How to Defeat Waswas - The Devil's Breathings

Author: Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya - Translation: Hood Jhoumka - Excerpt from: The Ruses of Satan - Editions: Al-Hadith

Objective of the book How to overcome waswas

The objective of this book, "How to overcome waswâs" by Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya, translated by Hood Jhoumka and published by Al-Hadith Editions, is to help readers understand and overcome wasâwis, these obsessions and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) which comes from Satan. These diabolical insufflations and insinuations aim to sow confusion, doubt and push believers into exaggeration or negligence, especially in the areas of prayer and purification. By providing practical advice and religious clarification, the author wishes to help Muslims avoid these insidious traps and practice their faith with serenity and confidence.

Editor's preface

Book Table of Contents: How to Defeat Waswas

Editor's preface

The insinuation in relation to purification and prayer

• People who are victims of insinuation (al-muwaswisûn) obey Satan
• On the intention relating to purification and prayer
• The waste of water
• The Devil's Whisper Concerning the Undoing of Purification
• The suggestion that follows urine comes in ten aspects
• The rigor of people affected by waswasa in relation to the feet
• The purification of the boot and the sandal
• The purification of women's clothing
• Praying in sandals
• Pray everywhere, except the cemetery, the hammam and the place where the camels rest after drinking
• Praying with traces of mud or other on your feet
• The status of the pre-seminal fluid (madhya) which soils the clothing
• Clean yourself with stones (istijmâr)
• Carrying children during prayer
• The clothing of polytheists
• Of the rest of the wild beasts
• A small amount of blood
• Food of the People of the Book
• The waswasa in relation to the points of articulation of the letters
• The response to the argument made by people suffering from waswasa

Of the one who takes the oath of divorce in relation to something which proves to be consistent or contrary to what he said

• Of the one who makes an oath and then forgets it
• Of the one who takes the oath to divorce, in relation to an event, without specifying the date
• The suspension of divorce until an event which must inevitably occur
• The devil urges you to redo your ablutions as a precaution in case of doubt
• The one who cannot determine the location of the defilement
• The one who cannot separate clean clothes from soiled ones
• The confusion between dirty and clean utensils
• If the worshiper cannot determine the direction of the qibla
• The one who forgets a prayer that he cannot identify
• He who doubts his prayer or the legality of his game
• The refutation of the muwaswis who invoke the argument that Ibn 'Umar and Abu Hurayra washed the inside of their eyes
• The refutation of those who say that waswâs is better than laxity and carelessness