Contemporary psychology is influenced by scientific naturalism and positivism. Psychological studies attempt to have the best possible control over variables and to have the experiments as close to physical and experimental studies as possible; they provide operational definitions for completely subjective constructs and concepts so as to make them more tangible. They also make use of the most complicated statistical methods and techniques in order to reach the most objective conclusions. Such an attempt is admirable in natural sciences because it has led to a better life, but it cannot be the sole path for sciences related to human nature – especially psychology – to study the mental processes and behavior of human beings. According to Islamic teachings, human beings have an eternal soul, God-seeking fitrah,1 sick/reassured soul and heart, and a life purpose coordinated with the physiological body. What is the place of these concepts in methodology and consequently in present knowledge of contemporary psychology? Regarding the study of human beings’ mental processes and behavior, one may ask the question of whether it is basically possible to ignore them all under the pretext that presenting an operational definition of them is not possible or whether it is possible to pay attention to just the parts that can be studied through today’s operationalization and experimental method. Such a view limits contemporary psychology to just a supporter of the knowledge gained via experience and deprives it of more qualitative sources of knowledge such as wahy.2 It is clear that today’s experimental psychology has discovered and presented numerous aspects of change, cognition, feeling, emotion, and harms with regard to human beings, which are really acceptable, usable, and continuously applicable. However, one must admit that seeing human beings without any look at their Creator, disregarding the ongoing sovereignty of God over human beings after Creation, ignoring wahy as a source of knowledge, mere emphasis on experimental and operationalized aspects, and inability to move toward the subjects which have metaphysical assumptions are the most important challenges faced by the experimental psychology. Obviously, the outcome of such a viewpoint is the description of human beings within only the framework of experimental and natural processes. Is such a description really a comprehensive one?
The experimental approach to psychology, despite all of the mentioned challenges and limits, has lots of proponents; the bias in favor of positivism has moved so forward that the history of experimental psychology has been presented in an unreal, positive, and illusionary fashion. In an interesting study, Harris (1997) compared the main outcomes of classical psychology studies with that of their rewrites in different books. According to most of the present psychology books, in the study conducted by Watson and Raynor (1920), little Albert’s phobia of rabbits developed easily, and he then generalized it to all furry white objects. However, in the main study, Albert’s phobia developed difficultly, was temporary, and did not have a significant relationship with color or coverings of objects.
The present book includes four parts. In part one, after that, a general definition of psychology is presented, philosophical foundations and modern psychology challenges are reviewed from an Islamic standpoint. Then, the establishment of a kind of Islamic psychology has been suggested in order to face these challenges. In this regard, the possibility, foundations, and characteristics of Islamic psychology have also been introduced. In part two, after that, the research paradigms in the social sciences are introduced, research methods based on the Islamic paradigm are concisely elaborated. To familiarize readers with basic concepts of psychology from an Islamic perspective, parts 3 and 4 have dealt with personality, mental disorders, and psychotherapy. In part 3, both structural and trait approaches to personality have been taken into consideration from an Islamic perspective. At first, the structure of personality has been discussed through an Islamic framework; then, within a trait approach to personality, positive character traits such as kindness, humbleness, and justice and negative character traits such as arrogance and hypocrisy have been noticed based on Qurʾanic sources. In part 4, mental disease and health and also the therapeutic methods related to them are introduced from the perspective of Islam.
In the end, we hope readers find this work informative and useful. All professors, scholars, psychologists, and students are welcome to put forward their comments and suggestions on this book so that we would take them into account in our future works.
Fitrah refers to the human nature and inner predispositions in the state of perfection and uprightness according to which Allah created it.
Wahy is the Arabic word for revelation. In Islamic belief, revelations are God’s Word delivered by chosen individuals – known as Messenger prophets – to mankind.