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Scrupulosity, OCD, Waswasa Al Qahri In Islam
Salam,
I have question about mental health. In our culture, little attention is payed to mental health. Any Muslim who suffers from scrupulosity(excessive intrusive doubts) which affects their mental, physical and spiritual health and they can not practice their faith with peace and comfort. How they should be approached in Islamic way? Modern western treatment ERP(Exposure response prevention) sometimes wants their patient’s to encounter and face those fears by saying or writing down those intrusive thoughts however I have read from some scholars that Muslims should not practice such a therapy where they have to say evil things regarding their religion(in OCD)? Suppose an example one patient male with scrupulosity has urge to say I divorce my wife however no intention. He is always obsessed that he will divorce his wife and in obsession sometimes he would say those words to relieve his anxiety. In ERP psychologists want him to say those words to challenge them and live more peacefully, can he do that? However I have seen patient’s who get so obsessed that they start discussing and say that intrusive stuff to relieve their mental burden but later regret that whether God forbid they have committed act of kufar by saying that stuff? As many scholars say that saying any deterogatory remarks Allah swt forbids even in state of extreme anger takes one out of faith. What if one has disorder and is obsessed to do that? How should we approach those patient,s? Can they peacefully do ERP? Can we tell them that things said in state of extreme scrupulosity are not counted against them? As in west psychologists would not know basic principles of Islam, how can we guide these kind of people? May Allah swt reward javed Ahmed Ghamidi Sab and all his team for wonderful work they do.
Thank you!!
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7 Replies
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Scrupulosity, OCD, Waswasa Al Qahri In Islam
updated 1 year, 3 months ago
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Replies
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We are only accountable for our actions that we undertake using our free will. If someone does something because of a disorder there’s no sin for it. Similarly, if a medical treatment requires someone to overcome their fear of divorce by writing it down or uttering the words, it has no bearing on the validity of their marriage.
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Salaam.
May Allah guide us to the right path. The video above sheds some light on the ways and abouts of mind intrusive thoughts.
In my understanding about therapies, strictly about any therapy; If we think that a modality of treatment might help and the results can be fruitful or otherwise, yet we cannot be certain of a negative outcome (like the self blame of uttering a blasphemous statement), and we are confident that the therapy will be helpful then trying it out is a better compromise.
Stay blessed, always
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Sharing personal experience may be frowned upon but if it helps others then I am comfortable discussing this on a public forum.
In a certain time in my life, I experienced mind intrusive, obsessive thoughts which were unhealthy. This affected my social life tremendously. Fortunately, God gave me insight into my psychological condition and I overcame it, alhamdulillah. I realized that my condition is not objective rather it is subjective and hence I resolved to meditation. I didn’t choose to express my thoughts in writing or oratory. I ran thought experiments of possible outcomes of feelings if they were ever to be performed. The results were always negative.
The psychotherapy I choose was cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness techniques aka MBCT. Along with this, daily connection with God, Qur’ān, meditation and positive thinking were employed. I listened to yogis and sufis on how to subdue my negativity as opposed to the modern psychological way of letting it out.
After 2 months of daily self therapy I began to see results. And in 1 year I was completely in control of my negativity and in 2 years I got rid of whatever social negativity I was harboring. To this day, alhamdulillah, Allah has helped me to stay positive even in situations which are unrelated to my original psychological issue.
I hope this helps to get a better perspective.
Stay blessed, always
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Thank you for sharing!! I am glad you had insight into your condition and Allah swt helped you overcome it. I know many people whether Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews all have obsessive/intrusive thoughts however people without ocd don’t dwell on them. As in other hand, when scrupulous people get those thoughts they dwell into them and it creates a viscous cycle of negativity and intrusive obsessions. Being fine in every other matter of life, no one understands scrupulous individual and they suffer silently. Pure obsessive people get to the point where they are confused to differentiate whether they are evil or they have OCD. They sometimes are thought to have either low faith or possessed by devil. So I think it is very important for scrupulous individual to have insight into their condition so they can seek help. For this purpose, it is very important that imam’s/scholar’s have this knowledge that how Islam approaches mental health so if they encounter such situations they can guide people to get help from psychologist so one can practice their faith with understanding, comfort and peace rather then out of obsessions, fear or compulsion.
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Salam Alaikum,
I currently find myself in this state of mind too. I keep having intrusive thoughts about fiqhi opinions where some scholars have ranges of extremely prohibitive (major sin) to lenient (mubah) opinions (matters like mortgage, keeping a dog, beard ruling, fine arts, music, masturbation, non Islamic themes in entertainment etc). Personally I think one should follow what makes the most sense to him/her. However the intrusive thoughts which really bother me are that “what if all the extremely prohibitive options turn out to be correct on the day of resurrection and I will be punished”. Usually there are specific events that trigger this intrusive thought.
For example if we take the issue of masturbation, I’m fully aware that scholars (including Ghamidi Sahib) such as Ahmed ibn Hanbal, Ibn Al Hazm and Al Shawkani said that there is nothing wrong with it as the nature of the act is just to relieve one’s self of sexual urges in a similar manner to excreting any other bodily substance such as Silva, mucus, urine or bad blood etc.
However a few days ago I saw a video of a scholar (won’t take name) who said it is a major sin and quoted the ayah of Surah Al muminun about guarding private parts except for spouse and right hand possession. Furthermore he also quoted the bukhari Hadith where the prophet recommended fasting for people unable to get married. Using these 2 pieces of evidence his full intention was to refute anyone who held the mubah/makrooh opinion on the matter. Furthermore I think he also said it was harmful for physical and mental health to backup his argument. Now I’m having extremely intrusive thoughts about how something so harmless be considered a major sin.
I think I’ve seen Ghamidi Sahibs argument on the Surah mominoon verse in which he states that the provisions of the verse don’t apply to one relieving him or herself sexually but only in conditions where sexual acts involve more than 2 people. Just waiting for someone to provide explanation of the bukhari Hadith in defence of the mubah argument on this matter. However I do realize that the argument of masturbation being detrimental to physical and mental health is absolute rubbish and that the scientific evidence actually points to the contrary. In fact, male masturbation is crucial to prevent serious diseases such as prostrate cancer. However this opinion of it being a major sin still bothers me.
Im due to see a Muslim psychotherapist in a weeks time who has a niche specialization in spiritual and mental health. I’m hoping to benefit from it and relief my mental pain inshallah. Meanwhile if anyone has any piece of helpful advice for me, I would be very grateful 🥲
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You have the book of Allah with you. As long as you understand and follow it with honesty (to the best of your understanding) then even if your understanding truns out to be wrong on the day of judgement, you’d still have a genuine justification to present on the day of judgement and justice will be done. However, if it is to the contrary then neither will the justification benefit nor will the deeds. This attitude also help with these kind of intrusive thoughts which sometimes affect one’s mental health. This attitude coupled with professional help, can help minimze this problem greatly.
If you have any specific question about masturbation, please feel free to post it as a separate discussion.
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Thanks for the suggestion Umer Bhai 😊.
Yes I believe that seeking knowledge with an honest intellect is the best approach too.
However by nature I would describe myself as someone who is easily influenced or is effected by other views.I would call myself, perhaps somewhat of a gullible person in that regard.
For example there was a time in my life where I was having extreme doubts about religion itself and I would shun and stay away from social media or any literature which would endorse atheism or be critical towards Islam as I feared loosing God and poisoning my Iman. I remember I would watch clips and posts by people like Dr. Naik and some Christians as wlell to reinforce my belief in Allah.
Now it’s a 180 degree turn where I actively avoid very conservative daees due to the fear I mentioned in my previous post. However Literature from atheists like Dawkins etc does not bother me as much anymore.
Seeking knowledge in an intellectual manner is an important one yes. However, in my opinion, given my personality type perhaps it’s more important to seek therapy to overcome this OCD and boost my confidence in myself.
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