Why Islamic Psychology?
Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of interest and a growing number of publications on topics related to Islamic psychology. Alongside the growth in the literature, this time period has also witnessed the increased establishment of organizations, clinics, conferences, symposiums, and courses within this nascent field. Such an interest for Islamically oriented mental health services and generally Islamic Psychology continues to grow alongside the interest in the new generation of Muslim practitioners who desire supplementary training in Islamic traditions and the rich tradition of Islamic Psychology to incorporate into their research and clinical work.
Muslims have become dissatisfied with merely importing Western ideas and models to their countries and communities and are in search of truly Islamically-rooted answers to the mental health needs of the Muslim community. Furthermore, the broader field of psychology is also looking to add diverse voices and perspectives to the discourse as evidenced by the American Psychological Association’s featuring of Islamic psychology in their conferences and publications over the past few years. Thus, to meet this current demand, Muslim scholars in the field have been actively publishing and have also formed some training programs to help equip Muslim practitioners with the skills to serve the Muslim population. The field is witnessing several IP training programs coming together, courses added to existing universities worldwide, and recent diplomas in Islamic psychology being established.
However, while programs in Islamic psychology do now exist, no current program offers an integrated education in both the core foundations of the Islamic sciences as well as Islamic Psychology. This serves as a barrier for a true appreciation and meaningful examination of Islamic scholarly traditions. Students of Islamic Psychology must have some basic foundational knowledge of the Islamic sciences in order to be able to be more literate in Islamic literature. It is inconceivable to have an individual who completes a diploma in Islamic psychology or completes a certificate in Islamic Psychotherapy to have minimal competences in the core Islamic sciences or understand some of the basic rules and principles of Islamic law, hadith, creed and Tasawwuf. Therefore, this integrated diploma in both the Islamic Foundations and
Islamic Psychology is being proposed to be offer at Usul Academy to avoid this scenario and to be able to fill the gap and need for adult education to existing Muslim practitioners and researchers of psychology.
