Do Intrusive Thoughts Mean I Want to Do It? OCD & Intent

In Ahmed Alhafiz’s novel Umm Abbas, the question of responsibility precedes a voice attacking Maryam. She says, “It’s my fault,” and her father answers, “Yes.” A few pages later, the voice tells her that she summoned it because she wrote a name and drew a door; she replies, “I was joking.” This sequence does not give us medical evidence for the origin of the voice, but it shows how a frightening experience can become an accusation against the person living through it. ^[7]

Do frightening intrusive thoughts mean I want them?

Intrusive thoughts are thoughts, images, or mental impulses that arrive uninvited and cause distress. Familiar themes include fear of harming someone, losing control, or having religious or sexual thoughts that the person finds repellent. The UK National Health Service describes violent or offensive thoughts that a person does not want and explains that having them does not mean the person will act on them. This answers what the thought alone signifies; it is not an individual safety certificate for every circumstance. ^[1][2]

A thought is not an act, and being frightened by a thought is not a diagnosis. If the thoughts become repetitive, time-consuming, or disruptive to life, a clinician also looks at avoidance, checking, reassurance seeking, and mental rituals. The experience can overlap with anxiety, depression, or other experiences, so the word “OCD” is not enough to name every fear. ^[1][2][4]

This distinction may look simple on paper, but it is difficult for someone caught in the loop: they may search every passing image for final proof of their innocence, then begin to doubt even their own sense of relief. Do not measure your intention by how many times you become frightened, and do not use this article as a home test that settles your safety or someone else’s. A clinician can ask about actual intent, behavior, and context without reducing a person to the content of a mental image. ^[1][2]

In an original interview study of university students at 15 sites in 13 countries, 94.3% of the final sample of 683 participants reported at least one intrusive thought in the previous three months. The researchers began with 777 participants and excluded 94 before this analysis. That percentage applies to this sample and to the combined categories of intrusive thoughts; it is not a worldwide prevalence rate for OCD, and it does not mean everyone had harm-related thoughts. The student sample and differences in how interviews were administered across sites also limit generalization. ^[3]

Why doesn’t the question go away after reassurance?

A thought may appear and then be given a larger meaning: “If I were a good person, I would never have thought this,” or “I must make sure I will never do it.” The person starts reviewing memory, monitoring feelings, or repeatedly asking other people. Anxiety drops for a while, then the question returns. The NHS describes this cycle of thought, anxiety, and compulsion, including compulsions that happen inside the mind and are invisible to others. ^[2]

Researchers call one possible explanation thought-action fusion: the belief that imagining a harmful event makes it more likely to happen, or that merely imagining it is morally equivalent to doing it. Not everyone who has a frightening thought holds this belief, and it cannot be inferred from a fictional scene. A 2023 laboratory study of thought-action fusion did not show a simple relationship between participants’ beliefs and task responses that could be used to diagnose individuals. ^[5]

There is also an important scientific correction: it is not accurate to say that the interpretation of the thought alone, regardless of its frequency, explains the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. In another analysis from the same international research project, involving 554 nonclinical participants from 11 countries, the frequency of intrusive thoughts was more clearly associated with obsessive-compulsive symptoms than some ratings of distress and control in that statistical model. The study was cross-sectional and cannot establish which factor causes the disorder, so a good assessment considers frequency, meaning, distress, behavior, and impact on life together. ^[4]

The samples of 683 and 554 should not be added together as though they were two independent experiments involving 1,237 people. The second analysis came from the same research project after being limited to sites and participants for whom the required measures were available. The first asks, “Do intrusive thoughts occur in people without clinical disorders?” The second examines how characteristics of those thoughts relate to obsessive-compulsive symptom scores. Neither study answers the intention of a specific person or the origin of Maryam’s voice in the novel. ^[3][4][7]

Umm Abbas: who told Maryam it was her fault?

Across pages 178–185, Maryam is not simply a ready-made example of a “negative thought.” There are three distinct levels: an act that happened, when she wrote the name and drew the door; an accusation, when that act is turned into proof that she summoned what is harming her; and an experience, when she describes a voice inside her head that talks to and insults her, followed by an episode that requires an ambulance. Collapsing these levels together takes away Maryam’s right to describe what she experienced and turns other people’s interpretation into a judgment about her intention. ^[7]

Her father’s “Yes” at the beginning of the scene, followed by the accusation returning in the voice’s speech, creates a painful narrative echo: guilt spoken to her from outside seems to surround her from within. This is a reading of the novel’s construction, not a claim that the father medically caused the voice. He is also the one who calls an ambulance when she collapses; the character is more complex than a single role of accuser or rescuer. ^[7]

When she wakes and says she heard the voice, her father asks her not to speak at that moment. The request can be understood as fear for her after the episode, but at the same time it postpones her own account of what happened. This is the tension in the scene: the family is trying to protect her, but fears her testimony about the experience or precedes it with an interpretation. We do not infer that the family caused an illness; we ask how care changes when Maryam is allowed to describe what she lived through before judgment is passed. ^[7]

That is why we do not use the statement “a thought is not an act” to say that Maryam did nothing: the writing and drawing did in fact happen. Nor do we use what she did to prove that she intended harm, or that the appearance of the voice has a proven supernatural cause. In the “dark margin,” the novel presents different medical possibilities for the voice and the episode while keeping its fictional world ambiguous. A dialogue with a voice, an intrusive thought, and a seizure-like episode are experiences that in real life require separate description and assessment; they should not be merged into one diagnosis simply because the page places them together. ^[6][7]

This is the question the novel gives the reader: what happens to a frightened person when their intentions become the subject of judgment before anyone listens to their experience? You can follow Maryam and her family in the Umm Abbas book page. The novel is forthcoming, and this article does not present its scenes as documented clinical cases. For a more detailed distinction between hearing a voice and having a thought, read the article on hearing voices in the head. ^[7]

Religiously, what is the difference between a passing thought, intention, and action?

Sahih Muslim reports that what occurs within a person is forgiven so long as it is not acted upon or spoken. Ibn Baz explains the difference between a passing thought that a person does not adopt and something that becomes settled in the heart. When some of the Companions complained of thoughts they considered too grave to speak aloud, the response was, “That is clear faith.” Al-Nawawi explained that this refers to their abhorrence of those thoughts and fear of accepting them, not that the content of the intrusive thought itself is faith. ^{[8][9][10][11]}

These texts prevent us from jumping from a hated passing thought to accusing its owner of resolve or sin. But they do not erase the distinction between thought and action: in Maryam’s story, writing and drawing did occur. The hadith “Actions are only by intentions” adds that intention matters in judging an act, but it does not give Maryam’s father or the reader the ability to uncover her intention from the drawing, nor does her statement “I was joking” become conclusive proof of everything that followed. The hadiths also do not determine the cause of the voice or the episode. This is a limited application of the distinction, not a religious ruling on Maryam and not evidence for a medical or supernatural explanation. ^{[7][8][9][13]}

The phrase “so long as they do not speak of it” does not mean that a person should hide what frightens them from a doctor or from someone they consult for a religious answer; the Companions themselves asked about what they were experiencing. Speaking in order to understand or seek treatment is different from adopting the content of the thought. Al-Nawawi also describes another distinction: a passing thought that is dismissed, and a settled question arising from a doubt that is discussed with evidence. If seeking a religious answer itself becomes a repetitive compulsion that never produces stable relief, the article on religious OCD and scrupulosity discusses that pattern in greater detail. ^[10][11]

When should I seek help?

If the thoughts consume a great deal of time, make you avoid people, repeatedly inspect your intentions or memories, or disrupt your sleep or work, seek an assessment from a mental health professional. Evidence-based treatments for OCD include cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure and response prevention, and a doctor may recommend medication depending on the assessment. Treatment is not a test of a patient’s faith, and this article does not provide a diagnosis or a self-treatment plan. ^[1][2][12]

At an appointment, it can help to describe the experience as it happened: was it a thought, a mental image, or a voice you heard; when did it begin and how long does it last; what do you do to reduce the anxiety; and how has it affected your sleep, work, and relationships? If you are afraid to disclose the content of the thought, you can begin by saying that you fear being judged for thoughts you do not want. These details can help the assessment; they are not questions you must answer alone until you reach perfect certainty. ^[1][6]

If there is an actual intention or plan to harm yourself or someone else with a risk of acting on it, or if a voice tells you to cause harm and you fear you may respond to it, seek local emergency help immediately and tell a trusted person nearby. Hearing a voice or having a seizure-like episode also warrants medical assessment depending on the circumstances. The phrase “they’re just thoughts” cannot settle safety from a distance. ^[6]

This is educational material and a literary reading, not a medical diagnosis or an individual religious ruling. Do not stop prescribed treatment on your own. Independent external medical and religious specialist review has not yet been completed.

Sources and limits of inference

Umm Abbas: Bringing Back the Beloved and the Divorced Woman

A forthcoming psychological-horror novel by Ahmed Alhafiz. Read how fear becomes accusation in Maryam’s scene, and explore the novel’s world and publication status.

Explore the novelRead about fear within the family