Does one suffering from waswas get rewarded, and what should they do?

Question

Praise be to Allah.

Allah, the Exalted, says in
Soorat al-Nas (interpretation of the meaning):

{Say, “I seek
refuge in the Lord of mankind,

The Sovereign
of mankind.

The God of
mankind,

From the evil
of the retreating whisperer –

Who whispers
[evil] into the breasts of mankind –

From among
the jinn and mankind.”}(al-Nas:1-6)

Muslim narrated that Abu
Hurayrah said: “Some of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings
of Allah be upon him) came to him and said, ‘We find things in our hearts
that none of us would dare to utter out loud.’ He said, ‘Do you really find
that?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘That is clear faith.’”

Muslim narrated that ‘Uthman
ibn Abi’l-‘As came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)
and said: “O Messenger of Allah, the Shaytan is coming between me and my
prayer and making me confused in my recitation.” The Messenger of Allah
(peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “That is a devil called
Khanzab. If you feel his presence, then seek refuge with Allah from him and
spit drily to your left three times.” [‘Uthman] said: “I did that and Allah
took him away from me.”

Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated
that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of
Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘The Shaytan comes to
some of you and says, “Who created such and such? Who created such and
such?” – until he says, “Who created your Lord?” If that happens, then let
him seek refuge with Allah and stop thinking about that.’”

Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated
that Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of
Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘When the call for
prayer (adhan) is given, the Shaytan runs away, breaking wind loudly so as
not to hear the adhan. When the adhan ends, he comes back. When the iqamah
(final call to prayer) is made, he runs away, then when the iqamah ends, he
comes back to distract a man from his prayer, saying, “Remember such and
such,” things that the man did not remember, until he does not know how many
rak’ahs (units of prayer) he has prayed. If one of you does not know how
many rak’ahs he has prayed, whether it is three or four, then let him do two
prostrations whilst he is sitting.”

Muslim narrated that Abu Sa’eed
al-Khudri said: “The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him) said, ‘If one of you is uncertain about his prayer and cannot
remember how many rak’ahs he has prayed, whether it was three or four, then
let him avoid doubt and act upon that of which he is certain, then let him
do two prostrations before he says the salam (conclusion of prayer). Then if
he prayed five rak’ahs they will make his prayer even, and if he prayed four
then that will annoy the Shaytan.”

These ayahs (verses) and
ahadeeth (prophetic traditions) show just how keen the Shaytan is to lead
the sons of Adam astray and stop them from worshipping their Lord, by means
of the waswas (whispers) which he instils in their hearts. But the way to
save oneself from these devilish whispers is made clear. For some people the
matter may go so far that they have doubts about every act of worship they
try to do, whether they have even done it or not. The question here is not
whether such a person is to blame, rather the question is whether a person
will be rewarded for his striving against the Shaytan and his efforts to
resist these whispers, or not.

There is no clear statement
from the scholars on this matter, but it may be understood from the words of
the two Shaykhs, Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on
them), that he will be rewarded for that. This is what is to be understood
from the texts quoted above, as we shall see below.

In the first hadeeth, the
Sahabah (Companions) asked the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him) about the waswas that they felt in their hearts, and he said, “That is
clear faith.” Shaykh al-Islam (Majmoo’ al-Fatawa, 7/282) said: “In other
words, the fact that this waswas was happening and they disliked it so much
and pushed it away from their hearts is clear faith, like the mujahid
(warrior) to whom the enemy comes and he resists him until he defeats him,
and this is the greatest form of jihad (battle). Clear (sareeh) means pure,
like pure milk. It becomes clear and pure because they hated those devilish
whispers and warded them off, so their faith became pure and clear.”

He also said (Majmoo’ al-Fatawa,
14/108):

“This waswasah is something that
involuntarily enters the heart of a person, and if a person hates it and
shuns it, this hatred of it is clear faith.”

He also said (Majmoo’ al-Fatawa,
22/608):

“Many of the scholars said:
hating that, disliking it and shunning it is clear faith. Praise be to Allah
that the most the Shaytan can do is whisper, for when the devil from the
jinn is defeated, it whispers (waswasah) and when the human devil is
defeated, he lies. Waswas affects everyone who tries to focus on Allah in
his worship and dhikr (remembrance of Allah) etc. So one has to be steadfast
and patient and persist in dhikr or prayer; he should not feel distressed
because if he persists, that will divert the plot of the Shaytan away from
him, for the plot of the Shaytan is weak.”

And he said in Dar al-Ta’arud,
3/318:

“This waswas may be gotten rid
of by seeking refuge with Allah and ignoring it, so that if [the Shaytan]
says, ‘you did not wash your face,’ you should say, ‘Yes, I did wash my
face;’ if he thinks that he did not form the intention (for prayer) or say
Allahu akbar, he should say in his heart, ‘Yes I did form the intention and
say Allahu akbar.’ He should cling steadfastly to the truth and ward off the
waswas that goes against it, so that the Shaytan will see how strong and
steadfast he is in adhering to the truth, and will leave him alone.
Otherwise when he (the Shaytan) sees that he is influenced by doubts and
responsive to waswas, he will send him more waswas until he will be unable
to resist and his heart will become receptive to the seductive whispers of
the devils of the jinn and of mankind, and he will move from one thing to
another until the Shaytan drives him to his doom.

Based on the above, we may say
that a man will be rewarded for resisting this waswas and for striving
against the Shaytan for a number of reasons:

1 – The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) praised the feeling of hatred towards the
waswas that had to do with doubts concerning belief (‘aqeedah) when he said,
“That is clear faith.” One of the things implied by the hatred of this
waswas is that one turns away from it and does not get carried away with
it.

2 – Obeying the command of the
Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), “Let him stop it.”

3 – The Prophet (peace and
blessings of Allah be upon him) said concerning the prostration of
forgetfulness (sajdat al-sahw): “They will annoy the Shaytan.” This implies
encouragement to annoy and humiliate the Shaytan. Annoying him here means
turning away from this waswas and not paying any attention to it. This is in
addition to the fact that Allah and His Messenger have taught us to seek
refuge with Allah from the Shaytan, etc.

4 – The difficulties and
distress that the believer may suffer as a result of this waswas may be
included in the hadeeth of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him), “No Muslim suffers tiredness, exhaustion, worry, grief, annoyance or
distress, not even a thorn that pricks him, but Allah will expiate some of
his sins thereby.”
(al-Bukhari, Muslim).

5 – Shaykh al-Islam (Ibn
Taymiyah – may Allah have mercy on him) said: “Like the mujahid to whom the
enemy comes and he resists him until he defeats him, and this is the
greatest form of jihad.” The fact that he likens him to a mujahid and
describes this as the greatest form of jihad may be understood to mean that
he will be rewarded for that.

And Allah knows best. May Allah
bless our Prophet Muhammad and all his family and Companions.