Treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Ablution and Prayer

The Shaykh:
That is possible.

The questioner:
Your question, O Shaykh, necessitates that the one afflicted with obsessive doubts (waswas) enters the restroom and does not feel secure until the dawn returns. When he wants to pray, he is unable to do so because of the intensity of the waswas, to the point that he combines the Fajr, Zuhr, 'Asr, and Maghrib prayers together. All of this is while he claims to be mocking the intention, and he does not forget to emphasize this.

The Shaykh:
This is an illness, and may Allah protect us from it. It is an illness that requires treatment. Its treatment is through the remembrance of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), seeking refuge from Satan, and abandoning the waswas. When a person performs wudu, he does not pay attention to the waswas. He performs wudu and walks away; he does not give Satan the opportunity to say, "You did not perform wudu, go back and complete it." No, he leaves this alone, rejects it completely, and proceeds. If he persists in this, Satan will move away from him. So its treatment is seeking refuge in Allah from Satan, increasing the remembrance of Allah, and also rejecting the waswas and not paying attention to it. Satan also whispers to a person during prayer, coming to him and saying, "You have broken your purity; your wudu is invalid." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: One does not turn away (from the prayer) unless he is certain. If he is certain, then so be it; but if he is not certain, he remains in a state of purity. This is a great treatment for waswas: that a person rejects the waswas and does not pay attention to it. But if he interacts with the waswas, it increases upon him and becomes more severe. Yes.