How to Deal with OCD regarding Various Aspects of Purity and Prayer?
Answered by Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Question
I have severe OCD, regarding many aspects of purity and prayer. What should I do?
Answer
Your OCD is quite intense, which is very clear from the questions you have asked. The solution you need is in two matters:
- Studying the fiqh of purity and prayer properly with an experienced teacher. Please register for the Introduction to Sacred Law course we offer. This will help you a great deal. This will help you manage your symptoms with ease. Ask questions, and aim to understand the teacher’s general approach to purity and the rulings.
- Therapy. This is the way to heal from your OCD. It will help reduce and eliminate the feelings and doubts you have. You must prioritize this significantly if it is affecting your worship.
Please start with this seminar: Being Balanced-Emotional and Mental Health
Answers to Your Questions
Most of the questions you have asked you already know the answers to. You need to tell yourself that all the internal panic and urges which make you go to such lengths are not what you need to base your practice on. Base it on sound knowledge.
You won’t be accountable for what goes on in your head. Just let the thoughts come in and go out. Don’t resist. Resistance will only make them stronger.
There are a handful of points that will make things easier for you. I’ll briefly touch on them below. They are not, however, a substitute for proper learning.
- Washing a limb properly doesn’t take long. A few seconds at most. Put soap on your hands, for example, and wash them once for five seconds. No more. They are pure.
- The towel will not become impure.
- Water flowing or moving is pure if there are no signs of impurity. Assume the splashes from the toilet are pure, and don’t focus on them.
- Stop checking your clothes for impurities.
- Once semen has dried, it cannot make anything else impure – even if it gets wet again. There is no need to avoid it on the mattress, etc.
- The alcohol you referred to is pure, as is the soap made of tallow [Shurunbulali, Maraqi al Falah; Mawsili, al-Ikhtiyar]
Allah is Testing You
Assume the best of Allah. You are being tested for your rank to be raised. See it as that and ask Allah to make a way out for you very soon. Keep worshipping Allah, and see that the difficulties you are enduring are a means for you to become closer to Allah.
Check this reader:
OCD and waswasa (Baseless Misgivings)
I pray Allah removes your difficulties very soon.
[Shaykh] Abdul-Rahim Reasat
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Abdul-Rahim Reasat began his studies in Arabic Grammar and Morphology in 2005. After graduating with a degree in English and History he moved to Damascus in 2007 where, for 18 months, he studied with many erudite scholars. In late 2008 he moved to Amman, Jordan, where he continued his studies for the next six years in Sacred Law (fiqh), legal theory (Usul al-fiqh), theology, hadith methodology, hadith commentary, and Logic. He was also given licenses of mastery in the science of Quranic recital and he was able to study an extensive curriculum of Quranic sciences, tafsir, Arabic grammar, and Arabic eloquence.
