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Fatwa CenterPerforming repentance prayer without committing sin
Question
If you suffered waswaas (devilish whisperings) that you did a bad deed and it is disturbing you and you prayed the prayer of repentance, is that acceptable or is it considered an innovation?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
The person who suffers from obsessive whisperings should not let himself get carried away with that. Rather, he must not pay any attention to it. No matter how much whisperings about committing sins he may experience, he should totally disregard them. Verily, getting carried away with them leads to grave consequences.
If the person only doubts that he committed a sin and wants to perform the prayer of repentance, then we could not find any statement of the scholars in this regard. The hadeeth about the prayer of repentance indicates that it is performed after actually committing a sin (not based on mere doubts). When the sinner performs the prayer of repentance and seeks the forgiveness of Allaah, then He forgives him. Please, refer to fatwa 131470.
However, prayer in general abounds with great benefits. If a person prays so as to earn many rewards with the hope of having his bad deeds cancelled, then there is no harm in that. This is a good thing regardless of whether he commits sins or not. Allaah, The Exalted, says (what means): {Indeed, good deeds do away with misdeeds.} [Quran 11:114]
Allaah knows best.
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