Introduction 5
The Stratagems of the Devil used by the Children of
Adam 6
Satan’s Devilish Insinuations 18
Niyyah in Taharah and Salaah 35
Excessive use of water in wudu’ and bathing 40
Disregarding any waswasah about breaking wudu’ 43
Things that people are harsh in implementing, while the
Prophet M was indulgent towards himself with them 45
Some acts that show someone to be an innovator in
religion 46
The way to perform Salaah in shoes 48
Performing Salaah with shoes on 49
It is the Sunnah of the Prophet M to perform Salaah
wherever he was 50
The Companions of the Prophet M used to walk
barefooted to the mosque 52
What is the Sunnah for when Madhiy1 touches one’s
clothes? 53
Using stones for purification2, and the ruling regarding
pus 54
Carrying Children during Salaah 57
The Polytheists’ Clothes 58
The use of water left in open containers 60
Performing Salaah with a little - but not flowing - blood
61
Breastfeeding women’s clothes 62
Accepting Food from the People of the Book 65

The similarity between Polytheism and forbidding what
is lawful 66
Waswasah in Pronouncing Letters 69
Reply to the Excuses of People Under the Influence of
Waswasah 72
Making an oath upon something for divorce 77
The Ruling Regarding the Doubtful Divorce 79
Doubts regarding purity 81
What to do when not knowing the place of an impurity on
one’s clothing 83
Confusion in defining whether clothes are pure or impure
83
Having doubt about the purity of containers used for
ablution 85
Confusion of the direction of the Qiblah 86
The Confusion of forgetting to pray one Salaah but not
knowing which particular one 86
Invalidating the proofs of people under the influence of
waswasah 88
Waswasah of Ibn ‘Umar in ablution 89
A reply to those who say that waswasah is better than
taking things for granted 92

All Praise to Allah Who made Himself known to His
close slaves, with the quality of His Sublimity and
Majesty, and lit their hearts as they witness the Perfection
of His Attributes. He has bestowed upon them His
Blessings, and so they believed that He % is the One, the
Self-Sufficient, Who has no partners in His Being,
Attributes, or Actions; as He j$i has described Himself,
I testify that there is no god worthy of worship but Allah
$g, Who has no partners, and I testify that Muhammad M
is His Prophet and Messenger, who was sent as a Mercy
to all mankind. He M is the best of Allah’s Creation, the
Imam of pious people, a burden for the disbelievers, and
a proof for all mankind.

 This book is an abridged translation of the original work in Arabic titled ”Dham alMuwaswiseen watTahdheere minal Waswasah” by Imam Muwafaq Deen bin Qudaama alMaqdisi alHanbali. Muwaffaq alDin ’Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Qudamah alMaqdisi alHanbali was a noted Islamic scholar of the Hanbali madhhab, author of ’’AlMughni’, the main Hanbali ’fiqh’’ manual as well as ’Mukhtasar Minhaj AlQasidin’ a summary of Ghazali’s ’Ihya ulum addin’ and ’’Tahrim anNazar’ ’Censure of Speculative Theology’, an attack on Ibn_Aqil’s rationalist views. He was born in Jerusalem, and died in Damascus In the Year 620 Hijri