Umm Alaa from Algeria says that when she reads the Quran or prays, she gets whispers that she is not sincere, that she is committing shirk, and other things like that.

We say regarding these whispers, they may come to a person because of the strength of his honesty and iman.

This is because the shaytan comes to a person—if he cannot corrupt his outward actions or stop him from them, he starts to mess with his intention.

This happens through tempting, distracting, and lack of focus, as well as through showing off and seeking reputation; he wants to turn him away and keep him busy with that.

We say she must clear her heart of that, not pay attention to it, and seek refuge with Allah from the shaytan.

There are practical steps that help a person get rid of this issue, including increasing secret acts of worship. With secret worship, there is no room for the shaytan to say, "You are showing off to this person or that person," and so on.

Since she prays, glorifies Allah, and declares His oneness alone, she closes her room and then prays or reads the Quran, at that point the motives for waswas are very weak.

No one is present to hear or see except Allah, the Exalted. Based on this, we say: this helps a person to have khushu'. Likewise, a person might say: it is difficult for me.

For example, to do every act of worship in seclusion, since the house has children, servants, a spouse, siblings, and so on, so we say in such a case.

She should not deprive herself of secret deeds; we help her to be sincere in that and to ward off anything else.

Likewise, for the deaf, whatever comes to her should not affect her.

So the shaytan drags her until she becomes averse to that worship and does not want to perform it out of fear of showing off.

So you must know that abandoning worship for the sake of people is showing off, just as performing worship for the sake of people is showing off.

Likewise, abandoning, because Allah is worshipped, the Exalted, by actions just as He is worshipped by abstaining, and He is worshipped by abstaining just as He is worshipped by actions.

So she should beware of the doors of abandoning just as she should beware of the doors of action, and seek refuge, and there is nothing upon her by Allah’s permission.