Guidance for the person with obsessive doubts who repeats words in prayer
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: I know a person who suffers from obsessive doubts (waswas) and repeats words and letters in his prayer. He says: If I tell him that doing this invalidates his prayer, he says that it causes him distress and anxiety. So what is the guidance in this case? And what is the correct treatment?
Answer:
Do not tell him that this invalidates his prayer, because this is not of his own volition. But tell him to leave, for example, the obsessive doubts, seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan, and accustom yourself to leaving the obsessive doubts. As for you telling him that it invalidates his prayer, this increases his obsessive doubts. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: I know a person who suffers from obsessive doubts (waswas) and repeats words and letters in his prayer. He says: If I tell him that doing this invalidates his prayer, he says that it causes him distress and anxiety. So what is the guidance in this case? And what is the correct treatment?
Answer:
Do not tell him that this invalidates his prayer, because this is not of his own volition. But tell him to leave, for example, the obsessive doubts, seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan, and accustom yourself to leaving the obsessive doubts. As for you telling him that it invalidates his prayer, this increases his obsessive doubts. Yes.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل في الجواب عما احتج به أهل الوسواس — islamhouse.com (59:49)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.