Ch-10: Islamic Perspective

Islamic Perspective in Psychology

The study of soul: the soul is the basic element of life. It drives the
behavior, emotions and mental processes of human beings.

The human psyche is not purely psychological: its essence is spiritual

and mataphysical.

The fitrah (the natural inclinations instilled by Allah) and the agreement
of monotheism are inscribed on each soul, whether the person is
Muslim or not.

Since its true nature is spiritual, the soul requires a spiritual connection
to its source, the Creator, just as the body requires food and water to
survive. Without this vital nourishment, the soul will suffer anxiety,
depression and despair.
 Islamic Perspective in Psychology
Three main Sources
1. Al Quran
2. Al Hadith
3. Muslim Scholars
 Al Quran
In the Quran-e-Kareem the word nafs is used in two ways.

1. the word nafs is used to indicate our own-self. Some people would

translate it in English as self, some people would translate it in English
as soul. An example of this is when Allah Almighty says in the Quran:
‫َو ْاذ ُك ْر َر َّب َك فِي َن ْفسِ َك‬
 And remember your Rabb inside your-self
[7:205]
2. the nafs has been used in the Quran, which is quite frequent, is that
the nafs is referring to a specific part of our self and it is that part of our
self that has desires, appetite, some people call it ego. It has anger, it
has passion, it has lust, desire, it has all these things. 
 Al Quran
Three levels of nafs as described in Al Quran.
1. The first is nafs-ul-ammarah.
 ‫وء‬
ِ ‫س‬ َ ‫س َأَل َّم‬
ُّ ‫ارةٌ ِبال‬ َ ‫ِإنَّ ال َّن ْف‬
 Indeed the nafs that overwhelmingly commands a person to do sin.[12:53]
So this refers to that nafs, that is ruling over the self. This means that the nafs
commands us and tells us what to do.
2. Second type of nafs is known as nafs-ul-lawwamah.
ِ ‫َواَل ُأ ْقسِ ُم ِبال َّن ْف‬
]75:2[ ‫س ال َّل َّوا َم ِة‬
Lawwam here means to self incriminate, to self reproach, to have blame, to do mulamat
of oneself. So, this is that nafs that does sometimes bring a person to do sin, but then
that nafs self incriminates itself, it reproaches itself, it feels bad, it feels guilty.
3. The third way  is nafs-ul-mutmainnah.
ُ ‫َيا َأ َّي ُت َها ال َّن ْف‬
‫س ا ْل ُم ْط َمِئ َّن ُة ْار ِجعِي ِإ َلى َر ِّبكِ َراضِ َي ًة َم ْرضِ َّي ًة‬
 To the righteous it will be said “oh reassured soul, return to your Lord well pleased, and
pleasing to Him” [89:27-28]

So, Allah Almighty addresses the mutma’in nafs. And mutma’in here means content.

They are mutma’in, they are content with the hukm of Allah Almighty, there is nothing
else that makes them happy. So, this person is also doing what makes them happy.
 Islamic Perspective in Psychology
2. Al Hadith 3. Muslim Scholars
Islamic psychology was based upon looking at ways to cure and heal, rather
than merely theorize.
The Muslim scholars did not have a specific term for psychology and did not
identify themselves as psychologists.
However, their work on studying the mind and proposing treatments for mental
conditions is extremely important, and underpins many of the modern
techniques.
Whilst many Islamic scholars contributed to the history of psychology, a few of
them deserve their place amongst the greatest modern psychologists.
• Ibn Sina (avicenna)
• Al Razi
• Al Ghazali
 Ibn Sina (Avicenna 981 - 1037 CE )
• He began with Aristotle's idea that humans possessed three types of
soul, the vegetative, animal and rational psyches. The first two bind
humans to the earth, and the rational psyche connects them to God.

• In the same way, Avicenna proposed that the five senses, shared with
animals, were bound to earth. He believed that the ability to reason
gave humanity a unique connection to the divine. Ibn-Sina attempted
to ascribe certain mental abilities to specific parts of the brain.

• Avicenna also proposed that humans have seven inner senses to

complement the outer senses. In the history of psychology, this was
one of the first attempts to try to understand the way that the mind and
reasoning operate.
 The 7 Inner Senses proposed by Avicenna
• Common Sense: This sense organizes the information gathered by the
external senses.
• Retentive Imagination: This sense remembers the information gathered by
the common sense.
• Compositive Animal Imagination: This sense allows all animals to learn
what they should avoid and what they should actively seek in their natural
environment.
• Compositive Human Imagination: This sense helps humans to learn what
to avoid and what to seek in the world around them.
• Estimative Power: This is the ability to make innate judgments about the
surrounding environment and determine what is dangerous and what is
beneficial. For example, an innate and instinctual fear of predators would fall
under this sense.
• Memory: The memory is responsible for remembering all of the information
developed by the other senses.
• Processing: This is the ability to use all of the information and is the highest
of the seven internal senses.
 Cure for Mental Disorders
• Avicenna incorporated internal senses and emphasized on internal balance.
• In practical terms, he developed a variety of cures for mental ailments,
such as the development of primary fear, shock and musical therapies to
cure illnesses.
• Emphasized the link between mind and body, proposing that a person could
overcome physical ailments through believing that they could become well.
Conversely, ibn Sina believed that a healthy person could become physically
sick if they believed that they were ill, adding psychosomatic illness to the
vocabulary of the history of psychology.
• This mental and physical linkage formed the basis of his approach to mental
disorders and he precisely documented many conditions, including delirium,
memory disorders, hallucinations, fear paralysis and a host of other
conditions.
• Certainly, Avicenna stands in the history of psychology as the scholar who
first used an approach recognizable to modern clinical psychologists.
However, the methodology was still shackled to the idea of a soul and
higher human consciousness.
 Al Razi (864-930 CE)
• Muhammed Zakariyah-e-Razi known as Razi or Rhases in the West, was
one of the great Islamic intellect, who contributed into many fields. In addition
to his volumes of work in other areas, Rhazes made some interesting
observations about the human mind. In his book, Teb al-Fonoon, he made
some postulations concerning human emotional conditions and made
suggestions for their treatment.
• wrote 237 books in his lifetime, 36 of which are still available today. The most
popular of his writings, Liber Continens, is considered a medical
encyclopedia.
• He emphasized the idea of "sound mind in a healthy body," and considered
mental health and self-esteem as significant factors that affect a person’s
health and well-being.
• First known physicians to describe the idea of psychotherapy. And practiced
psychotherapy in a simple but dynamic way.
• In addition, he intelligently practiced medical ethics and the use of conditional
therapy, centuries before the behavioral psychologists of the 20th Century.
 Al Razi
• His books offered explanations for various mental illnesses that affected society
during the 10th century. These books also outlined symptoms and definitions of
as well as differential diagnoses and treatments for different mental illnesses.
• While working as the director of a hospital in Baghdad, al-Razi introduced the
concept of psychiatric wards as a place to care for patients with mental illness. He
conducted very detailed clinical observations of patients with psychiatric conditions
and provided treatment with diet, medication, occupational therapy,
aromatherapy, baths, and music therapy. Additionally, he practiced an early form
of cognitive therapy for obsessive behavior.
• al-Razi described depression as a "melancholic obsessive-compulsive disorder,"
which is triggered as a result of changes of blood flow in the brain. He stated that
physicians should always try to convince their patients of the possibility of
improvement in their condition as well as hope in the effectiveness of treatment. As
part of discharge planning, patients were given a sum of money to help with their
immediate needs and aftercare.
• Medical ethics such as being modest, soft-spoken, and gentle when
communicating with patients. He stressed the importance of communicating with
patients on a personal level rather than simply making them aware of their illness.
He used a cheerful expression and encouraging words to instill in patients the hope
of recovery.
 Al Ghazali (1058-1111CE)
• The great scholar and Sufi mystic, Al-Ghazali wrote the book Ihya ul Uloom,
which pointed out that children were naturally egocentric.
• AlGhazali also believed that fear was a learned condition, either taught to
children or gained through negative experiences.
• Firmlybelieved that introspection and self-analysis were the keys to
understanding mental issues and unlocking hidden reasons.
• He also brought into the history of psychology the idea of needs, proposing
that the human personality had urges to fulfill certain desires, based upon
hunger and anger. Hunger drove such emotions as sexual urges, thirst and
hunger, whilst anger drove rage, frustration and revenge. This division is very
crude, certainly when compared to relatively modern ideas such as Maslow's
Hierarchy of Needs, but it did provide some guidelines towards categorizing
mental constructs.
• Heintroduced two kinds of psyche or essences: one deals with the animal
and humane forces of the soul (the incentive and the perceptive). In the
second kind of psyche, however, Al-Ghazali deals with the exercise of the
soul, the discipline of morals, and the cure of bad manners.
 Other Contributors to Islamic Psychology
• Ibn-Khaldun (1332 - 1406CE) further added to the store of knowledge, by
proposing that an individual's surroundings and local environment shaped
their personality. This insightful view acted as a precursor for modern ideas,
such as cultural relativism and the age-old Nature vs Nurture debate. He
followed the lead of Aristotle and Ibn-Sina in believing that the mind was a
Tabula Rasa, and that human behavior was shaped solely by experience and
education.

• Najub ud din Muhammed, who lived at the same time as al-Razi, wrote
extensively about many mental disorders including depression, paranoia,
persecution complex, sexual dysfunction and obsessional neuroses, amongst
a host of other mental ailments. His observation-based approach certainly
influenced many other scholars in the field of Islamic psychology.
 Other Contributors to Islamic Psychology
• Al-Kindī (801–873 AD) an Arab Muslim philosopher, polymath,
mathematician, physician and music theorist. Al-Kindi was the first of the
Islamic travelling philosophers, and is considered as the "father of Arab
philosophy.
• Al-Kindi's philosophical articles include On First Philosophy, in which he
argues that the world is not eternal and that God is a simple One. He also
wrote numerous works on other philosophical topics, especially psychology
(including the well-known On the Intellect) and cosmology.
• He believed that human senses are sometimes deceptive and what we gain
through our senses can be easily lost.
• He contributed more than 230 pieces of literature on philosophy and the few
related to psychology sleep and dream and elimination.
• Al kindi was the first who explain the term sorrow as a spiritual gloom which
is caused by the state of deep suffering and regret. 
 Contributions to Islamic Psychology
• Under the contributions of eminent muslim scholars, specialist hospitals were set up
in Damascus, Cairo, Baghdad and other major centers across the Islamic world, by as
early as the Eighth Century.
• Certainly, the Islamic scholars were instrumental in equating mental illness with
physical ailments, understanding that mind and body shared a tangible link. This led
to many advances in the study of the mind, with the setting up of hospitals and the
recognition by Islamic physicians of a range of mental ailments.
• The Muslim scholars removed the ideas of demonic possession. Their meticulous
observations certainly created the foundations of the history of psychology and
influenced modern thoughts and theories.