What Shall I Do When I am Confronted With Satanic Whispers?

Answered by Mawlana Ilyas Patel

Question

I will try to explain my condition.

Situation 1: I am just sitting, and suddenly I get whispers to lower my eyes and do sujud to statues; they are nowhere in the house,  but I do it sometimes.

Situation 2: I just lower my eyes a little while talking to someone, sometimes due to whispers from head to shoulder or stomach.

Please help me. Is it shirk to lower your eyes out of respect, and I get whispers to lower your eyes in front of fake statues and all the people whom Hindus worship?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.

I pray you are in good faith and health. Thank you for your question.

Rest assured, it is not a shirk to lower your head like this. Just do the remembrance (dhikr) of Allah whenever you are in a situation like this. Shaytan will pull you with other thoughts, and he will retreat while you do the remembrance of  Allah Most High.

In your first situation, when you find yourself in a situation like that again, the right thing to do is first a) ignore the thought if you can, 2) if you have wudu, go into prostration facing the qibla and recite the glorifications of prostration, سبحان ربي الأعلى. Condition your mind to do this whenever you are in a situation like this.

As for your second situation, condition yourself to do the remembrances of Allah Most High, like the tasbih, takbir, and tahmid, or recite Surat al-Fatiha, Ayat al-Kursi, and the four Qul, then puff in your palm and wipe all over your body.

Devil Waiting for Man to Forget Allah

Anas ibn Malik (Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “Verily, Satan is lying in wait over the heart of the son of Adam. If he remembers Allah, Satan retreats. If he forgets Allah, Satan will devour his heart; that is the ‘whisperer who retreats.’” [Quran, 114:4] [Musnad Abu Ya‘la]

Easy way to Paradise, but Satan Distracts

Abdullah ibn’ Amr (Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, “There are two practices no Muslim man preserves but that he will enter Paradise. Indeed, they are both easy, yet few act upon them. Glorify Allah at the end of every prayer ten times, praise Him ten times, and exalt Him ten times. These are one hundred and fifty upon the tongue but one thousand and five hundred upon the Scale.

When you retire to your bed, glorify Him, exalt Him, and praise Him one hundred times. These are one hundred upon the tongue but one thousand upon the Scale. Which one of you would commit two thousand and five hundred sins in a day and night?” They said, “How could we not preserve them?” The Prophet said, “Satan comes to one of you while he is praying, and he whispers for him to remember this and that until he turns away and, perhaps, he does not do it. While in his bed, Satan continues to lure him to sleep until he falls asleep. [Tirmidhi]

May Allah Most High give you ease and relief from all kinds of doubts and satanic whispers.

Related:

• Devil’s Tricks – The Path of Muhammad: Birgivi’s Manual of Taqwa Explained. [Video]
• Doubts – IPD Session #3 | COJ – an ISIP Youth Chapter Initiative
• The Application of Islamic Psychotherapy for the Treatment of OCD
• Key Principles Relating to Certainty, Doubt, and Baseless Misgivings (waswasa)
• A Reader on OCD and Waswasa (Baseless Misgivings)
• The Application of Islamic Psychotherapy for the Treatment of OCD. [Video]
• Being Balanced – Emotional and Mental Health

Why not begin your search for knowledge by signing up for a course, Satanic Tactics: Seven Tricks of the Devil, and many others?

I pray this helps with your question.
Wassalam,
[Mawlana] Ilyas Patel
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Mawlana Ilyas Patel is a traditionally trained scholar who has studied in the UK, India, Pakistan, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey. He started his early education in the UK. He went on to complete the hifz of the Quran in India, then enrolled in an Islamic seminary in the UK, where he studied the secular and ‘Aalimiyya sciences. He then traveled to Karachi, Pakistan. He has been an Imam in Rep of Ireland for several years. He has taught hifz of the Quran, Tajwid, Fiqh, and many other Islamic sciences to children and adults onsite and online extensively in the UK and Ireland. He taught at a local Islamic seminary for 12 years in the UK, where he was a librarian and a teacher of Islamic sciences. He currently resides in the UK with his wife. His interest is a love of books and gardening.