The mysterious ruh and the philosophy of Islamic psychology The soulless of Western psychology

The mysterious ruh and the philosophy of Islamic psychology

The soulless of Western psychology

• “There is no mention all of other aspects of man. The religious, the spiritual or at least the transcendental.” (Malik Badri, 1979)

• Western psychologist more prefer to view psychology in the atheism, Christians, Buddhism, and unIslamic Sufism perspectives.

Elements of man

• Jasad (body) as if a cage for soul or a ‘riding animal’ for the spirit.

• Ruh (spirit).

• ‘Aql (mind-intelligence).

• Nafs (soul/self).

• Qalb (heart).

Jasad (body)

• It’s created from clay; leech-like clot (al-Alaq, 2); semen.

• “Read in the Name of your Lord, Who created. Creates man from a clot. Read, and your Lord is the Most Bounteous. Who teaches by the pen. Teaches man that which he knew not.” (Al-’Alaq, 96: 1-5)

• “The lowly origin of the animal in man is contrasted with the high destiny offered to him in his intellectual, moral, and spiritual nature by his ‘most beautiful’ Creator.” (Mushaf al-Madinah al-Munawwarah)

• The body will be judged in the Judgment Day, even will be the witness for the owners’ behaviour.

Ruh (spirit)

• Its created from light and differs from soul (some scholars said that spirit is soul).

• The knowledge on spirit is very limited.

• “They ask you about spirit. Say: It is a command from my Lord of knowledge it is only a little that is communicated to you.” (al-Isra’, 17:85).

• The existence of spirit after 40 days.

• Before that, the spirit and all of the men’s spirits were already believed and accepted the God. (Al-A’raf: 172)

• No such thing of ‘spirit channeling’ and ‘rebirth’ concepts in Islam.

• The spirit as well as the body will be judged in the Judgment Day.

‘Aql (mind-intelligence)

• Deals with logic, thinking, and knowledge.

• ‘Aql (mind-intelligence) as the privileged tool for receiving divine illumination and grasping the inner science of opening the heart to the experiential knowing of God (al-Ghazali, Ihya’).

• ‘Aql (mind-intelligence) is the highest plane of man - it is the noblest part of man - it encompasses reason and logic and it stands above the ego. The Qur'an equates those who go astray with those who cannot (or will not) use their intellect - it uses the phrase 'wa la ya'qilun' (they do not use their intellect) or the phrase 'la yafaqahun' (they comprehend not). Those who do not use their intellect are those who have denied themselves access to one of the highest aspects of their humanity (Irshaad Hussain).

Nafs (soul/self)

• Soul deals with somewhat of leisure, pleasure, and joy as well as desire.

• There are bad (devil) and good desire.

• Ibn Qayyim divides soul into three:

• Mutmainnah (satisfied/peace soul). Al-Fajr, 89: 27-30. Peace condition in worship and love to God, accompany by the angel (malaikah).
• Lawwamah (blaming). Al-Qiyamah: 1-2). Always in conflict; good and evil. Blaming self because of against God – sign of the believer.
• Ammarah bissu’ (urging evil). Yusuf: 53. Always promoting to do evil things, accompany by the devil (syaithan). The devil command to do evil things and wrong actions (al-Baqarah, 2: 268).

The invisible creations

The diseases of soul

• The diseases of soul according to al-Ghazali:

• Nifaq (hypocrisy)
• Pride and arrogance
• Hawa or desire
• Self-beholding
• Greediness
• Negligence
• Restlessness
• Riya’.

Qalb (heart)

• Qalb (heart) = hati.

• Heart need to be daily purified.

• It influences man’s feeling, mental, and behaviour.

• Heart as the decision maker, consulted by the soul and mind-intelligence.

• Three kinds of heart:

• Healthy/peaceful heart. Asy-Syu’ara’: 88-89).
• Dead heart. No knowledge about God and never worship to God.
• Sick heart. Always in conflict either as a healthy heart or sick heart.

Elements of man – A model

Mind and soul as the consultants

• Mind needs useful knowledge; to be inserted, discussed, spread, and practiced.

• Man needs knowledge to moral and value system (syari’ah and adab), and knowledge to purify his heart and to protect from his heart from the devil. Read ‘For Poisons of the Heart’ by al-Ghazali.

• Soul needs to be disciplined – education and psychospiritual.

• The goods consultants need the good teacher, mentor, and friends.

Three phenomena of spirit

• Spirit as if a light and a wind.

• Three phenomena:

• The spirit goes out from the body permanently. Dead.
• The spirit goes out from the body and comes back again. Sleep and coma.
• The spirit is forced to go out from the body. Coma by chloroform, drug etc., black magic, ‘spirit channeling’, some cases of the Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) etc.

Journey of self

• Spirits/souls with Allah.

• In womb.

• Earthly life.

• Barzakh (grave).

• Everlasting life (Hereafter).

Psychology could not deny words of God

• God is the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Governor the entire of the universe (in balance and harmony).

• God created man (in balance and harmony) and He knows everything about man.

• Man could not deny God to study and to understand about himself, therefore psychology could not deny the revealed knowledge to study and to understand the man’s creation, feeling, mental process, emotion, and behaviour.

• Other Islamic philosophical aspects of psychology are mentioned in slide 15, 2nd week handout.