Islamic marriage advice and family advice

Evil whispers are frightening me

Whispers in the night

Salam alakum,

I am going through so much hardship and grief due to hearing evil whispers from the satan regarding Islam. I pray 5 times a day, I pray the extra prayers, I fear Allah and I love Allah, However I am suffering from extreme anxiety and sorrow when I pray or remember Allah, because the satan always whispers vile things about islam.

This has annoyed and distressed me because of the inability to change this in my life. I can't even focus on Allah, as I keep reasoning and battling back at the satan (in my mind). I have become a very aggressive and distressed person due to this.

I hate hearing the whispers about islam, as I keep thinking that Allah might think its me thinking that. So I keep having to battle the satan (in my mind) and defend Allah (loudly). This truly hurts me and has changed me as a person.

I'm not perfect, I have made mistakes,but not major ones. Alhamdullah. I pray and always ask Allah to remove these evil whispers. It hurts and is unbearable for me. Every time I pray I end up reading loudly, because I really don't want to hear the whispers.

It frightens me to think that Allah will think it is me. I'm in difficulty and needed help. I pray and read the Quran. These whispers only occur when I think of Allah or pray. It's all about islam.

Please brothers and sisters tell me what can I do, and does this mean I'm a evil person? Thank you for reading this and your time. May Allah reward you.

-silver_9


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27 Responses »

  1. Aslaam

    "does this mean I'm a evil person?"

    No, it doesn't mean you are an evil person. The shaitaan will ALWAYS whisper things into people's mind and make them out to be true, I am always battling worrying thoughts as I have anxiety and I KNOW it's because of the shaitaan, I even read a post where someone says "the shaitaan attacks a person's weak point and continues to break them down" and that is true.

    In your and my case - it is our anxiety-like thoughts. The best thing you can do is CONSTANTLY remind yourself that Allah will help you, will never overburden you and that these thoughts are from the shaitaan alone, they mean nothing!

    It is very hard, as I know because when I get thoughts they just WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!!!! But the best thing you can do is try your number one BEST to ignore it and just continue praying.

    I hope things go well for you and me, inshallah

  2. Assalam alaikum,

    Unfortunately, shaitaan uses our strengths against us heartlessly. If we are intelligent, then he uses this to whisper things that would question our faith, that may not be based on logic alone. If we are pious, he may make us feel superior to others and look down on others. If we are very sinful, he uses this to make sure we don't turn to Allah and keep on doing sins because he makes us feel hopeless. Now the question is, what are your strengths and weaknesses?

    If you are going through a "logical" argument with shaitaan and trying to reason with him, you will find yourself distressed. I know that I sometimes I have a huge internal struggle with some things that I "feel" are not logical and it makes me run the risk of being doubtful--in those cases, I remind myself that I am human. I do not know everything. I remind myself that Allah is Protector and that I can put my 100% trust in Him that no matter what, in the end, justice will prevail. I think putting 100% trust in Allah is extremely important--and we show it in a variety of ways:

    1) Allow yourself refuge in feeling peace and not dwelling on the anxiety. (easy to say, hard to do).
    This means that while you learn more about Islam, you also accept that you are limited in your capacity to understand everything, BUT you trust Allah no matter what.

    2) Do simple dhikr, even if it is just reading "I seek refuge in Allah, from the accursed shaitaan." Repeat this as many times if you have to. Give your brain a break--shaitaan is probably using it against you right now.

    3) Do not overthink. Try to keep things simple and focus on small goals that are achievable, rather than large unachievable goals that will only make you feel like a failure.

    I do not think you are evil at all--just remember that shaitaan attacks us constantly, but you don't have to listen. I pray that inshaAllah, you feel relief and peace. Ameen.

    • SubhanAllah, this has really been useful to me - Jazakillahu Khairan.

      "Unfortunately, shaitaan uses our strengths against us heartlessly. If we are intelligent, then he uses this to whisper things that would question our faith, that may not be based on logic alone. If we are pious, he may make us feel superior to others and look down on others. If we are very sinful, he uses this to make sure we don't turn to Allah and keep on doing sins because he makes us feel hopeless. Now the question is, what are your strengths and weaknesses?

  3. hey aslm
    m also suffering from d same prblm..somtime i start thinking dat how will i get jannat if everithng ruined here only..m also fearing dat allah may get angry wid me or he is really angree wid me dat im not able to get rid off..wenever i call allah or his beloved prophet(pbh) or others those consider righteous in islamm ..dese thought came into my mind..somtime during namaz i recite all d ayats very fast so dat i would not get d time to think smthing..its reaally hard for me i knw..n i cant say dis to anione coz people might take it otherwise..plz help
    remember me in ur duas
    your sister

  4. AsSalaamu Alaikum Brother,

    Does this mean I'm an evil person?

    No, Brother. This does not mean that you are an evil person at all, but it may mean that, the devil (Shaitaan), is trying to invite you to become an evil person-May Allah forbid this to happen. Ameen.

    Please read the folowing Ayahs to remind yourself about the Shaitaan's temtations:

    "That is only Shaitaan frightening his partisans; so do not fear them, but fear Me, if you are believers." (Quran 3: 175) "Allah has cursed him (Shaitaan). And he said, “I will take to myself my due share of Your servants.”“And I will mislead them, and I will entice them, and I will prompt them to slit the ears of cattle, and I will prompt them to alter the creation of Allah.” Whoever takes Shaitaan as a lord, instead of Allah, has surely suffered a profound loss. He promises them, and he raises their expectations, but Shaitaan promises them nothing but delusions." (Quran 4: 118-120) "Like the Shaitaan, when he says to the human being, “Disbelieve.” But when he has disbelieved, he says, “I am innocent of you; I fear God, the Lord of the Worlds.” (Quran 59: 16) "And (on the day of Al-Qiyamah) Shaitaan will say (to those who accepted his invitations), when the issue is settled, “God has promised you the promise of truth, and I promised you, but I failed you. I had no authority over you, except that I called you, and you answered me. So do not blame me, but blame yourselves. I cannot come to your aid, nor can you come to my aid. I reject your associating with me in the past. The wrongdoers will have a torment most painful.” (Quran 22: 14)

    You may also want to say, "laa ilaaha illal'lah wahdahu laa sharika lahu, lahul mulku wa lahul hamdu, wa huwa `ala kulli shay’in qadir" 100 every morning. The prophet (s.a.w.s) said: "whoever says it 100 times a day will have a reward equivalent to the reward for freeing 10 slaves. Also, 100 deeds will be recorded for him, and100 bad deeds of his will be wiped off, and it will be a safeguard for him from Shaitaan that day until evening, and no one will be better in deeds than such a person except the person who does more than that.”

    May Allah protect you and us all from the temtations of Shaitaan. Ameen.

  5. Assalamualaikum silver_9

    Sister Saba's message hit the nail in the head in more ways than one. Alhamdulillah.

    In present psychology and psychiatry, the condition is called OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). Studies have shown that up to 70% of human beings have these automatic thoughts attacking their mind but it becomes a disorder only when it disturbs your daily function.

    I have had OCD from the age of 10 years. Alhamdulillah, I have been able to get on with life without being crippled significantly, although it does slow me down to some extent, but not to a degree perceivable by most people around me. As I grow older (I am almost 50 now), I learn to ignore the thoughts more and more, and they bother me less and less. It has been proven scientifically that ignoring the silly thoughts is the way to go, in order to recover from this condition.

    What we are suffering from has been described from the time of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). I am not an expert on Hadith but there are several Hadith that I have read on this matter. I do not remember the matan or exact words but the gist is as such:

    1. The fact that a person is attacked by such evil thoughts from the shaitan means that the person being attacked has iman, and we should be happy and thankful to Allah for that.
    2. Allah has forgiven the person being attacked with such waswas (whispers), unless he / she acts them out or says them out (i.e. agrees with the evil whispers in conscious action or spoken words).
    3. When attacked by a ridiculously evil thought, stop the train of thoughts (which comes from the shaitan) and say "Amantu bilLah wa rusulih" (I believe in Allah and His messengers). The Prophet (pbuh) said, this will chase away the shaitan.
    4. Rasulullah (pbuh) said, Praise be to Allah, Who has reduced the influence of shaitan to merely whispers. (In other words, shaitan has no power to actually take away our iman, only whispering evil thoughts to us. If we ignore him, he just cannot do anything further to us.)

    Having suffered from this myself, I know only too well that the thoughts always appear as though they are our own thoughts. Dr Zaid Ghazzawi (website: http://www.quran-miracle.com) posed an interesting theory on how this could happen. In his opinion, (as we all have a shaitan, the qarin, who has been with us since birth) the shaitan knows us so well that he / she can imitate almost exactly the wavelength of our inner voice, making the evil thought "sound" like our own thought or inner voice. Well, perhaps that's possible. Therefore, although the thoughts "sound" as though they are our thoughts, do not be tricked into thinking that they are. Brother Muhammad Awais Tahir is another Muslim who has written a lot of useful material online about OCD and how to overcome it.

    The present day knowledge of secular psychology seems to overlap with the Islamic evidence with regard to OCD in many ways. Western psychology generally concur that "talk therapy", where you analyse the evil thoughts, is useless for this kind of problem and true enough, Rasulullah (pbuh) told us not to dwell on the evil thoughts and instead, stop and turn away from the evil thoughts. Don't keep asking yourself why you are having these thoughts.

    Present day psychology says these OCD thoughts are not from the sufferer but from an evil source - it urges the sufferer to call it a bad name or simply "OCD". Islam has gone a step further to name the evil source, i.e. shaitan, our enemy, so that we know exactly who we are up against.

    Present day psychology tells us not to argue with "OCD" because "OCD" knows no reason. As Muslims we know only too well that we must not try to reason with shaitan, because he / she is an unreliable being who is always out to deceive.

    Present day psychology (read Dr Jeffrey Shwartz's writings) says when attacked by these thoughts, to tell ourselves that these are not our thoughts, and that the thoughts have no meaning and no value. This is exactly the gist of all the Hadith from Rasulullah (pbuh). If Allah has forgiven, in advance, those who are attacked by these waswas and He does not put the blame on us, why must we blame ourselves or feel guilty of these thoughts.

    From my own experience, once you correct the way you perceive these thoughts, i.e. that they are not your thoughts and has no meaning or value whatsoever, you will feel a sense of peace, and you can actually laugh away these silly thoughts, as they are called in present day psychology. They are truly silly thoughts actually, and we know that, only that shaitan tries to put importance and significance on these thoughts that come from him. This evil creature knows how much we value our iman, and tries to exaggerate our fear of losing our iman. In this respect, remember the gist of the fourth Hadith that I listed above, that shaitan has no power to take away our iman.

    So, the bottom line is, just IGNORE those evil whispers / thoughts. As has been very well said by Sister Saba, this may be easier said than done, especially in the beginning, but believe me, sister / brother, we are capable of ignoring the whispers. It just needs a lot of istiqamah, and always remember, Allah is with us, and when Allah is with us, how can anyone else be stronger than us, least of all the evil shaitan who has no help whatsoever. This is what Allah has said in the Quran. Allah also said, the tricks of the shaitan is weak. Always remember that.

    If 70% of people are attacked by these negative automatic thoughts, why is it that only about 2%of people suffer from OCD, you might ask. Well, it is possible that some of us have a problem with the neurotransmitter in our brain called serotonin, the lack of which makes thoughts go round and round in circles and difficult to ignore. This is possibly why some people with OCD needs a serotonin boost using medicines called SSRI. However, if your serotonin deficiency is not severe, you can overcome it by correcting your perception and behaviour / response to the silly thoughts, i.e. by ignoring the thoughts. It is called "re-wiring your brain", and it worked for me, Alhamdulillah.

    I find that prior to the silly thoughts actually appearing in your conscious mind, there is a short "aura" when you can "feel" it coming. You can capitalize on this sense of anticipation by saying the dzikr recommended by Rasulullah (pbuh) (Amantu bilLah wa rusulih) and distracting yourself with other things to do or think about, or actually telling yourself with your real inner voice to think of other things. This is called thought replacement. Never leave your mind with nothing to think of at all. The least you do is DzikrulLah or you can also fill your mind with simple but useful mental exercises, e.g. mental arithmetics. I used to do this a lot in my younger days when I was actively suffering from those silly thoughts, e.g. adding up plate numbers of cars passing by when I have to wait for a bus by the roadside and had nothing to do. This improved my mental calculation a great deal!

    Always remember Allah's Mercy. Never feel separated from His Mercy. Yes, we have all sinned in one way or another, who hasn't, other than the Prophets. But Allah loves those who always return to Him for forgiveness after having sinned. Stay close to Him always. InshaaAllah, you will find peace.

    Wassalam.

    Sis Happy Hippo

    • MashaAllah sister, that's such an excellent post. I really like how you have used Islamic teaching to explain an often poorly understood illness in an accessible and supportive way.

      Midnightmoon
      IslamicAnswers.com editor

      • Alhamdulillahi Rabbil 'alamin. Jazakillahi khairan kathira, Sister Midnightmoon, for the kind words.

        I hope silver_9 and others with the same problem will benefit from this discussion, InshaaAllah. She has been silent - I hope she has read the responses.

        Sis Happy Hippo

    • MaashaAllah Sis,

      The whole write up was enlightening and clarifying at its best. Until I reached the last para and the line “Stay Close to Him always”, I got goosebumps and emotionally high with tears rolling down. It sounded so pure like a loving caring mothers advise to her child.

      May Allah accept your genuineness and reward us all with the real closeness of Allah.

      - Fawad

  6. Aslamuallaikum WA RAHMATULLA HI O BARA KATHU Ihave a great solution for this because I was also stuck like you,but now by the mercy of allah I am not.its the shaitan the evil wants you do think such bad thing.but always remember don't give up Allah will forgive you and have a full faith on Allah.always think its important that have A FULL FAITH ON ALLAH...,,

  7. I too suffer from severe whispers but we must all remember that shaitan is a lair he will say what ever he can to turn you away from the right path and in actual fact the fact that we are having these whispers must mean we are doing something right Believe me i know it can be hard and so frustrating but we just have to stay strong always be mindful of allah pray the 5 daily prayers and just try ignore the whispers talking to other muslims can also be good just as a reminder that a lot of muslims suffer from whispers and you are not alone I pray allah protects you all from the evil whispers of the shaitan and that we all stay on the straight path!

  8. Salaam 🙂 ALLAH is All Knowing and Forgiving 🙂 all u experience is not up to u so u will not be punished for this. but u should try and aim not to feed and bother these thoughts. u should divert ur mind immediately when it starts to occur or if u cant then try to not to further think on it. ALLAH Bless u and all of us 🙂

  9. AsSlamuAlykum WaRahmatulaheeWaBarakatuh.
    I m 23 years old girl.I live alone with my parents. No friends,no siblings no cousins live near to me.
    I meet friends only on Social media. I suffered with sickness in august .i had 106° fever in head. Body had 0 temperature. I saw a man in white dress with beard called me towards him near hospital.Parents couldnt see him then he disappeard . Allah gave me new life. But loneliness in sick days made me anxiety patient.I uses to cry all time,hands feet sweating.i used to feel needles in whole body I feel so alone at home. Very next month on 14 september I again got sick.Again treatment from different doctors. It made more sick that second time I suffered condition near death I had severe pain in stomach, no movement in legs. Teeth were vibrating, jaws were closed, vision got dull. Then I cried before Allah. I screamed alot i asked HIM to help me. He put mercy on me and gave me new life..but I m getting sick mentally day by day. I can't eat, cnt sleep, cnt do anything. I cry all time. Because I wait for death every moment. Ifffff I make myself to realize its ok I will live ling enough to worship Allah. It happens that I forgot if i m muslim. I see everything strangely. I see everything like I came from other planet. I see people on tv. They r completely opposite to islamic teachings. I see they don't believe in Allah but they call themselves Muslims. Why don't they fear death? What do they think about death and pains of deaths.? And what about life after death? Will we become ashes in soil? Where our soul will go. Muslims dont think about it????? Muslims dont wait for death every next moment???? . Allah doesnt want us to wait fir death every moment? . I see if I do fear death I cnt offer prayer. I cnt listen Quran, I cnt understand tafseer of Quran.this Very right moment if I will die I couldn't able to get answers if my confusions will Allah forgive me? Will he will give me long life if I will pray to Him? Will He give me good health? . Why believers suffer pain near death??????? whats difference between believers and non believers near death??? Please guide me to right path. Please make dua for me. Satan is attacking me every moment he whispers bad thoughts to me about islam about athiesism. I want to believe in one Allah. I want worship one Allah. Please I do not want to die in this horrible condition of faith. I m constantly fighting myself my heart and mind. Mind accepts every sign of Almighty Allah .heart doesnt accept it. Even heart says i m not human. Satan whispers horrible thoughts about life and death. Which make me confused about islam. I listen Quran to make myself realize I m muslim I an human. I cnt endure this problem. I want Allah's mercy. If I will die with these confusions I would b part of hell ever after.Guide me plz.do it Asap.before my death I want peaceful Momin heart

    • There's pragmatic advice already given above regarding your issue,

      • Do u think its OCD? I cry alot with scream. I ask everyone ami I a human? We r Muslims? Why people follow religions.why people forget death. Why death is painful. Why people forget next life judgment day if it is truth.we all hv to leave this dunia why people dont care about it.specially people around me. Even no one helps me .if they r Muslims they fear Allah then why they dnt help me??????????????? :'(

    • Sunflower, only allah can guide you to the staight path. We are just humans we can guide ask allah (swt) in duaa

      and i hope allah answers your duaa ameen

    • Hi please read surah Al imran in quran. Ask Allah for guidance. Keep in mind all the signs and then remember Allah and ask for guidance.

    • Sunflower do u have WhatsApp??? I need u

  10. May allah forgive you ameen

  11. Assalamualaikum brother. I had been through the same difficulty as yours. First of all I would like to congratulate you because you are a true Muslim and that's why Shaitan is always behind you, and doing this to you, because Shaitan fears that you will enter Paradise and Shaitan does not want that. Those Muslims who are not practising properly or just Muslims by name or to non Muslims shaitan never whispers to them because he knows that these people are already not favourite of Allah AzaWaJaal and not going to Jannah. But the Muslims who loves and fears Allah AzaWaJaal SWT and want to enter Jannah shaitan is behind them always because shaitan does not want you to enter Jannah. Allah Almighty SWT knows that these whispers are from shaitan and it's not you. And Almighty Allah SWT knows you are not thinking them and HE loves you more than you and HE will give you greater reward in shaa Allah. Brother when you face Waswasa, please read "Surah AN-NAS". May Allah Almighty SWT bless you, protect you and give you the best in this life as well as in Akhriah.

  12. Simply download surah tilawat in your mobile and hear it.Satan won't be able to hurt you.Also listening to Quran is very good for health.Try it!!

  13. Assalaam Alaikum.
    Brother your story seems to be exactly like mine. I experience the same thing. I am suffering from this since I was in school. In 8th or 9th standard. Today I am 46 years of age. I too pray to Allah for relief. But I just cannot overcome this situation of mine. May Allah help you and me.

  14. I know about shaytan whispers and I have been suffering from it for a long time now. It comes sporadically and is severe everytime. I pray to Allah and ask for his fogiveness. But this time I'm not able to understand if its my nafs I can't fight. While, I were having these thoughts I'd dare not utter. I aslo get thoughts that even for a sin that If I'll do it it makes me doubt my love for Allah or it makes promises in my head forever leaving it. And then I want to commit that sin I don't though. But it haunts me in my mind that if I ever commit that sin Allah will not love me anymore. Like if it is watching tv. While I try not watching it now but if
    I ever do would that be like everyone else doing that wrong deed or like I used to do it. Or Its breaking a promise which I didn't make just in my thoughts "If you love Him don't ever do it", turning away from hidayat? Should I ignore it too like other whispers that keep coming along? Please help me out as soon as possible.

  15. Stop paying attention to these thoughts and they'll vanish I.A.
    The more you think, the more the thoughts will annoy you.

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