Finding Your Inner Dialogue

Whether you like it or not, we talk to ourselves every single day. We may not verbalize it, but just like an iceberg, a lot of the things that govern our behavior happen below the surface. If you don't believe me, let's try something right here. Right now.

Imagine you've been given the opportunity to speak in front of a million people next week. What's your knee-jerk reaction? Go ahead and think for a moment. Did you get all excited and think about the possibilities of spreading a positive message to a million people and realize that you're not going to get an opportunity like this anytime soon? Or did you immediately think about how scary it could be, how you're not prepared for anything and all the obstacles that come in the way?

Some of us might tend to gravitate towards what could happen in a positive way and some people might gravitate towards the worst things that could happen. As a Muslim, one of the biggest questions that come up is the issue of Waswasa (Satanic whispers), particularly with how it relates to inner dialogue. “Are the thoughts that I'm having from Shaytan or is it from myself?”

The whole purpose of Shaytan's existence is to get as many people off the path of Allah’s (SWT) deen, so any thought that comes into our minds which contradicts that is a good sign that's a red flag. Shaytan will test out a million different strategies in order for you and I to fall off the path, so if you find yourself having one particular thought but then you dismiss that thought, and you move on to another, Shaytan will keep moving around until he finds something that clicks.

We must be constantly on guard for that because we might end up running into the same thing over and over again. It may start out as an initial Waswasa from Shaytan but then the thoughts become our own.

What's your thoughts on inner dialogue?