Waswas

The Arabic word وسوس (waswas) in various forms appears five times in the Qur'an.

The first two refer to the story of Adam and Eve. The fa- prefix means "but" or "then".

In one instance the Quran says the soul whispers. The tu- simply indicates present tense, 3rd person, feminine, singular verb.

Two times in a chapter 114. The al- indicates definite article (before a noun). The yu- indicates present tense, 3rd person, singular, masculine verb.^[1]

Tafsir Al-Jalalayn says that the "whisperer" in 114:4 is Satan:

The scientific method, which forms the cornerstone of modern and western culture and technology, generally encourages questioning of authority and received wisdom. In contrast, Sahih Muslim says of questioning the received ideas of god from Islamic theology:

In stark contrast to the ethos of the scientific method, this hadith attributes questions about the received knowledge of Islamic philosophy to the villainy of satan. Whereas a person from a more modern cultural background might see such doubt of recieved knowledge as normal and even healthy, people from Muslim cultural backgrounds are often taught that this doubt comes directly from Satan whispering into their ears. There are thus in the modern world many instances of believers trying to "cure" themselves from waswas ^[2], what might be otherwise considered as normal doubts one might have about a received religious or cultural tradition. The basic treatment method is ruqya - exorcism. Verses from the Qur'an are recited on the "processed" Muslim. There is also a possibility of self-ruqya ^[3], where Muslim tries to get rid of waswas by praying and reading the Qur'an (and other practices).

The waswas-avoiding behavior could probably be best described, in a secular way, as a psychological repression. A Muslim represses his "bad" thoughts. He pushes them out of his consciousness, into the unconscious mind. From the unconscious mind, the repressed thoughts might express themselves in dreams or as inner voices.

The therapy for psychological repression is basically the opposite of what "Islamic therapy" does. In Freud's psychotherapy, the psychotherapist re-introduces the repressed thoughts back into the conscious mind ^[4]. The conscious mind then learns to live with the previously-repressed thoughts and so there is no more repression. While the Islamic treatment of waswas is trying to repress the "bad" thoughts so much that they become silent. Which is not possible, because repressed thoughts don't disappear. They only hide in the unconscious mind and there they still affect a person's behavior and cause psychological problems.