It’s Not Taqwa, It’s Waswasah (OCD)
General points of advice to help relieve sufferers of Waswasah (Religious OCD)
I have been treating Waswasah and OCD for a number of years now through my capacity as a therapist and Imam. Here are some points of advice taken from my experience that, if followed, can help in alleviating the symptoms and distress caused by intrusive thoughts.
Firstly, learn to sit with the intrusive thoughts. This may seem counterintuitive but it is actually one of the most effective ways to reduce the strength and power that intrusive thoughts possess. Learning to sit with them means that you do not try and suppress them, nor do you engage with them and try to prove them wrong; you simply acknowledge the presence of the intrusive thought and learn to treat it as background noise i.e. noise that is of no concern to you; annoying but irrelevant sound. How do you do this? By following my second piece of advice..
Separate yourself from the intrusive thoughts, label them, and distinguish them from your own identity. When an intrusive thought arrives immediately label it; say to yourself ‘The Waswasah/intrusive thought has arrived’. Recognise that it is not coming from you, but it is external and therefore it does not need to be followed. An example of this may be: A person is performing wudhu (ablution) and as they begin to wash their left arm a thought arrives, ‘you didn’t wash your mouth properly!’. Normally this person would feel distressed and go back and repeat the washing of their mouth, this may happen over and over again leading to severe stress, anxiety, and extreme guilt and exhaustion. What this person should instead do is pause as soon as the intrusive thought arrives, label it ‘aha the intrusive thought is here’, ignore it (this part may be difficult at first) and then simply continue with their wudhu as they were.
This leads to my third piece of advice, trust yourself and your ability to carry out tasks, make decisions, trust your faith etc (depending on the type of intrusive thoughts you are suffering with). One of the issues with OCD is the diminished trust of self that results from following the compulsions. When an intrusive thought arrives, trust in your past self to have carried out the task you are concerned about, trust yourself to have strong faith, trust that you knew/know what you were/are doing and so you do not need to repeat things ‘Just in case’. Trust that your clothing is clean, and so you don’t need to wear ‘just in case’ clothes or any other such protective safety behaviours.
And before trusting in yourself, Trust in Allah and more importantly trust in Allah’s mercy! Reframe your thinking, stop thinking of Allah simply from the perspective of punishment, focus on His mercy and see yourself as loved by Allah and worthy of His mercy. The Prophet ﷺ said that Allah The Exalted said, ‘I am just as My servant thinks I am’ [1], therefore think of Allah as merciful and rely on His mercy. The Prophet ﷺ also said, ‘Verily Allah has pardoned [or been lenient with] for me my ummah: their mistakes, their forgetfulness, and that which they have been forced to do under duress.’[2]. Make this hadith your cornerstone, when the intrusive thoughts attack and try to compel you to repeat an action or drive you to research endlessly looking for reassurance, or push you to repeat your shahadah.. Remind yourself that mistakes, forgetfulness, and that which we do under duress are forgiven and overlooked!!
Remove from your thinking that Allah is punishing you for past sins, Allah does not hold grudges, He transcends such things. Don't overread events and difficulties. Look for the blessings and gifts from Allah, you are worthy of Allah’s mercy.
Another important piece of advice, Stop researching online, and stop seeking reassurance! Searching online, especially for answers you have already searched 100s of times will not help. This type of behaviour may provide short term relief but it leads to long term distress and anxiety. Unfortunately due to the nature of the internet most information is detached from the context of the searcher, for a sufferer of Waswasah and OCD this is detrimental, especially when searching rulings and advice related to Islam. Many public lectures, instructions, and fatwas (religious edicts) available online are not tailored to someone who is suffering from Waswasah. This makes the anxiety even worse, especially when a search result accidentally confirms the sufferer's underlying fear!
Which is why my next advice is, internalise You are not responsible for the outcome, but just the effort. As long as you have tried your best in the moment (trying your best does not mean obsessing over or repeating or being meticulous!) then you have fulfilled the obligation. Allah does not request of us perfection, he calls us toward trying our best, and that is sufficient. It is also important to know that trying your best is a long term endeavour and not a short term sprint, if you fall short today, you will be better tomorrow. Defer the want to perform better to the next attempt, in the present moment just focus on completing the instruction and remember conditions of validity are superseded by Allah’s mercy, in a hadith Qudsi[3] The Prophet ﷺ said, Allah said. ‘Verily, My Mercy prevailed over My Wrath’[4].
The conditions of validity are not the goal of worship, nor are the theoretical affirmations of belief. These have been prescribed and yes they are important but the goal is to connect to Allah, and to internalise faith, which is a matter of the heart, and an achievement which is long term, not immediate.
Another key piece of advice is, Ignore the guilt of not following the compulsion, it is not Taqwa (righteousness) but it is in fact a component of OCD. You will often feel guilty if you don't follow through with the compulsion and when dealing with a standard form of OCD it is easier to ignore as the consequences are not associated with one's Islam. But when dealing with waswasah i.e. religious OCD this guilt will mask itself as Taqwa, i.e. it feels like the righteous thing to follow the guilt and repeat the action (such as rewashing a limb in wudhu, or showering after using the toilet, or repeating the shahadah etc!). Following the guilt only serves to further entrench the waswasah and give the intrusive thoughts more authority.
Ignoring the guilt does not mean that your wudhu, prayer, or Islam will be rendered invalid and nullified. These things are with Allah, we are only charged with offering a balanced effort.
My next point of advice is an important one, don't chase feelings of certainty, feelings of purity, or feelings of Iman (faith). Oxygen cannot be felt as we breathe, and likewise we cannot always feel the impact of our Islam and its actions! Focus on the completion of your worship, focus on the certainty of your Islam (your belief in Allah and His messenger ﷺ) and ignore feelings, feelings are not factual and they are subject to an array of influencing factors, therefore do not focus on them.
Which leads me to my next important advice, a principle established by the scholars of Islam, Certainty is not overruled by doubt[5]. This comes from the famous hadith,Abbad ibn Tamim reported: My uncle asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, about a man who suspects that he passed wind during prayer. The Prophet ﷺ said, ‘He should not leave his prayer unless he hears a sound or finds a smell.’[6]. Intrusive thoughts are essentially doubts with the volume turned up. Again, learn to sit with them, and recognise that they aren't factual. Desensitise yourself to them by ignoring them, it will be challenging to begin with but the longer you ignore them, the less intense the anxiety will feel and eventually the intrusive thoughts will quieten down.
My next piece of advice is simple, you do not need to be perfect. Perfectionism can feed waswasah/OCD. Allah has not instructed us toward the perfection of outcome, but has instead asked us to simply try our best. The outcome and acceptance is with Allah, and if you are feeling that your effort isn’t good enough don’t repeat the act, defer your want to improve to the next time, look at your relationship with Islam as a marathon not a sprint! You will have ups and downs, the downs do not mean that you have failed! disassociate your mistakes and intrusive thoughts that you may experience from your identity
Slowly start to reduce the compulsions, map out what your compulsions are, what the triggers are and slowly reduce them by making incremental improvements over a set period of time. If your wudhu is currently taking an hour, set yourself a challenge of reducing it to 50 minutes. If this is achieved for a week, reduce it again to 45 minutes and so on. If repetition of parts of the prayer are the issue, set a challenge for yourself of not repeating it, or repeating it a maximum set amount of times (only if necessary) and so on. Ideally this should be carried with a therapist, but if you're reluctant to seek help, try and involve a family member or friend.
Ashraf Dabous
MSc Cognitive Behavioural Therapy | BA Islamic Studies
Lead Therapist & Founder, Tasfiyah Therapy
If you or a loved one are struggling with Waswasah (Religious OCD) and would like to explore structured, professional support, feel free to reach out and book a consultation or send a direct message via Whatsapp.
Wondering what therapy is like? Click here to read up on what to expect during the therapy process.
[1] Collected by Bukhari
[2] Collected by Ibn Majah, and others
[3] A hadith Qudsi is a statement of Allah narrated to us by The Prophet ﷺ
[4] Collected by Bukhari & Muslim
[5] One of the 5 Major Jurisprudential principles as established in Al-Ashbah wan-Naza'ir [by both Ibn Nu’aym and as-Suyuti]
[6] Collected by Bukhari
