Islamic marriage advice and family advice

Constant doubts about my prayer

Muslim woman praying at the Blue Mosque in TurkeyHello. I am a 16 years old girl. I always had this problem of doubting my prayer ever since I started praying which was around 4 years ago (I was 12). Like I'll be in the middle of the prayer and then start thinking "did I repeat the same soorah in both raka'as? did I say the tashahud? Did I read a soorah after al fatiha?" and many more.

And also after I finish the prayer and have similar doubts.

This has led me to pray sujood as-sahu (the prostration of forgetfulness) after every single prayer, but I feel like it is wrong to do so.

This also happens during wudu. I have to repeat wudu at least 3 times and stopping midway 2-3 times before I feel like I did it correctly and go to pray. Also my mom told me to wait a little after ending each prayer before getting up so the prayer goes up, but sometimes I forget and talk after ending prayer directly or get up directly.

What can I do about these doubts? Is it ok to pray sujood as-sahu after each prayer? Do I ignore these doubts?

Thank you in advance.

- Tala


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5 Responses »

  1. how does prayer go up? i don't understand.

    • She means go up to Allah, ie be accepted. That’s my guess. But there is no basis in Islam for this idea.

      Wael
      IslamicAnswers.com Editor

  2. Just ignore these 'wehams' or doubts. this happens to me as well. just ignore them. to me this happens when i think of something else for a moment in prayer and it is hard to focus solely on your prayer, but most of the time it's just a doubt and i ignore it. cause the more i think of it, the more doubtful i get..

  3. Hello Sister, keep praying and do not stop even if you are having doubts or distractions. It seems to me that you need some focus, I would do some focus exercise to help you focus more because that could be a part of it. Also, make dua to Allah that he gives you focus in your salah and accepts it from you.

    • Hello, these are regular problems I face almost daily that make me doubt the validity of my prayers.

      Sometimes while scrolling in Instagram or YouTube, etc. I come across some inappropriate videos or pictures, and they make me feel some kind of way, I don't know what it is, and sometimes I get discharge. I DON'T intentionally think these thoughts or stimulate anything by myself (e.g. my finger) or watch bad stuff intentionally. It happens by itself or by accident (like social media) and I do ghusl, but sometimes I get multiple times a day especially before prayer time or near it so it makes me doubt myself and I keep doing ghusl, but it is exhausting to do ghusl 5 times a day especially since it is winter and snowy where I live now and it damages my hair and skin, and is frustrating as sometimes before I even get dressed I get them again and just feel guilty to pray without doing ghusl as I think I'm not pure. So now I resorted to doing ghusl once a day before fajr ( If I can, sometimes I don't, woke up late, or showered closely before it, like the night before) and just do wudu and changing cloths for the rest of the prayers. This is mainly for 2 reasons, 1. It is frustrating to keep doing ghusl 5 times a day and arouses suspicion from family. 2. My mum told me that I should stop showering all the time. (I don't know how to bring the topic up with her and feel ashamed and scared of how she would react to this, so I didn't tell her and don't plan on telling her). I sometimes suspect some discharge transferred from my hand to my dress and I can't change my dress multiple times a day as that is suspicious.

      What do I do? Is ghusl necessary each time, or is it only necessary if it was physical, like masturbation and intercourse?

      Is what I'm doing now- ghusl once a day- right and my prayers will be valid, or do it is wrong?

      If it is wrong, do I have to redo my prayers in such a situation of resorting to doing it once a day due to its excessiveness, but knowing that it could be or should be necessary each time? What if I got these thought while in prayer, I ask Allah (swt) for forgiveness in prayer when it happens, but does it affect my prayer and I have to redo?

      Also, sometimes I feel a fart coming out but I hold it in for 2-3 seconds and I feel the pressure subside little by title in also 2-3 seconds, but I'm not sure where it goes, in or out. I continue my salah as I didn't hear a pop, for the smell, I breathe through my mouth while praying in order to read quran and it is much easier while moving to use my mouth rather than nose. I try to sniff for a few seconds, but I don't smell anything and I'm not sure if a few seconds is enough to detect a smell or not. Is my prayer valid in such case?

      Sometimes, I also doubt if I missed a part in the prayer, like a rak'a or a surah or the tashahud. And sometimes I'm scared that I addedd something, like sometimes I feel like in the 2nd rak'a, I say the Imbrahemeit salah. Or in the 3rd after the fatiha I add a bismillah forgetting that I don't need to add a short surah. Does this invalidate my prayer?

      Thank you in advance!

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