Islam and Notions of the Self

It is interesting to note that the Human Being is considered to be the meeting point of these two different dimensions. The Arabic word for such a meeting point is barzakh – interspace:

SPIRITUAL + -------------- (BARZAKH) PHYSICAL

 In the light of this Islamic perspective, any efforts to gain an understanding of the self-require a study of the spiritual aspect of the self. Knowledge of the self, and what it means to be human, in modern times however is not so much the domain of religion as the domain of the field of psychology. In todays’ secular age, the field of psychology is in a way the new theology, and therapists and psychologists are the priests of this age. The irony is that the word “psychology” is based on the Greek word psyche, meaning “soul”, or, “spirit”. Psychology therefore means study of the soul. However it is now anything but, and indeed the idea of a soul or spiritual nature is not even acknowledged in mainstream psychology. As I discussed earlier this attitude of rejecting the spiritual can be traced to the implicit assumptions of Western psychology rooted in secularism - which arose out of a negation of religion or spiritual experience. Instead, within Western psychology, a fragmented view of man is presented. In trying to gain a deeper understanding of human nature, Western psychological theories have tended to focus only on one aspect of the self, e.g. psychoanalysis focuses on the unconscious, cognitive psychology focuses on thoughts, and behavioural psychology focuses on behaviour. No doubt, important insights have been gained, yet no model is truly comprehensive in itself. I believe most Western psychotherapies are limited at both ends of the spectrum – they ignore individual spirituality, and they ignore the effects of socio-political factors on the lives of the clients. Fundamental questions relating to man’s existence e.g. (Where have we come from? (What is our purpose in life? (What happens after we die? cannot be addressed even by the more sophisticated approaches in mainstream psychology.

So really how much knowledge of the self-do they have, and how deep is their understanding of human psychology? Even very ‘new’ more integrated therapies which try to include more than one aspect of the self are limited, as they too ignore a dimension of the self which many people regard as central to being human – the spiritual dimension.

On the other hand, all Muslims should be excellent psychologists. Our whole life is based on knowing the answers to these basic questions. Wherever you go, from remote villages to modern cities, practising Muslims will be able to tell that we are on a journey: Before we were born we were with Allah, and all souls bore witness that Allah is their Lord (Surah Al-A’raf, 7:172).