Treating waswasah by seeking refuge with Allah from the Shaytan and ignoring it

Praise
be to Allah

If you have a tank from which
water is leaking through a tap, then the solution is not to mop up the water
that has been leaked; rather the solution is to shut off the tap firmly, so
as to stop the water leaking.

This is what is required of you
now. It will not do you any good if you get an answer to the two minor
issues mentioned in your question, because the train of thought will never
stop, and the Shaytan’s tank of waswas is full and will never run out. Your
tap is open, so when will those problems ever end?

The solution is to strive to put
an end to that waswas, which can be achieved by doing two things:

1.

Seeking refuge with Allah, may
He be exalted, from the accursed Shaytan, and constantly remembering Allah
and reciting Quran, especially Soorat al-Fatihah, al-Baqarah, al-Mu‘awwidhat,
and Ayat al-Kursiy, and doing that as much as you can.

Allah, may He be exalted, says
(interpretation of the meaning):

{And if there comes to you from
Satan an evil suggestion, then seek refuge in Allah. Indeed, He is the
Hearing, the Knowing.} [Fussilat 41:36]

{And say, “My Lord, I seek
refuge in You from the incitements of the devils,

And I seek refuge in You, my
Lord, lest they be present with me.”}
[al-Mu’minoon 23:97-98].

The Messenger (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him) said: “I enjoin you to remember Allah, for the
likeness thereof is that of a man who is hotly pursued by the enemy until,
when he comes to a strong fortress, he barricades himself inside to protect
himself from them. Similarly, a person cannot protect himself against the
Shaytan except by remembering Allah.”
Narrated by
at-Tirmidhi (2863); classed as saheeh by al-Albani in Saheeh at-Tirmidhi.

2.

Ignoring that waswas completely
and not thinking about it or focusing on it, and not looking for a solution
or answer to it. That is what the Shaytan wants from you; he wants you to
focus on his whispers so as to make your life miserable and spoil your
religious commitment and worldly affairs.

The Messenger (blessings and
peace of Allah be upon him) summed up these two matters in a single hadith.
When he was asked about some of these whispers that come to a person, he
said: “let him seek refuge with Allah and stop (such thoughts).” Narrated by
al-Bukhari (3276) and Muslim (134). 

An-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy
on him) said:

With regard to the words of the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), “let him seek refuge
with Allah and stop (such thoughts)”, what is meant is: if these whispers
come to his mind, let him turn to Allah, may He be exalted, to ward off the
evil thereof from him, and let him turn away from thinking about that, and
let him understand that this thought is one of the whispers of the Shaytan,
who is only trying to corrupt and tempt him. So let him turn away from
listening to his whispers, and let him hasten to cut them off by focusing on
something else. And Allah knows best. End quote.

Al-Khattabi (may Allah have
mercy on him) said:

The meaning of this hadith is
that when the Shaytan whispers such things, if the person seeks refuge with
Allah from him, and refrains from thinking too much about it, it will stop.
This is different from the case if a human being tries to confuse you with
such thoughts, because in that case you can silence him by presenting
evidence or proof. The difference between them is that the human being
presents his doubts in the form of questions and answers, and the
interaction is limited to that, so if you present your proofs, you can
silence him.

But as for the Shaytan, there is
no end to his whispers. Rather every time binding proof is established, he
moves to something else, until he ends up confusing the person. We seek
refuge with Allah from that. End quote.

Ibn Hajar, the Shafi‘i faqeeh,
said with regard to dealing with waswasah, in his book al-Fatawa
al-Fiqhiyyah al-Kubra (1/149), in response to a question about whether
there is a remedy for the disease of waswasah:

He replied: There is an
efficacious remedy for it, which is to ignore it completely, regardless of
whatever uncertainty there may be in one’s heart. If the individual does not
pay any attention to it, it will not persist; rather it will go away after a
short while, as is the experience of those who are guided.

But if he pays attention to it
and lets this waswas control him, then it will continue to increase until it
makes him like one who is insane, or even worse, as we have seen in the case
of many of those who have been faced with this problem and who listened to
confusing ideas and the devils who promote them.

There is a report in as-Saheehayn
which supports what I have mentioned, as it says that whoever is faced with
waswasah, “let him seek refuge with Allah and stop (such thoughts). So
reflect upon this efficacious remedy which was taught to his ummah by the
one who did not speak on the basis of whims and desires.

You should understand that
whoever is deprived of that has been deprived of all goodness, because
waswasah definitely comes from the Shaytan, and the accursed one has no aim
except to make the believer fall into the swamp of misguidance and
confusion, to spoil his life and make him distressed and anxious, until he
brings him out of the fold of Islam without him realising. {Indeed, Satan is
an enemy to you; so take him as an enemy.} [Fatir 35:6]. End quote.

Thus it should be clear to you
that the whispers of the Shaytan cannot be stopped by looking for a response
to them; rather they can only be stopped by seeking refuge with Allah, may
He be exalted, and ignoring them.

We ask Allah, may He be
exalted, to grant you refuge from the accursed Shaytan.

And Allah knows best.