Assalamu Alaikum. Very bad thoughts, blasphemous thoughts have been coming to my mind. I remember a hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith 5289, that one is not held accountable as long as he doesn’t act upon or utter those evil thoughts in his mind. Sometimes evil, blasphemous thoughts come to my mind and I may laugh or smile at something, my siblings or something I hear on the TV, for example. Thoughts like “Are you finding these blasphemous thoughts funny? Did you act upon these thoughts?” come to head afterwards. I think to myself that I found my siblings or what I heard on the TV funny. But I also remember that humans sometimes justify sins, evil actions. I may be thinking positively of the religion of Islam and I’m calm but a blasphemous thought may come to mind and a question “Did you commit blasphemy of the heart?” comes to my mind and makes me feel worried. My heart was at peace, when one such thought came to my mind, I get thoughts that I agreed with it. Or I may be thinking of a serious matter and a thought “Are you making a careless (facial) expression? Are you belittling the punishment that Allah has prepared for those people?” comes to head. How can I differentiate between blasphemy of the heart and shaytann’s waswasa? A very bad thought, blasphemous thought comes to my mind and when I laugh at my siblings or something else, those bad thoughts keep coming in my mind (while I’m laughing or smiling) and I get worried that I may have acted upon those thoughts. Have I acted upon those thoughts? Does laughing when such thoughts are present in your mind take one out of Islam? Getting thoughts like “Do __(action)__ if __(blasphemous thought)__” and doing that action but you try to refute, get that thought out of your head and try to assure yourself that that action doesn’t support the thought you were having while you did the action by remembering the belief of Muslims, Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah, you’re still a believer, correct?
The fact that you are worried about these thoughts and are concerned about your faith shows that you do not believe in them and are not accepting them. These are all just doubts from Shaytan. Anytime any such thought crosses your mind just seek protection from the evil of Shaytan. Recite a’udhubillah, the last two surahs of the Qur’an and the first kalimah often.
Do not pay attention to how your body responded. If you happened to smile then just say ‘astaghfirullah’ and turn your attention to something else. There is no need to think about what that smile or any other action meant. Shaytan will want you to keep thinking about it and put you in more doubt whereas the best thing for you to do is move onto something else and not give it too much attention.
Answered by:
Ifta Research Fellow
Checked & Approved by:
Mufti Abdul Rahman Mangera
Mufti Zubair Patel