Whispers Regarding Intentions In Acts of Worship

20-3-2019 | IslamWeb

Question:

Salaam ‘Alaykum. Respected Mashaaykh, if you could kindly do me a favour and answer this question specifically. Thank you very much.Shaytaan comes to me and gives me doubts and whispers regarding my intentions for acts of worship. So I break the intention for the act of worship and make a new one. As I break this intention of mine, I also break the one that I know I am going to make after it and all the other intentions as well. This happens over and over again, a lot of time goes on this and I end up not being able to start my acts of worship. I know this sounds absurd but I would like to ask, if while doing this, I get fed up and just start my act of worship and just ignore the whole intention issue, are my acts of worships valid? And are my acts of worship valid if I just skip and ignore this whole intention thing that I do even if I already decided to do this whole intention thing before starting (i.e. even if I already decided to break all my intentions and make a new one)? Plus, what should I do if I break my intention in the middle of doing the act of worship, due to doubts and whispers, even though I don’t want to but it’s just that I’ve become used to it?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

All these are nothing but whispers that you should ignore, repel and not pay any attention to them.

Do not interrupt your act of worship no matter how the devil whispers to you that you did not intend a considerable intention.

No matter how after the devil whispers to you to renew and repeat the intention, just continue your act of worship and do not stop it, and your act of worship in this case is valid and you will be rewarded for it, Allah willing.

Therefore, you must strive to get rid of these whispers as giving in to them will lead you to a great evil.

Allah knows best.