This course provides a survey of the Islamic intellectual heritage as it pertains to the subject matter of psychology. The focus of the course will be to provide a familiarity with the classical Islamic scholarly literature drawing directly from its primary sources. This will allow students to have an unfiltered exposure to the style of writings found across different Islamic scholarly disciplines and to become well acquainted with the Islamic scholarly tradition through the words of its authorities directly. The primary sources discussed in this course will largely be drawn from the following classical fields: Ṭibb, Falsafah, Taṣawwuf, Kalām and Fiqh. The style of the course will be one that combines, both lecture and reading directly from the original text with the instructor’s commentary.

Additionally, classroom discussions and critical thinking exercises will be included. During the course of the classroom readings, there will be a continuous comparative analysis between these classical Islamic texts and modern psychology. A focus on how rich Islamic scholarly tradition can enhance and enrich modern discourses of psychology are explored. The instructor’s commentary and classroom discussions will pivot around the convergence and divergence between them as well as encouraging critical thinking for how to potentially synthesize or sift through the various parts of these disparate bodies of knowledge.

The purpose of these courses is to uncover the conceptual roots and ontological and epistemological assumptions of major methodological schools in social sciences. While surveying the basic assumptions of major schools, the courses will uphold a genealogical approach, that is, it will comparatively discuss the origins and theoretical foundations of each school.

Rather than favouring one approach over another, the courses aim to illustrate the existence of a wide array of methodological approaches in social sciences. Various approaches emanating from different world views and ideologies may sometimes appear in tension with one another. The courses aim to bring them into dialogue within a comparative perspective by highlighting their potential strengths and limitations. The courses will provide alternative perspectives highlighting the potential power of Islamic schools of thought to respond to contemporary questions in the social sciences. In this regard, the methods of falsafah, kalām, taṣawwuf and fiqh will be presented alongside social science and humanities perspectives

This course provides a survey of the Islamic intellectual heritage as it pertains to the subject matter of psychology. The focus of the course will be to provide a familiarity with the classical Islamic scholarly literature drawing directly from its primary sources. This will allow students to have an unfiltered exposure to the style of writings found across different Islamic scholarly disciplines and to become well acquainted with the Islamic scholarly tradition through the words of its authorities directly. The primary sources discussed in this course will largely be drawn from the following classical fields: Tibb, Falsafa, Tasawwuf, Kalam and Fiqh. The style of the course will be one that combines, both lecture and reading directly from the original text with the instructor’s commentary. Additionally, classroom discussions and critical thinking exercises will be included. During the course of the classroom readings, there will be a continuous comparative analysis between these classical Islamic texts and modern psychology. The instructor’s commentary and classroom discussions will pivot around the convergence and divergence between them as well as encouraging critical thinking for how to potentially synthesize or sift through the various parts of these disparate bodies of knowledge in order to inform potential theoritical developments and clinical applications.

This course will go through a series of contributions of Muslim scholars drawn both from the Islamic health tradition (Tibb) and Tasawwuf that are most pertinent and relevant to human psychology. It will explore how different tariqas and Sufi scholars have conceptualized the psyche and soul and their approaches to its reformation and treatment. Similarly, the Tibb tradition will be explored in light of mental health diseases and classical approaches to treatment within inpatient, outpatient and community settings. The concept of Futuwwah will also be explored to better understand the notion of social and public spiritual and psychological healthcare approaches.

This course will go through a selected reading of forty hadith on themes in psychology. These include ahadith related to human nature, personality, role of a practitioner/murshid, parenting, character and behavioral reformation, principles of self-formation, approaches to cognitive restructuring of one’s beliefs and thoughts and treatment of psychological and spiritual disorders. The forty hadith will be read with the instructors commentary drawn from the various known and relied upon classical hadith commentaries. The forty hadith will be explored in light of modern applications.

This course will be a structured reading and explanation of the famous akhlaq al-‘adudiyya that provides a synthesis and summary of the Islamic tradition of character development and provides a classification of the virtues. Commentaries of this text will also be incorporated in order to help expand the discussion of the virtues and vices. The growing movement in positive psychology will also be discussed as well as the developments and work being done on character development in contemporary psychology. A comparative and integrative approach will be used to help inform potential future developments and opportunities for Islamic psychologists to make contributions to this growing discipline in psychology. These may include insights about parenting, character development programs for schools, colleges, work places and beyond.

This course will begin with a survey of the various counseling theories in order to provide a diverse range of tools for professional practice for mental health professionals. The course focuses on the philosophical and theoretical foundations of counseling theories and practices, as well as how these are applied to prevention, development, empowerment and change in individuals. Counseling practices related to specific theoretical orientations will be presented and discussed.

After a review of the mainstream counseling theories and practices, the course will explore an Islamically integrative orientation to psychotherapy (TIIP), including foundational tenets and principles of Islamically integrative models with a discussion of Islamic epistemology and the presentation of an Islamic ontological framework of the human psyche. The course will also provide students with concrete skills for how to conceptualize and treat psychological disorders using Islamically integrative models. Interventions are designed to specifically target the elements of the human psyche: (a) ʿaql or cognition; (b) nafs or behavioral inclinations; (c) rūḥ or spirit and (d) iḥsās or emotions. Specific application of therapeutic goals across sessions as a practical demonstration will also be provided. Treatment approaches will focus on Islamic cognitive restructuring, behavioral reformation (tahdhīb al-nafs), spiritual growth promoting strategies and emotional regulation & transformation.

Outside of the TIIP model, other Islamic models of psychotherapy will also be discussed.