Infertility and Sexual Disorders in the Modern World: The Role of Jinn, Black Magic, and the Evil Eye
2025-07-21Sexsomnia – The case of the Ashiq Jinn The Invisible Mess of the Ashiq Jinn on the Possessed Female Life
2025-08-20On this Page:
Generally, OCD involves fears about offending or speaking blasphemy against religious principles, rules, or values. Islamic Scrupulosity OCD (Islamic OCD) involves fears or intrusive thoughts about not being a perfect Muslim, or offending or speaking blasphemy against one’s Muslim faith.
This often results in harmless or unpreventable things being considered wrong or sinful, leading a person with scrupulosity to feeling unwarrantedly guilty. Scrupulosity can cause people to experience not only guilt, but hopelessness and desperation as intrusive thoughts and doubts cause them to question their faith practices and even the teachings of their faith.
POPULAR ARTICLES LIST
Sources of Obsessive Intrusive Thoughts from Islamic Perspective
Humans have various sources of thought, as shown below in the picture. Your current feelings and emotions can be from current experience (what you see, hear and feel), or past experiences, a thought implanted by other or logical conclusions of a situation or problem. From an Islamic perspective, the type of thoughts (waswâs (whispering)) which tempts a person to listen to or look at islamically haram (unlawful) things or to commit immoral actions, and makes such things appear attractive to him, comes from three sources; comes from three sources:
- The part of Nafs or inner-self (which is inclined to evil) – waswâs (whispering)
- The devils among the jinn (demons / evil spirits / satan / shaytan), waswâs (whispering)
- The devils among mankind/humans – hearing, feeling, seeing
| Types of obsessive thoughts | Sources of obsessive thoughts | Treatment |
1 | Waswâs & Waswâs al-Qahri | Devil / Satan / Shaytan / Demons / Jinn | Ruqyah |
2 | Magic Spell | Devil / Satan / Shaytan / Demons / Jinn | Ruqyah |
3 | Dreams from devil / Satan / Shaytan / Demons | Devil / Satan / Shaytan / Demons / Jinn | Ruqyah |
4 | Waswâs al-Nafs | Nafs | |
5 | Traumatic event | Unwanted, distressing memories of a traumatic event that come back over and over again. | CBT for PTSD, with islamic point of view |
Intrusive Thoughts (waswas) from Islamic Perspective
From islamic perspective Waswâs (whispering) comes from Devil / Satan / Shaytan / Demons / Jinn are of two types:
- Waswâs – General whisperings
- Waswâs al-Qahri – Excessive or Overwhelming whispering
The Islamic theology of satan misleading humans originates from the story of creation of man and satan (Iblis) misleading Adam (a.s). This same story is mentioned in the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (the last and final Abrahamic monotheistic religion).
According to the Quranic version of events (4:118-122), when Adam and Eve disobeyed God by listening to Satan, they were sent from Heaven to Earth. God eventually forgave them, but they had to continue living on Earth where Satan would try to mislead mankind until the Day of Judgment through his whispering. Those who are successful in not listening to Satan will be able to return to Heaven by God’s Mercy.
Sources of Obsessive Intrusive Thoughts from Islamic Perspective
Humans have various sources of thought, as shown below in the picture. Your current feelings and emotions can be from current experience (what you see, hear and feel), or past experiences, a thought implanted by other or logical conclusions of a situation or problem. From an Islamic perspective, the type of thoughts (waswâs (whispering)) which tempts a person to listen to or look at islamically haram (unlawful) things or to commit immoral actions, and makes such things appear attractive to him, comes from three sources; comes from three sources:
- The part of Nafs or inner-self (which is inclined to evil) – waswâs (whispering)
- The devils among the jinn (demons / evil spirits / satan / shaytan), waswâs (whispering)
- The devils among mankind/humans – hearing, feeling, seeing
General waswasah or waswâs
Within the Islamic tradition mild and occasional intrusive thoughts are part of the normal human experience, general waswasah or waswâs. Common examples of everyday waswasah can include jealousy (intrusive thoughts about something a person wants but can’t have), lust (having intrusive thoughts about desiring someone that a person can’t be with), doubts about major life decisions and conflicting thoughts about doing the right or wrong thing. International studies estimate that about 94% of the human population worldwide experience intrusive thoughts.
General waswasah or waswâs must be differentiated from the type of waswasah that is overwhelming and regarded as mental illness
Waswâs al-qahri – excessive or overwhelming thoughts
Waswasah that is excessive or overwhelming beyond the average human experience is called waswâs al-qahri (plural). A person who experiences waswâs al-qahri doesn’t necessarily have a mental illness, but may, if he or she meets the criteria established by the DSM-V. Waswâs al-qahri reaches the diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) when it meets the following criteria outlined by the DSM-V.
NOTE:
The Arabic term for this condition is “waswâs al-qahri”, “overwhelming whispers”.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illnesses is the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s professional reference book on mental health and brain-related conditions; also known as the DSM-5 / or DSM-V
Even if you try to ignore or get rid of bothersome thoughts or urges, they keep coming back. This leads you to act based on ritual. This is the vicious cycle of OCD.
Categorization of Waswâs al-Qahri
Islamic scholars have classified waswās(وَسْوَاس) into four (4) categories or Types.
| Type of waswās(وَسْوَاس) | |
| Type of waswās(وَسْوَاس) In Arabic | Type of waswās(وَسْوَاس) In English |
1 | Waswâs al-Qahri Fee Aqeedah وسواس القهري في العقيدة | Waswâs of Belief or Religious Scrupulosity |
2 | Waswâs al-Qahri Fee Ibadah وسواس القاهري في عبادة | Waswâs of Worship/ religious rituals |
3 | Waswâs al-Qahri Fee Taharah وسواس القاهري في الطهارة | Waswâs of Purification |
4 | Waswâs al-Qahri Fee Kwaf Min Fuqdan al Saytara وسواس القاهري في كواف من فقدان سيطرة | Waswâs of Fear of Losing control |
Waswâs al-Qahri Fee Aqeedah (Waswâs of Belief) / Religious scrupulosity
- Obsession: Common obsessions seen in scrupulosity include excessive concerns about:
Blasphemous thoughts.
- Doubting the religion.
- Questions about God’s existence.
- Fear of losing touch with God.
- Retrospectives memories.
- Doubts that one had committed major sins in the past.
- Excessive concern with halal (legal) and haram (forbidden) or right/wrong or morality.
- Fear of committing blasphemy, or offending/angering God
- Fear of having committed a sin
- Behaving overly morally
- Excessively striving for purity
- Fear of going to hell or being punished by God
- Fear of being possessed
- Fear of death
- Fear of the loss of impulse control
- Doubting what you truly believe or feel
- Needing to acquire certainty about religious beliefs
- Compulsions:
- Excessive praying (not prescribed or recommended) to counter blasphemous or sacrilegious thoughts that could result in going to hell.
- Compulsive behaviours in general.
Waswâs al-Qahri Fee Ibadah (Waswâs of Worship)
- Obsession: Common obsessions seen in scrupulosity include excessive concerns about:
- Doubt whether I performed the prayer correctly or not.
- Intrusive images during prayer or reciting Qur’an.
- Fear of having sinned or broken a religious ritual.
- Prayers have been recited incorrectly
- Compulsions:
- Re-performing prayer to achieve perfection.
- Doing extra prostrations (Sajda e Sahw) in every prayer.
- Excessive, repetitive utterances of God’s forgiveness.
- Re-reading passages from the Qur’an to attain perfection.
Waswâs al-Qahri Fee Taharah (Waswâs of Purification)
- Obsession: Common obsessions seen in paswâs of purification include excessive concerns about:
- Fear of contamination with dirt or germs.
- Doubt whether I performed ablution correctly or not.
- Fear of impurities when doing ablution and while performing prayer.
- Irrational fear and constant feeling that my clothes are unclean.
- Doubts of passing wind, and nullification of ablution
- Fear of contamination with body fluids (examples: urine, faeces).
- Compulsions:
- Washing hands excessively or in a certain method not prescribed.
- Excessive showering, bathing, tooth brushing, grooming or toilet routines.
- Performing ablution several times.
- Taking a lot of time doing ablution.
- Spending too much time on all purification/washing activities, e.g. washing hands after meal.
- Protecting religious symbols, ornaments, books, or pictures from ‘contamination.’
- Doing other things to prevent or remove contact with contaminants.
Waswâs al-Qahri Fee Kwaf Min Fuqdan al Saytara (Waswâs of Fear of losing control)
- Obsession: Common obsessions seen in anxious thoughts about losing control include excessive concerns about:
- Fear of acting on an impulse to self-harm.
- Fear of acting on an impulse to harm others.
- Fear of violent or horrific images in one’s mind.
- Fear of obscenities in one’s mind. Fear of doubts and uncertainty.
- Compulsions:
- Excessive checking that you did not/will not harm others.
- Excessive checking that you did not/will not self-harm.
- Excessive checking that nothing terrible happened or some arbitrary worship has not been performed.
- Excessive checking that you did not make a mistake, error or commit a sin.
- Excessive checking of the number of sins committed.
Cheer Up & Relax:
In Islam we are not accountable for our cognitions: thoughts and feelings. Why? Because we can hardly control them. Thoughts of any nature may pop up in our minds constantly, and feelings follow them instantly.
But we are not accountable for them until we act upon these thoughts and feelings, either verbally or through our behavior.
So, if a thought of kufr or shirk appears in your mind, you are not a disbeliever until you actually act upon this thought or say it.
The above is good for general Waswasa.
Treatment of General Waswasa
A person who is enriched with the dignity of religion and wealth of iman he has waswas as the moth flock around the light and the thief steals where there is wealth. Hence you should not be worried about it and do not feel tense.
- Remembering Allah a great deal,
- reciting Quran,
- Perform your taharah,
- Namaz,
- Fast as per the Shariah ruling,
- Focusing on righteous deeds, both outwardly and inwardly.
And if an evil whisper from Shaitan (Satan) tries to turn you away, then seek refuge in Allah. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower. (The Quran, 41:36)
Treatment of Waswasa al-Qahri.
In case you are diagnosed with OCD. We recommend two things:
- Ruqyah from Ruqyah.Help
- Psychotherapy
Relax and Seek a Remedy from Ruqyah.Help
You should not worry or be consumed by guilt. You have a condition, and Allah is all knowing. Allah has provided us with means to get it fixed. Please bear in mind that it may take time for the issues to go, and that is a test by which you will draw closer to Allah if you show the appropriate response
Allah is the most forgiving as mentioned in the Quran.
“Will they not turn to Allah and ask His forgiveness? For Allah is Forgiving, Merciful”. (Al Quran 5: 74)
“I am Forgiving to those who repent and believe and do good, and afterward follow right guidance”. (Al Quran 20: 82)
“O My servants who have transgressed against their souls! Do not despair of Allah’s mercy, for Allah forgives all sins. He is Forgiving, Most Merciful”. (Al Quran 39: 53)