Fatwa ID: 03805

Answered by: Alimah Sabrina al-Faarsiyyah

Question

Assalamu alaikum

I am a person who gets wasawis a lot and they keep circling and keep coming back. I am not diagnosed with OCD but looking at symptoms of OCD online, I have many matching symptoms.

I keep getting forceful bad thoughts, then I get anxious and then say something to get rid of them, like duas or words like 'No No' etc and the bad thoughts keep coming back and torturing me. They are like in a cycle. So I bought online OCD treatment videos etc. to treat myself. In that video a person who made videos/audios said that rituals and avoidance are enemies. Meaning to get rid of an OCD thought, whatever a person does to get relief are rituals which are enemies and avoiding those thoughts (avoidance) is enemy too. What if the rituals are that a person reads duas and ibadat?

1. And if a person says that rituals are enemies but do not have bad intention to say that to ibadat or duas or to any Islamic thing but rather use word enemy in a sense that responding to thoughts by duas and ibadat isn't helping as it increases the sickness by reacting etc. I also wash my hands many times too. So these are called rituals to get rid of anxiety. So does saying that OCD rituals are enemies amount to kufr if rituals also comprised of ibadat, duas, or all Islamic things?

2. Does saying duas or ibadat are not going to help OCD thoughts etc. amount to kufr?

3. This question is in relation to words that have a good meaning and have very bad meanings as well. There are some words which have such a bad meaning and on the other side, a very good meaning. So when we use a word in the Islamic context we use that word with good meaning in mind but don't use that word with the intention of bad meaning. Also, a person uses a word which sounds a bit like a bad word but a person uses that word (which is a bit different from actual word but sound like a bad word but not actually that word) in the Islamic context, etc. in a good way keeping in mind that the meaning is good.  Actions are but by intentions. Is it permissible to use a word in a good way even though word either sound like a bad word or a word has two meanings and when a person uses that word for Islamic things he has good meaning in mind not the bad meaning? Is that permissible? JazakAllah Khair.

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيْم

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh,

As for your first question, whether saying that ibadat and du’as do not help OCD, does this amount to kufr or not. It is important to understand that although ultimately, the cure is in the hands of Almighty Allah, at the same time, Allah Ta’ala makes many worldly things a means of cure such as medication, treatments, and surgeries. Sometimes, people only stick to their ibadat and du’as and ask Allah Ta’ala for a cure without actually pursuing the means of cure granted by Allah Ta’ala. Thus, it is important that, along with ibadat and du’as, a person must pursue other means of medical treatment. So if a person says: “ibadat and du’as do not help with OCD”, this would not amount to kufr. However, a person should still be mindful of saying this in a negative way.

As for your second question, whether using words that have both a good and a bad meaning and using them in Islamic contexts with their good meanings, whether this is permissible or not. All of this goes back to one’s intention. If one uses a world that comprises of good and bad meanings while intending its good meaning, then this is permissible and one must pay no attention to baseless misgivings.^[1]

Only Allah knows best

Written by Alimah Sabrina al-Faarsiyyah

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Iftā Birmingham