Psychology from Islamic Perspective:

 Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists

Early Muslims wrote extensively about human nature and called it Ilm-al Nafsiat or self-knowledge. In many cases, their works seem to be the original ideas for many modern day psychological theories and practices. What is interesting however is that a lot of what the early scholars wrote was blended with Islamic philosophy and religious ideas. This paper covers major contributions of prominent early Muslim scholars to psychology and outlines the challenges faced by today's Muslims in adapting to the Western theories. It also offers a few recommendations on the indigenization of psychology for Muslim societies interested in seeking the Islamic perspective on human behaviors.

Islam is a major world religion and there are growing numbers of Muslims in the west, particularly in North America where the Muslim population estimates range between 4 and 6 million (Haddad, 1991; Hussain and Hussain, 1996). The sharpest rise in the Muslim population has been seen in the last couple of decades and continues to grow steadily. Although the growth of Muslims is not higher compared to other ethnic or religious groups, interest in Islam and Muslims has risen significantly after the September 11th incidents in America. Besides information on Muslims from the media, the social science literature is now replete with the socio-political aspects of Arab/Muslim cultures. A meager amount of writings is also available on the psychological issues relevant for this minority community (Haque, 2004; Murken and Shah, 2002; Reich and Paloutzian, 2001). With the increase of Muslim population in America and interest of social scientists in this minority community, it has become imperative that the Islamic worldview on issues related to psychology is introduced in the mainstream literature. An inquiry into the intellectual tradition of Muslim beliefs about human nature and methodology of treatment would be revealing for persons in the helping professions who are likely to encounter Muslim clients in practice, teaching or research. While many Muslims are heavily influenced by the Qur’an (Muslim holy book) and sayings of Prophet Muhammad, some are also influenced by the works of early Muslim scholars who contributed in the realm of natural and social sciences. What makes such contributions unique is that they are based on Islamic philosophy or the concept of Unity of God. Knowledge of Islamic perspectives can go a long way as a part of cultural sensitivity training for mainstream clinicians and researchers. This paper explores the contributions of early Muslim scholars (universal figures) to psychology and highlights the dilemmas posed by western psychology to Muslim professionals and clients followed by some general recommendations. The term ‘‘early’’ in the title of this paper denotes the first significant Muslim era after the death of Prophet Muhammad (632 AD). The rise of Islamic civilization and culture of Muslims starting from 7th century AD lasted up to the early 19th century AD However, for purposes of brevity and also because Islamic sciences and philosophy gave way to other schools starting in the 14th century, this paper highlights Muslim contributions to psychology until the 10th century or about 400 years after Prophet’s death. Early Muslim scholars wrote extensively in the area of human psychology, although, the term ‘‘psychology’’ did not exist at that time and such endeavors were mostly a part of philosophical writings. In the writings of Muslim scholars, the term Nafs (self or soul) was used to denote individual personality and the term fitrah for human nature. Nafs encompasses a broad range of topics including the qalb (heart), the ruh (spirit), the aql (intellect) and irada (will).1 Many early Muslim scholars directly or indirectly contributed to the study of the ‘‘self’’. If we examine the historical background under which Muslim scholarship developed, we will find that it arose under the umbrella of philosophy, which encompassed almost all areas of human enquiry. Philosophy, in most simplistic terms, refers to the knowledge of all things, both divine and human.2 It was during the 8th and 9th centuries that Alexandria and Syria became the center of philosophy influenced mainly by the Greek thought and also to some extent by Indian and Persian thought. Al-Mamun (813–933), a caliph from the Abbassid dynasty, showed interest in getting Greek works translated into Arabic. He established a philosophical academy Baitul Hikmah that stimulated interest in and discussions among Muslim scholars on philosophical issues, resulting in translations of Greek philosophical works, commentaries and some original treatises in many areas of knowledge. Muslims were attracted to the field of philosophy for reasons including the Qur’anic verses that exhort man to think about existence, nature, qualities of God, and the hereafter; the hadith3 of the Prophet emphasizing values of knowledge4 .