted and annoyed. But if he turns away from these whispers and continues on his way, this hardship will become a way out for him, if Allaah wills. So be patient with this hardship and do not take heed to it.

•    Shaytaan will come to an Individual While Praying

He will deceive him firstly in his intention such that the prayer says, “I do not know if I made my intentions or not”.

Subhan Allaah! How could you not know if you made your intentions or not and you

came to the place of prayer. Isn’t this your intention? This is the intention. The intention doesn’t require formalities. When an individual does an action on his own accord and he is sane then this is his intention.

Next the shaytaan comes to him within the prayer. When he begins reading a soorah after the Faatihah, shaytaan says to him, “You did not read Al-Faatihah”, or “You forgot a letter from it” or “You did not pronounce a letter properly” and similar to this.

Shaytaan also comes (and deceives the individual) in the number of rakaats he has prayed. He says, “You did not pray except one rakaat”, but indeed he has prayed two. Or “You did not pray except two rakaats” but indeed he has prayed three. Or, “You did not pray except three rakaats”, but indeed he has prayed four. Maybe he will pray ten rakaats or fifteen rakaats in accordance with these whispers.

The cure for such is that he should seek refuge in Allaah ta’aala from the accursed shaytaan and leave off and turn away from the whispers.  If he does this, the whispers will go away.

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Related hadith:

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) said, "When Adhan for Salat is pronounced, the devil takes to his heels and breaks wind with noise so as not to hear the call. When the Adhan is finished, he returns. When the Iqamah is announced, he turns his back, and after it is finished, he returns again to distract the attention of one and makes him remember things which he does not recall in his mind before the Salat, and says `Remember this, and this,' and thus causes one to forget how many Rak`at he performed.''
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

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