Therapy a Millennia Before Modern Psychology

Smilla Rahmanir Rahim was Allah Allahu Marla so you deny Mohammed, while in early he was your self image mine. And the last video, we shared how the Muslims were pioneers in the field of mental health, how they classified diagnosed treated mental health conditions. But they also were the first to create incredible psychiatric hospitals and healing institutions. But did you know that they were also likely the very first in history to develop talk therapy, and music therapy. And if that isn't amazing enough, it's important to remember when in history all of this was taking place. As far back as the seventh century, right after the advent of Islam, that kick started an incredible golden age

for the Muslims that at this exact same point in history, Europe was in its dark ages, where people were suffering from mental illness at best, were sent out of sight and out of mind, to monasteries to be treated by priests, because it was thought that what they were experiencing was possession by demons. and at worse, they were burned at the stake as witches. So how is it that in the Muslim lands in very golden age, while Europe was in its dark ages, how was that what sparked this progressive and humanistic treatment of the mentally ill in the Muslim world, and the growth of astounding institutions of healing that Muslims became famous for there is no other explanation

stronger than the advent of Islam, the various Quranic injunctions and a hadith that implored Muslims to take good care of those who have mental illnesses. You see, one of the main principles of Islam. Also the Sharia is a preservation and optimization of one's mental capacity and intellect. This combined with the saying of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. there for every illness, there is a cure to Tao worry about the law, seek out cures are servants of God for Allah subhanaw taala has placed with every ailment a cure. This helps us to understand why the Scholars in the Muslim world paid such special attention to understanding the psyche, and the way it affects human

behavior and how and why it becomes ill, and it focused on finding cures for their illnesses. In this video, we're going to discuss how this combination of Islamic motivation inspiration methodology likely led to the foundational accomplishments and contributions to the field that today we call psychology. So the most important takeaway is that it was established a holistic outlook on life that led the scholars from all different disciplines to contribute to the field, they called everyone knifes the study of the self that became the precursor to the study of psychology. And that is why most for Muslims psychology was never limited just to the field of science, or focus just on

the mind the way it is today. But rather, it was a holistic model that was famously described by Mammon of Azadi that the heart was at the center and connected to it was the mind body, soul and emotions. It was an interdisciplinary effort of philosophers, theologians, physician scientists, all of whom contributed to this field. Long before the term psychology was coined. Muslim scholars were researching and practicing early forms of holistic psychotherapy. And they use medications to treat some psychiatric conditions as well. And they theorized about the inner workings of the human conditions and behavior. Now, many of these scholars drew their inspiration and motivation from the

Quran and the Sunnah. But they also used and this is very important, they also used empirical and rational sources. You have, for example, a Razzie and his incredible case studies in the book of experience that he wrote, and you have even Cena and his experimental, psychological and diagnostic treatments and techniques. But at the end of the day, they believed the revelation held the ultimate truth and drew upon it to come to their conclusions. And there were so many different types of scholars that contributed to this field and made it holistic from amongst the philosopher's you have two that we're going to cover today, Ibn Mischka a who encouraged people to eliminate their unwanted

habits and behaviors by establishing what he called a moral equilibrium. That when you engage in a bad habit, you fix it by doing the opposite positive behavior. For example, he drew from suits and mount EDA, where Muslims are taught that if they break an oath, they should feed the poor and this helps them come back tomorrow equilibrium. You

also have al kindI in his book I'll Halal a daffodil ASAN that repelling the sorrows anywhere he describes cognitive strategies for fighting depression. And from amongst the theologians you have a moment of ezeli who emphasize treating diseases of the heart, arrogance, miserliness, ignorance, envy, lust, greed, and encourage spiritual training of the self, including cognitive and behavioral inclinations, you have evidence client, for example, who propose a sequential stage theory of cognition and behavior based on terms found in the Quran for thinking involuntary thoughts that lead to emotional motivation that leads to firm decisions that then allows actions to finally become

habits. Today, we might call that the cycle of change, and that's unfortunately attributed to others. And then you have the physician scientists, you have a Belfie, for example, who I'm going to speak about in much more detail in upcoming videos in this series. And that's some of my own personal research was about a balcony, uncovering that he was likely the first in history to diagnose and classify OCD and phobias, literally a millennium before Western scholars who are credited with these discoveries instead, and basically use arguments from the Quran and the Sunnah to dismantle social barriers to getting mental health help. And he called his book Masada hill up,

Dan will enforce our sustenance of the body and soul purposefully to focus on the mind body connection. Then you have Abu Bakr Al Razi, who directed the largest hospital in Baghdad, including its psychiatric ward, and he was responsible for the first instance in history of psychiatric aftercare where patients were discharged from his hospital, were given financial assistance to get back on their feet. After leaving the psychiatric ward.

He championed humane treatment of the mentally ill. And he wrote many case studies about this, and importantly about the therapeutic rapport between the doctor patient relationship, and he documented over 900 cases of patients, including those with mental illness, like mood disorders and anxiety. He wrote a book called a tuber Rowhani on the soul on the psyche and discuss the psychological topics and light of the Quran and the Sunnah. And then we have a bid Sina, one of the greatest physician in the Muslim lands, known as the doctor of doctors, whose book the canon of medicine was used in European medical schools until the 18th century, he discussed the motivational powers of physical,

cognitive and virtuous desires. And he organized a two level hierarchy of desires which Tao is attributed to Maslow instead of him the hierarchy of needs. He also described in great detail, the concept of conditioning now attributed to Pavlov instead of him, and he, too, was a great champion of the mind body connection. Much of the amazing advancements in the field of mental health took place at the hands of great Muslim predecessors centuries, and in some cases an entire millennium, before the equivalent work of other scholars that are now often credited with these discoveries and findings. But why? Why are others credited with their discoveries? There are several reasons for

this. But there is one reason that I want to bring to our attention today. And that is because we, as Muslims have allowed our rich legacy of mental health to be buried in the dust of time, we have forgotten our own history, and our own accomplishments, especially those of the Muslim predecessors have come before us. And most importantly, that their great work was largely inspired and motivated by Islam. So for those who want to learn more about this topic in more detail, we have an entire research lab at Stanford University, the Muslim mental health lab, and this very topic is one that we spend a lot of time researching, and I hope you'll check out the work we have on it. We've

published several chapters and papers, and one of our most recent is called Islamic psychology, a portrait of its historical origins and contributions. You can actually find this chapter in the new book that we partnered with the Honeywell center called applying Islamic principles to clinical mental health care. I asked that Allah subhanaw taala bless our scholars of the past, the present and the future, and to allow us to rediscover our Islamic heritage and build upon the accomplishments of our noble predecessors. And that like them, we too will be a benefit to all of humanity, but Hamdu lillahi rabbil aalameen