The Difference Between Doubt and Obsession
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The issue of shirk (associating partners with Allah) is hoped to be clarified.
Answer:
Doubt is hesitation between two matters where one is not preferred over the other, such as when a person who has performed wudu' (ablution) doubts whether his wudu' was broken or not. Both possibilities are equal in his mind; he does not know if a nullifier occurred or not. We say that the default is purity, and one builds upon certainty. The default is purity, and your wudu' is not broken except by certainty of a state of ritual impurity. This is doubt. As for obsession, this is from Shaytan (Satan). Obsession is from Shaytan, and it is obligatory for the Muslim to seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan. Doubt occurs for a person because it is the result of forgetfulness, whereas obsession is not the result of forgetfulness, but rather it is from Shaytan to confuse the Muslim.
The issue of shirk (associating partners with Allah) is hoped to be clarified.
Answer:
Doubt is hesitation between two matters where one is not preferred over the other, such as when a person who has performed wudu' (ablution) doubts whether his wudu' was broken or not. Both possibilities are equal in his mind; he does not know if a nullifier occurred or not. We say that the default is purity, and one builds upon certainty. The default is purity, and your wudu' is not broken except by certainty of a state of ritual impurity. This is doubt. As for obsession, this is from Shaytan (Satan). Obsession is from Shaytan, and it is obligatory for the Muslim to seek refuge in Allah from Shaytan. Doubt occurs for a person because it is the result of forgetfulness, whereas obsession is not the result of forgetfulness, but rather it is from Shaytan to confuse the Muslim.
Source
شرح بلوغ المرام من أدلة الأحكام [ صالح الفوزان ]، تابع باب الوضوء - 3 — islamhouse.com (49:32)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.