Insinuating Whispers About Purification

Question

Praise be to Allah.

The one who is tested with
waswas about taharah (state of purity) or anything else should pay no
attention to it; he should remain certain that his taharah is still valid
and should not change his mind concerning that because of mere doubt.

It was narrated that ‘Abdullah
ibn Zayd (may Allah be pleased with him) said: A man complained to the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) that he felt something
whilst praying — should he stop his prayer? He said: “No, not unless you
hear a sound or notice a smell.”Narrated by al-Bukhari,
2056; Muslim, 361

Al-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may
Allah have mercy on him) said:

This hadeeth (prophetic
tradition) in which the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be
upon him) issued a ruling is regarded as an important shar‘i (legal)
principle, which is that certainty cannot be dispelled by doubt, and things
remain as they are. So long as the taharah is certain, then it cannot be
changed by mere doubt. So long as the state of purity remains valid then it
is to be regarded as valid until it is proven that it has been invalidated.
This hadeeth offers ease and reassurance to the individual, as it keeps him
far away from waswas and doubts, because by means of this hadeeth doubt is
dispelled and what he is certain about remains, namely taharah. End quote.

Fatawa Noor ‘ala ad-Darb,
56/119

Al-Shaykh Ibn Baz (may Allah
have mercy on him) said:

The believer should not pay any
attention to this waswas, because that encourages the Shaytan to mess about
with him. The Shaytan is keen to spoil the good deeds of the sons of Adam,
prayer and other things. So what is required is to beware of his tricks and
whispers, and to put your trust in Allah and regard what may happen to one
of whispers as being from the Shaytan, so that you will not pay any
attention to them. If something comes out for certain, without any doubt,
then istinja (cleaning oneself after relieving oneself) and wudu should be
repeated. But so long as there is any doubt, even if it is small, then you
should not pay any attention to it so as to regard the taharah as still
valid and combat the Shaytan. End quote. Majmoo‘ Fatawa Ibn Baz,
10/123

With regard to the words of Ibn
al-Mubarak, Abu ‘Eesa at-Tirmidhi (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his
Jami‘ (1/127):

‘Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak said:
If a person is uncertain as to whether he has nullified his wudu, then he
does not have to do wudu until he is so certain of it that he could swear to
it. End quote.

This is an explanation of what
is stated above, which is that no attention should be paid to doubts no
matter how strong they are, until one is certain of that.

For more information please see
the answer to question no.

13892 and

128887.

And Allah knows best.