Verifying the Intention and Dealing with Whispers

The questioner : Your Eminence the Shaykh! I am a young woman at the beginning of seeking knowledge, and I find it difficult to firm up my intention on what is right and correct. However, I sometimes find myself afraid and doubtful that my intention is not sincere. Is it obligatory for me to be more careful in verifying my intention and dealing with it?

The Shaykh : Yes. This type of issue, about which the question was asked, happens frequently to students of knowledge and to worshippers. Satan casts into one’s heart the thought that he has not been sincere to Allah the Exalted. The obligatory thing is to turn away from that, meaning from these whispers, and to seek help from Allah against the accursed Satan, and to proceed on his path.
And he should not pay attention to these whispers that prevent him from working, and which may take over his heart until they affect even the smallest matters in his worldly life. Satan has reached some people with such whispers to the point that he made them doubt everything: if he purifies himself, he doubts; if he prays, he doubts; if he gives charity, he doubts. Indeed, some of them doubt even about the divorce of their wife, saying he divorced or he did not divorce, until some of them, when matters become narrow for them in this doubt.