# How do I stop being obsessive and fearful about prayer? *OCD over prayer: salah as gratitude, not fear* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/jtyem-eee78/s/10/ - Date: 2020-09-22 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #183 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (52:47–57:56) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTYEM-eEe78&t=3167s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/jtyem-eee78/ **Topics:** Prayer; Religious guilt and scrupulosity; Goals, habits and willpower **Question as asked:** Mufti, can you talk about OCD over prayer? **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says pray out of gratitude, not fear: missing salah should feel disappointing, and the answer is to renew your resolve every day. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says prayer is really an expression of gratitude, not something people should be scared or threatened into. **Evidence, his words at 53:26:** “prayer is really an expression of gratitude it's not this scary scaremongering you know threatening” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTYEM-eEe78&t=3206s) ## Longer summary Asked to talk about OCD over prayer, Mufti Abu Layth says a certain amount of ritual is healthy for the human psyche and that praying through the day is an amazing ritual the deen has instructed. Mufti says missing prayer should feel like a disappointment, because prayer is an expression of gratitude, not something one is threatened into. He says that for him personally, if salah meant being blackmailed by God he would rather not pray, since God has no need to threaten him, and cites the Quran's statement that people were created to worship. His advice is to renew one's resolve each day even after failing a hundred days in a row, to accept that everyone slacks, and not to pray out of fear that missing it curses one's life, which he likens to the beliefs of the ancient pagans. ## Sources and names cited - salah - Quran 51:56 (I did not create jinn and humans except to worship Me), paraphrased: https://quran.com/51/56 ## Transcript (machine tier, 52:47–57:56) [52:09] has said these things many people have but it begins centuries after the prophet cool i hope that helps right so what is going on the extremist clergy uh mufti can you talk about ocd over prayer yeah the prayer is the same thing you know it's a it's a ritual that is [52:46] look a certain amount of ritual in life is is healthy a certain amount the tricky thing can be how much you don't want to turn into some weirdo but you realize that as human beings rituals play an important role in our psyche that's just the way human beings have evolved so praying in a day is an amazing ritual to have it is part of what the deen has imparted it is in we have been instructed but it is [53:26] something that should be done really as as something you want to you know if like let's say you've been busy you haven't prayed yeah let's say let's say it should be like a kind of disappointing feeling to you that you're not damn i haven't really prayed today it shouldn't that's how it should be it should not be because prayer is really an expression of gratitude it's not this scary scaremongering you know threatening [54:05] being intimidated into offering if that's your version of salah i feel sorry for you you know i honestly if i would write me as a person i'm not saying you need to do this if that was to me my version of salah would rather not pray because i don't understand a god that would want to blackmail me or threaten me to because i'm nothing to god why would god even need to threaten me into doing something scaring me into doing it [54:45] i would want you see as allah says that that i have not created that i have that i have brought them into existence that it is through my being that they be that they consequently they worship me that is how i if let's say i've missed salah this is how i i would i feel disappointed like sometimes i [55:25] i think all right tomorrow let's let's try every day renew that resolve you know if even if you fail a hundred days in a row still get up you know what today i'll do it maybe you'll fail again but the next day have that resolve again and this by the way is to be extended in all in all matters of life where you can this resolve to not to not give up so that's what i would advise that to me [56:02] these things are a sign of devotion of connection to allah they are and we all slack i slack you know definitely and i'm sure people slack but it's something personal and if you are slacking it's only a sign that you're a human being human all too human but you've renewed your resolve you know tomorrow inshallah you know that i will or as you wake up today i will sorry not tomorrow today as you wake up i will and if you fail again you will again and so that's that's my advice on things like salah [56:40] i wouldn't advise this kind of but it's up to you look if you want to you can do whatever the hell you want if you want to be like all scared and all you know oh my god my life's going to be cursed now because i've not prayed oh my god i'm gonna lose my risk now because i've not prayed oh my god something terrible is gonna happen to me you know why my relationship is ruined because he doesn't pray or i don't pray or you know why i've had horrible things in my life is because i haven't prayed [57:18] to me that look it's it's it's a kind of right answer but for the wrong reasons you know you you are kind of right that you want to pray and you should pray you're right but for the wrong reasons that you're doing it out of this kind of oh my god i'm cursed as though god curses you and the only way this god lifts his curse is if you fall in prostration to him that sounds to me like the ancient you know ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment jTYEM-eEe78/s/10. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/jtyem-eee78/s/10/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.