In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, Most Merciful. Praise be to the One who created human beings as the best of all creation and created the human mind in order to discern truth, come to know their true Lord and to worship Him. May the salutations and choicest blessings of Allah be upon our Master and Prophet Muḥammad and upon his family, progeny, companions, and those who follow him until the day of Reckoning.
The modern psychological literature, despite its richness, has generally overlooked the potential contributions of the Islamic intellectual heritage to the field. It is currently rooted in the historical and philosophical contributions of Euro-American intellectuals and figures that are overrepresented in the field. All the major schools of psychology from humanistic, cognitive, narrative, behavioral, psychodynamic, emotional psychologies stem from the ideas and theories of European and North American scholars that continue to shape the field and are taught and disseminated throughout the world. Despite the richness of the Islamic intellectual heritage and Islamic scholarly treatises that have discussed the subject matter of human psychology generations before their Euro-American counterparts, these figures are rarely given mention in the psychological literature. This is also the case within the Muslim world today, whereby Euro-American ideas are taught in Muslim Universities and such students come to know and memorize the names of these individuals of whom their parents could not even pronounce. Meanwhile in the same institutions of higher learning, the names of Islamic scholars that are so familiar to them are not readily accessible to them when the subject matter of psychology comes up.
Having said the above, there has been a growing interest in the contributions of the culturally and religiously diverse in modern psychology, particularly in a world that is increasingly globalized and shrinking. Thus, there is a clear recognition of the need for further investigation into diverse voices and traditions in psychology. However, there is a set of challenges that makes the endeavor of extracting contributions from the Islamic heritage exceedingly difficult. Firstly, most psychologists including Muslim psychologists are trained in Western institutions or in the Muslim world that has imported Euro-American psychology into its institutions. Even if such Muslim scholars wish to engage in this undertaking, there are yet another set of challenges that make it difficult for them to access the Islamic literature. This includes a language barrier, whereby they may not be able to read classical texts in the original languages such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Though there may be translations of these works in their local languages, they are very limiting and often do not do justice to the original work. On the other hand, even if some of these scholars were to be able to read the original languages, they may not know how to engage with them since they are often replete with Islamic terminologies and organized in ways that may not be intuitive. For example, one may have a difficult time finding topics of human psychology in the voluminous work of Imam al-Ghazālī’s Iḥyāʾ. And even if one were to find the sections where he addresses human psychology, oftentimes he utilizes terms that are specific to Islamic theology that may not be readily comprehensible to the non-expert. Therefore, it may in fact require an Islamic studies background for one to access such literature. One may consider Islamic studies experts to be the ones to take on this responsibility. However, there are also a few barriers that are in place for such experts. These include the lack of psychological mindedness that may be needed to consider which types of literature may be relevant for topics in modern psychology. Additionally, Islamic studies experts don’t frequently focus on surveying the Islamic literature for psychological topics since this may be outside of their primary scope of topics that directly pertain to theology.
The ultimate result of the above is that Islamic scholarly contributions often feel out of reach for the field of modern psychology.
1 Central Objective
It is for this reason that this book project was conceived. This book provides a window into the Islamic scholarly tradition as it relates specifically to the subject of human psychology. The editors and contributors, all possessing some degree of dual training (i.e., behavioral and Islamic studies), came together to select segments from the Islamic scholarly literature in the Arabic language that spoke to major topics that tackle big questions in the field of psychology. These include the admissibility and validity of diverse sources of knowledge, the nature of the human psyche, nature of human drives, the mind and body problem, nature vs nurture, dreams, emotions, psychological resilience, and well-being among others. Oftentimes in the psychological literature these topics are discussed within the context of the Euro-American intellectual tradition. It is the belief of the editors that the field of modern psychology can be enriched through the inclusion of Islamic scholarly works that reflect such scholarly sophistication and comprehension of the topic at hand.
More specifically, this book attempted to bring together and provide a diverse representation of the Islamic intellectual heritage and its associated subfields. These included writings from discursive theology (Kalām), spirituality (Sufism), medical/health literature (Tibb), philosophical literature, and Islamic law (fiqh). Each one of these fields treats the subject matter of psychology in different ways. For example, the jurists’ focus in human psychology is on the presence or absence of mens rea (irāda/ikhtiyār) and mental competence (ahliyya) for the determination of legal liability, responsibility (taklīf) and/or the affordance of disability accommodations (rukhas). Meanwhile, the epistemic focus that underlies Tibb or ancient Islamic medical practice centers on experiential trials and sensory information (ḥiss) that were the precursor to the empirical method. Tassawuf or Sufi scholars on the other hand, provide ontological models of the human psyche and spirit that inform experiential trials of behavioral interventions (tahdhīb al-nafs) guided by Islamic scripture (waḥy) rooted in metaphysical assumptions. While the predominant focus for the scholars of kalām is the very question of epistemology, and their conceptualization of admissible information that qualifies as objective truth (qaṭʿī) in contrast to subjective knowledge (ẓannī).
2 Content
Chapter 1 on Epistemological Themes explores the sources of knowledge in the Islamic tradition. Key texts include discussions on the nature of knowledge and its acquisition, featuring works by Imam Nūr al-Dīn al-Ṣābūnī and Mujaddid al-Alf al-Thānī al-Imam al-Rabbanī Aḥmad al-Sirhindī. These texts highlight the epistemological frameworks that integrate rational, sacred, and empirical knowledge, which are foundational for understanding human psychology from an Islamic perspective.
Chapter 2 on Ontological Themes delves into the nature of the human psyche. It includes works by Imams Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, al-Bājūrī, al-Suhrawardī, Ibn Sīna, and Ali Haydar Efendi. Topics covered include the definitions and interrelations of the qalb (heart), rūḥ (soul), nafs (self), and ʿaql (intellect), as well as discussions on the different traits, faculties, and characteristics of these domains.
Chapter 3 focuses on cognitive themes and processes features works by al-Ghazālī and al-Nābulsī with discussions on human thoughts and the factors influencing them such as Shayṭān’s whisperings, as well as the significance of dreams and dream interpretation.
Chapter 4 on Emotional Themes addresses emotional well-being and the management of emotions such as sorrow, grief, fear, hope, anger, and happiness. It includes writings by al-Ghazālī, Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, ibn al-Jawzī, and Ibn Qādi Baalbek.
Chapter 5 on Behavioral Themes include discussions on character traits, methods of behavioral change, and the phenomenon of waswasa and behavioral compulsions, drawing from the works of Imam al-Birgivī and Mulla ʿAlī al-Qarī.
Chapter 6 focuses on general well-being, discussing topics such as recognizing and managing one’s own flaws, the need for recognizing psychological symptoms, and managing and restoring mental health. The chapter includes works by Imam al-Balkhī, al-Ghazālī, and al-Rāzī.
3 Approach
The editorial and contributor team gathered these segments from classical Islamic scholarly writings and provided a translation for each segment into English. In addition to the English translation, a commentary was produced at the bottom with the following aims: (i) to explain any technical concepts that may not be readily comprehensible for someone who is not a student of the Islamic sciences, (ii) draw attention to the potential applicability and utility of such discourses to modern psychological topics, and (iii) discuss any convergences and divergences between such ideas and the modern psychological literature.
4 Aims and Target Audience
The major aim of this book is to draw out some really pertinent illustrations of psychological discussions in Islamic traditions that provides readers a taste of the Islamic literature, directly from the writings of its scholars. The need to provide a primary source was also one of the major objectives of this project. In order to fully appreciate the Islamic tradition, the team felt that a translation project was warranted in order to access the primary sources and to hear the Islamic tradition from its direct authorities, i.e., classical Islamic scholars. Even though some of the works we translated here may in fact have existing translations, we felt it was necessary to re-translate some of these works for the following two reasons:
We wanted to translate these works with the audience in mind and to provide a psychological commentary to help make connections between these writings and the field.
The uniqueness and specialty of this book is in its extraction of some key psychological topics that exist within the larger scholarly works into one book. For example, if a psychologist or a student of psychology wanted to find a specific topic in psychology, like cognition in Islamic traditions, they may need to spend countless hours looking through various works in order to find them. However, this work picked fruits from the garden of the Islamic scholarly literature and put them together on the bookshelf for consumption.
Having said the above, it is important to note that this is not a fully exhaustive list of Islamic scholarly works that pertain to psychology. In fact, throughout the process of this project, the editors were continuously needing to remain disciplined in attempting to keep this project small enough and not to turn it into an encyclopedia of psychological themes in Islamic traditions. It is hoped that readers will be inspired by this work enough to perhaps write an encyclopedia or be inspired by the Islamic tradition to become an avid student and consumer of its literature. Furthermore, we hope that this work will generate many potential masters, doctoral or research project ideas for students and scholars of the behavioral and social sciences.
Finally, the target audience of this particular work are those who are interested in the study of psychology in the Islamic tradition. These include students of the social, behavioral, and Islamic sciences. This book is designed with an educated and academic audience in mind.