Have the Muslim Psychologist left the Lizard’s Hole? Developments in Islamic Psychology


Since the 1970’s there is a trend in integrating Islam and psychology. The efforts to develop a psychology that grounds on Islamic fundaments and an Islamic conception of man have been a part of Islamization of psychology that is an extension of the Islamization of knowledge movement. Within this approach following one of the pioneers Malik Badri the reactions towards materialistic Western psychology that ignores the religious/spiritual dimension in human nature change from total rejection to integration of Islamic and Western elements. According to these different attitudes towards Western psychology Islamic psychology produced a huge amount of publications, organizations and training programs worldwide. The subject fields of Islamic psychology vary from the contributions of early Muslim Scholars to psychology to research in Muslim mental health; Islamic therapy techniques; personality theories and therapy models based on the Qu’ran, Sunnah, and Islamic tradition of thought; key concepts like nefs, fitrah, sufi practices; conceptual and theoretical approaches to Islamic psychology. However the meaning of Islamic, the definition, methodology, and theory of Islamic psychology is not clarified scientifically yet. Although some conceptual approaches can be distinguished the problem of definition and conceptual framework yet remains unsolved. This paper starting by the leadership of Malik Badri examines the accumulated literature, the problem of definition and conceptualization, the need for Islamizing psychology and the how, what and who to fulfill this need and illustrates the developments that Islamic psychology went through.


Keywords


Islamic Psychology, Psychology of Religion, Islamization of Knowledge, Psychology

Author : Zuhal AĞILKAYA ŞAHİN
Number of pages: 15-47
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.15018
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Journal of Turkish Studies
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