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Fatwa CenterMuslim not sinful for mere thoughts
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. Thank you for all the work that you are doing at Islamweb, and may Allaah bless you. There is something that I am quite confused about. I once jokingly thought to myself that I would kill my wife, then I jokingly thought that I cannot kill her but rather should "create a life with her". And thinking of this, I laughed. By 'creating a life', I mean that I thought about having a child with her. After thinking this, I realized that I should not have laughed at this, as only Allaah creates life. Is what I did considered disbelief? Is it disbelief for a man to say 'create a life' when referring to having a child? I always knew that only Allaah creates life.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
The Muslim is not held accountable just because of internal whisperings and thoughts, and he is not sinful for having them; let alone that this would lead him to disbelief.
The evidence about this is that Abu Hurayrah 
narrated that the Prophet said, “Allah has forgiven my nation for the thoughts that they have, except if they speak about it or act according to it.” [Al-Bukhaari and Muslim]
Nevertheless, you must beware of getting carried away with such thoughts, lest they become familiar and hence lead to action.
The term creation is used to describe the actions of the Creator (Allah) and the creature (people), as in the hadeeth of the image makers, that it will be said to them on the Day of Judgment: "Bring life to that which you have created," meaning that you caused to exist. It is different from the meaning that is exclusive to the Creator; Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen, while commenting on the previous hadeeth, said:
“The Creation, which we attribute to Allah, The Almighty, is bringing things into existence from nothing and changing an essence to another essence. There is no one who can bring things into existence from nothing except Allah, The Almighty, and no one can change an essence into another but Allah.
What is called 'creation' in regard to what people make is merely the changing or converting of something from one state to another. Wood, for example, instead of being a tree, is converted into a door by carpentry. Changing it into a door is called creation, but it is not the creation that is exclusive to the Creator, which is bringing something into existence from nothing, or changing an essence into another.”
For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 252391.
The way you used the word creation in your expression, perhaps you mean by it causing a child to be born, and this meaning is not included in this subject [which is discussed above].
In any case, you must beware of obsessive whisperings about disbelief. The jurists dedicated a chapter for apostasy in their books, and they clarified in it what leads a Muslim to disbelief, so not everything that one believes to be disbelief is in fact disbelief.
Allah knows best.
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