Disturbed by waswaas (whispers from the Shaytaan) and evil thoughts

When I do Salah or intend to do good deeds I often get very evil thoughts in my mind. When I concentrate in Salah, and try to focus on the meaning of the words, evil thoughts enter my mind, which make evil suggestions about everything including Allah. I feel very frustrated and angry about this. I know that none forgives sins except Allah alone, but because of my thoughts I feel that there is nothing worse than to have evil thoughts about Allah. After Salah I ask Allah's forgiveness, but feel very bad because I want to stop these evil thoughts, but I can't stop them. These thoughts spoil my enjoyment of Salah, and also make me feel as though I am doomed. Please advise me.

Praise be to Allah.

Evil whispers during prayer and at other times come from the Shaytaan, who is keen to misguide the Muslim and deprive him of good and keep it far away from him. One of the Sahaabah complained to the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) about waswaas during prayer, and he said: “The Shaytaan comes between me and my prayers and my recitation, confusing me therein.” The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “That is a devil called Khanzab. If he affects you seek refuge in Allah from him and spit drily to your left three times.” He [the Sahaabi] said, I did that and Allaah took him away from me.

(Narrated by Muslim, 2203)

Proper focus (khushoo’) is the essence of prayer. Prayer without proper focus is like a body without a soul. The following are two of the things that help one to develop the proper focus:

1 – Striving to think about what you are saying and doing, pondering the meanings of the Qur’aan, dhikr and du’aa’s that you are reciting; bearing in mind that you are conversing with Allaah as if you can see Him. For when the worshipper stands to pray, he is speaking to his Lord, and ihsaan means worshipping Allaah as if you are seeing Him, and knowing that even though you cannot see Him, He sees you. Every time a person experiences the sweetness of prayer, he will be more inclined to do it. [?]. This depends of the strength of one's faith – and there are many means of strengthening one’s faith. Hence the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “Of the things of your world, women and perfume have been made dear to me, and my joy is in prayer.” According to another hadeeth he said, “Let us relax, O Bilal, with prayer,” and he did not say, Give us a break from it.

2 – Striving to ward off the things that may distract you during prayer, namely thinking about things that are irrelevant or distracting. Waswaas affects each person differently, because waswaas has to do with a person’s level of doubts and desires and the degree to which a person is attached to other things or is fearing other things.

(From Majmoo’ Fataawa Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah, 22/605)

With regard to what you say about the waswaas reaching such a great level that you have begun to experience waswaas that makes you think about Allaah in ways that are not appropriate, these are evil whispers from the Shaytaan. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“And if an evil whisper from Shaytaan (Satan) tries to turn you away (O Muhammad) (from doing good), then seek refuge in Allaah. Verily, He is the All‑Hearer, the All‑Knower”

[Fussilat 41:36]

Some of the Sahaabah complained about the waswaas that was bothering [?] them. Some of the companions of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and said to him, ‘We find in ourselves thoughts that are too terrible to speak of.’ He said, ‘Are you really having such thoughts?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘That is a clear sign of faith.’” (Narrated by Muslim). (Narrated by Muslim, 132 from the hadeeth of Abu Hurayrah).

Al-Nawawi said in his commentary on this hadeeth: “The Prophet’s words, ‘That is a clear sign of faith’ means, the fact that think of this waswaas as something terrible is a clear sign of faith, for if you dare not utter it and you are so afraid of it and of speaking of it, let alone believing it, this is the sign of one who has achieved perfect faith and who is free of doubt.”

And it was said that what it means is that the Shaytaan only whispers to those whom he despairs of tempting, because he is unable to tempt them. As for the kaafir, he can approach him in any manner he wants and is not restricted to waswaas, rather he can play with him however he wants. Based on this, what the hadeeth means is that the cause of waswaas is pure faith, or that waswaas is a sign of pure faith. See also question no. 12315

The fact that you hate that and your heart recoils from it is a clear sign of faith. Waswaas happens to everyone who turns to Allaah by reciting dhikr etc. It is inevitable, but you have to be steadfast and patient, and persevere with your dhikr and prayer, and not give up, because in this way you will ward off the plot of the Shaytaan. “Ever feeble indeed is the plot of Shaytaan” [al-Nisa’ 4:76 – interpretation of the meaning]. Every time a person wants to turn to Allaah, waswaas brings other matters to mind. The Shaytaan is like a bandit: every time a person wants to move towards Allaah, he wants to block the way. Hence when it was said to one of the salaf that the Jews and Christians say, “We do not experience waswaas,” he said, “They are speaking the truth, for what would the Shaytaan do with a house in ruins?”

(From Fataawa Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah, 22/608).

The remedy:

1 – If you feel that you are being affected by this waswaas, say, “Aamantu Billaahi wa Rasoolihi (I believe in Allaah and His Messenger).” It was narrated from ‘Aa’ishah that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The Shaytaan comes to one of you and says, ‘Who created you?’ And he says ‘Allaah.’ Then the Shaytaan says, ‘Who created Allaah?’ If that happens to any one of you, let him say, Aamantu Billaahi wa Rusulihi (I believe in Allaah and His Messenger). Then that will go away from him.”

(Narrated by Ahmad, 25671; classed as hasan by al-Albaani in al-Saheehah, 116).

2 – Try to stop thinking about that as much as possible, and keep busy with things that will distract you from it.

Finally we advise you to keep on turning to Allaah in all situations, and to ask Him for help, and to beseech Him, and to ask Him to make you steadfast until death, and to cause you to die doing righteous deeds… And Allaah knows best.

Ruling on saying “We are the children of Allaah”

What is the rulling on, when a Muslim say "We believe we are all children of Allah" Basing it on the weak Hadeeth (All creations are sustained by Allah). Please provide details of the ruling.

Praise be to Allaah.

The hadeeth mentioned was narrated by al-Bazzaar and Abu Ya’la from Anas, and says, “All of mankind are the dependents of Allaah, and the most beloved of them to Allaah are those who are most helpful to their dependents.” This is a very weak (da’eef jiddan) hadeeth as al-Albaani said in Da’eef al-Jaami’, hadeeth no. 2946.

Any Muslim who says, “We believe that we are all the children of Allaah” should be asked to explain what he means before any judgement is made concerning him.

1 – If what he means by being children is the metaphorical meaning, which is that people are dependent upon Allaah, and he is using this word for a purpose allowed in sharee’ah, such as refuting the Christians who say that the Messiah is the son of God, then there is nothing wrong with that if he uses it only with Christians in order to show that their belief is false, but he should not use it with others lest that generate confusion and misunderstanding. That is because one of the means of showing the Christians’ beliefs concerning ‘Eesa (peace be upon him) to be false is to use the same expressions as are mentioned in their holy Book (the Bible) to prove that others were described as “sons of God” as well as ‘Eesa, which clearly indicates that what is meant by being a son of God in the texts of the Gospels is not “sonship” in the literal sense, which St. Paul claimed for Jesus in order to lead them astray from belief in Divine Oneness (Tawheed). St. Paul based his argument on the confusion that may arise from the use of the words “father” and “son”. Some of the Bible texts that may used to refute their argument are as follows:

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said of those who believed in him:

“They are like the angels. They are God’s children since they are children of the resurrection.”

[Luke 20:36]

And in the Book of Isaiah:

“Bring back My sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth”

[Isaiah 43:6]

And this is what was said describing God as the Father, as it is narrated in the Gospel of Matthew that the Messiah said to his students:

“If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

[Matthew 6:1]

In the Gospel of Luke:

“When you pray say, ‘Our Father, Who art in heaven…’”

[Luke 11:2]

In the Gospel of John:

“I am returning to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.”

[John 20:17]

The Christians do not say that the angels, the Children of Israel and the Disciples were sons of God in a literal sense, or that God was their father in a literal sense, rather they interpret that in a metaphorical sense, i.e., that He is a father to them in the sense of blessing them, being kind to them, protecting them and taking care of them, and they are His children in the sense that they worship Him, need Him and are dependent upon Him.

This demonstrates the falseness of their understanding of ‘Eesa being the son of God, basing their argument on some texts that say that he is the son of God.

2 – If he means that all people are children of Allaah just as ‘Eesa is the son of Allaah, in the sense of the Christian belief, then this is kufr (disbelief) that is worse than the kufr of the Christians.

3 – If he means that we are all children of Allaah or dependent upon Him, with no difference between Muslims and kaafirs, and he means that the Jews, Christians and idol-worshippers are not kaafirs, then this is riddah or apostasy from Islam, because whoever doubts that the Jews and Christians are kaafirs or approves of their religions is a kaafir, according to scholarly consensus.

4 – If he means thereby to justify using the word “brother” for Jews and Christians, because we are all the children of Allaah, this is false, because there is no brotherhood between the believers and the disbelievers. The hadeeth (which some may interpret as meaning that all men are brothers) has been proven to be not saheeh. Even if it was saheeh, it could not be interpreted in this fashion.

We must beware of using confusing words which may cause a person to fall into something haraam or make people think badly of him, especially words which have to do with the Oneness of Allaah (Tawheed) and His Uniqueness in His names and attributes. For the rights of Allaah take precedence and must be taken care of, and we must avoid anything that may violate them, especially when those words are used by the Jews and Allaah quotes them in the Qur’aan in the context of condemnation.

“And (both) the Jews and the Christians say: ‘We are the children of Allaah and His loved ones.’ Say: ‘Why then does He punish you for your sins?’ Nay, you are but human beings of those He has created…”

[al-Maa’idah 5:18 – interpretation of the meaning]

And Allaah knows best.