How Do I Deal With Severe Misgivings (Waswasa) Regarding the Wudu and Ghusl?

Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch

Question

How do I deal with severe misgivings (waswasa) regarding the exiting of sexual fluids due to the fear of arousal? Likewise, I experience this in regards to passing wind or drops of urine, is there any dispensation for someone like me?

Answer

In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate

Misgivings: A Self-Imposed Affliction

The one afflicted with misgivings or doubts is known in Arabic as the Muwaswis. The Muwaswis is the one who whispers doubts or bad thoughts (i.e., they whisper to themselves). Thus the victim is seen as the cause of the affliction.

Even Satan whispers these misgivings and bad thoughts to the Muslims, in most severe cases, it is the Muslims themselves that magnify these misgivings.

Dealing With Misgivings

In this link you will find various materials on misgivings (waswasa).

Quick Answer

For the one who has performed the ablution, the basis is that they remain in the state of purification until or unless they are reasonably sure or certain that they invalidated their wudu. [Tahtawi/Shurunbulali, Hashiyat Maraqi al-Falah]

Reasonable surety is based on proof. Actual wetness, actual passing of wind, and actual drops of urine. Any mere sensations, feelings, possibilities, maybe’s, or what if’s, must be ignored, and one does not act upon them.

Female pre-ejaculatory fluid may exit during a state of complete or near-complete arousal. It is highly unlikely that one would experience such fluid by merely seeing something.

Thus any sensations that are not coupled with real, actual, strong feelings of arousal are ignored.

Tips

In order to assist in ignoring these misgivings, take the following steps:

1. Do not repeat your wudu, unless you are so confident that you actually broke your wudu that you would have not reservations in swear an oath by Allah Most High that your wudu is invalid.
   Note that taking the name of Allah Most High is no small matter. I am not encouraging anyone to swear an oath, however, the level of confidence that one would make an oath with is the minimum level of confidence that you should act upon regarding wudu.
2. Each time you use the restroom, when you go outside, or whenever you are in a situation where you normal get misgivings take some water in your hand and drip it into your undergarments.
   Any thoughts or misgivings that you get where you doubt whether some fluid exited, assume it is the water that you put into your undergarments and ignore.

Summary

You will find many more details and tips in the link attached above. Try to read all of the answers and articles therein. Know that Allah Most High has not made you responsible for acting on conjecture, doubts, or misgivings. Allah has made the religion and its practices easy for His servants. Any undue difficulty experienced is self-imposed.

Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Yusuf Weltch is a teacher of Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he then completed four years at the Darul Uloom seminary in New York where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences. He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he stayed for three years studying in Dar Al-Mustafa under some of the greatest scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib. In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and a number of texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.