Question

I am a very religious Muslim. I want to be close to Allah (swt), but I have this problem, I keep getting a lot of unworthy thoughts regarding Allah, my religion and my faith. You can call it waswasas¹. This usually happens during Ramadhan. I constantly say LA-illaha-illalah. What do I do? I feel so upset & down. Why do such thoughts come to a Muslim, who wants to improve himself and win the pleasure of the Almighty?

Please help.

Allah-hafiz

Answer

The life of this world is a test from the beginning till the end. During this test, evil forces are given a chance to lead man astray and, thereby, deprive him from deserving the pleasure of his Lord and attaining the eternal bliss of the life hereafter. However, these evil forces do not have the power of actually leading man astray, but can only incite man to commit evil and to disobey his Lord. When a person resolves and strives to live a life, which is in accordance with the likings of his Creator, it is the time, when satan and its followers fear losing a companion and, therefore, try their utmost of deviating the person from the straight path of his Lord. It is at this time that the evil forces become more active in inciting that person to do evil. Nevertheless, even at this stage, all that these evil forces can do is to seduce and lure a person into committing an evil deed; even at this stage, the person cannot be forced into committing an evil deed.

We must always try to remind ourselves that till the time that God decides about the termination of our test – by putting us to death – we have to face these evil suggestions and try to defeat them by adhering to the straight path of our Lord. However, there will be times, when these forces shall successfully lure us into committing an evil deed. At such times, we can easily become despaired and depressed and, as a result, lose all hope of success in this test. This too is one of satan’s attacks. At such times, the evil forces try to make us lose all hope in God’s mercy and dissuade us from following the right path, by suggesting us that this path is not for ordinary people like us to tread. We must remember that it is not perfection and absolute lack of bad deeds in our records that is required for our success; on the contrary, it is, in fact, our commitment of doing the best that we can do, even in the face of apparent failures and deviations. Even after having committed a sin – a grave sin – we should steady ourselves and resolve to do our best in keeping ourselves clean of all sins in future; we should repent on our deeds, seek forgiveness from the Merciful, and never lose hope in His abounding mercy and forgiveness. Nevertheless, whatever the firmness of our commitment and resolve, we would remain humans and can easily fall prey to the errors, attractions and deviations that humans are prone to. Yet, we must never lose hope in God’s mercy!

We can, however, try to save ourselves from the attacks of the evil forces by keeping ourselves occupied with pious and constructive thoughts and activities. Some of the important things that we may add in our daily routines may be:

• Keep seeking the forgiveness and the mercy of our Lord from all such wrongs that we may have intentionally or unintentionally committed in the past. The best thing to do is to keep our tongue occupied with the remembrance of our Lord. For this purpose, the most effective thing to do is to memorize (with meaning) the supplications given in the Qur’an and taught by the Prophet (pbuh) and make it a habit of reciting them at all such times of non-occupation;
• Find for ourselves a company of those who are sincerely trying to know and follow the path of their Lord;
• Make it a routine of reciting (with understanding) a portion of the Qur’an everyday, with a firm commitment of following the path prescribed in it;
• Spend of our wealth in the cause of helping the needy as well as in learning and propagating the word of God and the teachings of the Prophet (pbuh);
• Participate in all possible good activities of the community, whether they are undertaken for the well being of individuals living in the community or for the understanding and the promotion of God’s truth; and
• Offer naf’l (supererogatory) prayers and other forms of worship that make us feel closer to the Merciful.

In short, the most effective way of saving ourselves from the attacks of evil forces is to fill the vacuums that may exist in our minds, hearts and activities with pious and constructive thoughts and activities and, thereby, leave no spaces for satan and its followers to lure us into doing wrong.

UIUIK

1. i.e. seductions or evil suggestions and ideas. []

You may share this on your social media timeline:

Views: 400