Question # 597: Assalam o alaikum i have been dealing with a lot of wiswas about commuting kufur and I am usually saying shahada again how to deal with this for eg I was once in a islamiyat class and I jokingly said to my friend lets ask the teacher that should we do rafa ya dain or not it will make him fight with us and he will fight us and we laughed keeping mind I myself do follow this sunnah and had no intention of belittling it then my friend said we should ask him that is taraweeh 20 or 8 rakah.Sometimes I also give salam to my father in a exaggerating way to get his reaction .a lot of time has passed and now I am getting thoughts that I am out of islam and my ramadan is invalid and all my prayers have no meaning please help.

bismi-llahi r-raḥmani r-raḥīm,

Assalamu ‘laikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh,

All praise and thanks are due to Allah (سبحانه و تعالى), and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم).

Dear questioner,

First of all, we implore Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) to help us serve His cause and render our work for His sake.

Shorter Answer: This is waswas (satanic whispering), not kufr, and Islam has a clear, merciful answer for it. None of the scenarios described by you, either joking with classmates about asking a teacher a controversial fiqh question or giving an exaggerated salaam to a parent, meet any classical or contemporary scholarly definition of mockery or disbelief, especially given your stated intentions. The distress and fear you feel about these thoughts is itself, according to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم), evidence of faith rather than its absence. Your prayers and your Ramadan remain valid, In Sha Allah, and continuing to repeat the shahada every time a doubt strikes will make the cycle worse, not better. The way out is to stop engaging with the doubt, trust that Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) knows your heart, and continue your worship and your life normally.

Long Answer: Waswas al-Qahri (Overwhelming Whisperings or Compulsive Intrusive Thoughts) refers to overpowering, unwanted whispers about belief, purity, or worship that a person does not choose, does not want, and actively resists. It consists of thoughts and bad ideas that repeatedly intrude on a person’s mind even though he does not want them, to the point that he cannot rid himself of them, while knowing they are baseless. Because the person has no real control over these thoughts and finds them abhorrent, Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) will not hold him accountable for them, based on the Qur’anic principle that He does not burden a soul beyond what it can bear (Soorah al-Baqarah, 2:286). This is fundamentally different from disbelief, which requires a deliberate, willing rejection of truth in the heart, speech, or action.

There is a direct hadith for exactly this situation. Several companions came to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) distressed because of thoughts crossing their minds that they considered too terrible to even speak aloud. As recorded in Sahih Muslim, it is narrated on the authority of Abu Hurairah (رضي الله عنه) that some people from amongst the Companions of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) came to him and said: “Verily we perceive in our minds that which every one of us considers it too grave to express.” He (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said: “Do you really perceive it?” They said: “Yes.” Upon this, he remarked: “That is the faith manifest” (implying clear faith (iman sarih)).

The lesson scholars draw from this hadith is simple: the more a person hates and fights against a thought, the further it is from being a reflection of what’s actually in their heart. The thought is the shaytan’s whisper, not that person’s belief.

Secondly, presumably joking about rafa yadayn or Taraweeh rak’at makes you feel most distress. So, to clarify, the topics themselves are not even disputes about kufr or iman. Rafa yadayn (raising the hands at certain points in prayer) and whether Taraweeh is 8 or 20 rak’at are both legitimate, long-established differences of opinion (ikhtilaf) among scholars. Suggesting these as questions to provoke a reaction from a teacher is not the same as mocking either practice, especially since you mention you yourself practice rafa yadayn and had no intention of belittling it.

The scholars are precise about what actually constitutes mockery. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah said in as-Saarim al-Maslool ‘ala Shatim ar-Rasul (written in response to an incident in which he heard a Christian insulting the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم)): “As there is no set definition of reviling in either linguistic or Islamic terms, reference concerning that should be made to what is customary among people. Whatever is customarily regarded as reviling of the Prophet is that to which we must apply the words of the Sahabah and scholars. Whatever is not like that is not subject to those rulings.” This standard test laid down by Ibn Taymiyyah is used by scholars: Any word or deed that is indicative, according to what is customary among people and what they understand in their language, of belittling or ridiculing Allah and His Messenger (صلى الله عليه و سلم), or the Qur’an and Sunnah, or any of the symbols of this religion, comes under the heading of mockery that puts one beyond the pale of Islam.

IslamQA’s guidance on takfīr also stresses that intent matters. Shaykh Ibn al-‘Uthaymin said: “Excommunication of a Muslim as a ruling has two prerequisites: 1. Establishing the proof of that thing being excommunicable. 2. Application of the ruling on one who does that, such that he is knowledgeable of it and intended it. If he was ignorant, he is not excommunicated.

This is based on Allah’s (سبحانه و تعالى) statements: “And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers, We shall leave him on his chosen path and burn him in Hell – what an evil destination” (Soorah an-Nisaʾa, 4: 115). “And Allah would not let a people stray after He has guided them until He makes clear to them what they should avoid. Indeed, Allah is Knowing of all things” (Soorah at-Tawbah, 9: 115). “And We never punish until We have sent a Messenger” (Soorah al-Israʾ, 17:15).

However, if he is negligent by abandoning learning and seeking clarification, then he is not excused. For example, it reaches him that this action of his is disbelief, but then he does not verify it, nor research it, in that case, he is not excused. If he did not intend to do the excommunicable act, then he is not excommunicated for that. For example: if he is forced to do [an act of] disbelief while his heart is sure with faith, or his mind was overcome and he did not know what he was saying due to extreme joy or it’s like, like the owner of the camel which wandered off, so he lay down under a tree awaiting death, then he finds it standing before him so he takes hold of its nose-string and says ‘O Allah, You are my slave, and I am Your Lord’ – he makes a mistake due to extreme joy. However, whoever does an excommunicable act jokingly, he disbelieves because he intended that, as the scholars have determined.” (Majmuʿ Fatawa wa Rasaʾil Fadilat)

To explain the above, Shaykh Ibn al-‘Uthaymin outlined that declaring someone outside Islam requires two things to be firmly established: that the act genuinely qualifies as kufr, and that the person knowingly and deliberately intended it that way; if he was ignorant of it being kufr, or did not intend it, he is not excommunicated. A mischievous suggestion to stir up a classroom debate, made by someone who personally follows the practice and explicitly did not intend disrespect, does not meet that bar. Real mockery of the Sunnah, the kind of mockery that scholars rule as kufr, looks like deliberately ridiculing the beard, the hijab, or a practice because it’s religious, in order to belittle the religion behind it, not jokingly proposing a debate topic among friends.

Further, giving salaam in an exaggerated, theatrical way to get a reaction out of your father is, at most, a question of adab (manners), not a question of belief. Presumably, you were not mocking the act of giving salaam itself or treating the Sunnah of greeting with contempt; you were being playful with your dad. This has no connection whatsoever to kufr and should not be a source of fear. It may simply be worth toning down out of respect for him, but that’s a matter of household etiquette, not faith.

As for repeating the shahada every time a thought strikes, it is not correct, and scholars are explicit that this actually feeds the problem. The scholars recommend not spending more time thinking about it, but instead spending that time on good actions and pursuits that benefit you. Responding to the doubt by repeating the shahada is like feeding an animal: the more you feed it, the more it keeps coming back.

Lastly, In Sha Allah, your past prayers and your Ramadan are still valid. The validity of your worship is tied to the actual state of your heart and intention at the time you performed it and not to intrusive thoughts you neither chose nor consented to, and which you were actively distressed by. Shaykh Ibn al-‘Uthaymin in Kitaab Liqaa’aat al-Baab al-Maftooh addressed this matter: if a thought of impugning Allah (سبحانه و تعالى), the Qur’an, or other forms of kufr crosses someone’s mind, he should not pay any attention to it, and it will not harm him; even if it occurs involuntarily, there is no sin on him (paraphrased). There is no scholarly basis for treating your Ramadan, your prayers, or your standing as a Muslim as compromised by thoughts you fought against.

The scholars suggest some practical steps going forward in this situation. Primarily, do not engage or investigate further. Treat the thought as background noise, not a question requiring an answer. Scholars specifically advise people struggling with OCD around kufr not to chase down every theoretical scenario, since delving into specialist matters of belief and disbelief when you are not a specialist will only feed the OCD and increase the stress. Say “A’udhu billahi min ash-shaytanir-rajim” (I seek refuge in Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) from the accursed Shaytan) and continue with what you were doing, rather than stopping to repeat actions or words. al-Mu’awwadhatayn – Qul a’oodhu bi Rabb il-Falaq and Qul a’oodhu bi Rabb il-nas (the last two soorahs of the Quran) and Ayat al-Kursi regularly; these are commonly recommended for protection from these whispers. Make your intention once and move on in prayer, in wudhu, and in any form of worship. Resist the urge to repeat for “certainty”; certainty is not found by repeating; it is found by stopping.

If this is frequent, distressing, and hard to control on your own, it’s worth speaking to a mental health professional experienced with religious scrupulosity/OCD, alongside a trustworthy local scholar; the two are not in conflict and are often most effective together.

(The above reply is based on various answers on similar topics provided by:

  • Islamqa.info
  • Islamweb.net, a website belonging to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in the State of Qatar;
  • salafiknowledge.com
  • yaqeeninstitute.org)

Allahu A’lam (Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) knows best), and all Perfections belong to Allah, and all mistakes belong to me alone. May Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) forgive me, Ameen.

Wassalaam