Understanding Mental Health From An Islamic Psychological Perspective

Over the past few years, there has been growing awareness of the significance of mental health within India. More and more teens and adults are now stepping out from the long-held stereotypes surrounding mental health and are seeking professional help. According to a 2018 follow-up study by the LiveLoveLaugh Foundation in 2021, the general perception of Indians towards mental health and individuals suffering from mental illnesses has improved. The study also found a significant increase in the number of people willing to seek treatment for mental health illnesses, with 92% willing to do so, nearly double the 54% from 2018.

Although this is a great milestone, increased mental health awareness hasn’t translated into a better understanding of mental health for Muslims across India, especially in the light of Islam. Unfortunately, many Muslims continue to view mental health issues as a “first-world problem” and some attribute them to a sign of a low faith (Imaan), demonic possessions, or evil eye. Undoubtedly, as Muslims, we acknowledge the reality of these in our lives, however, the Islamic understanding of mental health is very holistic and rich.

Does Islam recognise mental illnesses?
Long before modern psychology evolved as an independent science in 1879 by William Wundt, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) recognised the impact of mental illnesses when he was reported to have said, “The pen is lifted from three people: a sleeping person until he awakens, a child until he becomes an adult, and an insane person until he regains his sanity.”

Evidently, the hadith recorded in Tirmidhi (1423), views insanity as a disease and stands as a testimony to Islam’s empathetic approach to mental health such that those who have been deemed as mentally deranged are excused from performing acts of worship like the five daily prayers, fasting, Hajj, etc. Thus, mental well-being in Islamic traditions is a prerequisite for fulfilling our religious obligations to the Creator and social obligations to the creation.

Furthermore, Islam places great emphasis on the preservation of our physical and mental health. All divine commandments have been legislated by Allah for the welfare of human beings in this life and the next. It is for this reason that intoxicants, like alcohol, have been strongly prohibited since they impair our cognitive functioning and cause significant distress to our health, relationships, and spirituality.

It was narrated from ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar that the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: “Every intoxicant is unlawful and whatever causes intoxication in large amounts, a small amount of it is (also) unlawful.” [Ibn Majah, 3392].

A devout Muslim can experience anxiety, depression, or any other mental illness, just as any physical illness like cancer or thyroid. According to the World Health Organisation, 1 in 4 people suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lives. Suffering from a mental illness isn’t a choice and a believer can be tested through it.
“And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient.” (Quran, 2:155)

A holistic approach to healing:
Both the Quran and Sunnah have not only laid foundations for understanding mental health, but go a step further by encouraging us to seek treatment, whether it’s through practising coping skills like reflective journaling, taking medication, therapy, or a combination of all.
The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said, “Every disease has a cure. If a cure is applied to the disease, it is relieved by the permission of Allah Almighty.” [Sahih Muslim, 2204].

Carrying on the legacy of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم), our Muslim predecessors in the glorious days of the past experimented with different therapeutic practices and psychiatric treatments for mental illnesses. While the rest of the world was confining the mentally challenged in dark dungeons since these societies thought of mental illnesses as supernatural states, Muslim philosophers, theologians, and physicians were defining and treating psychological disorders in hospitals as early as 750 CE.

Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, a ninth-century Muslim polymath, was the first to differentiate between neurotic and psychotic disorders in his treatise, Sustenance of the Soul. Likewise, Abu Bakr al-Razi, another ninth-century Muslim physician and polymath, also known as Rhazes, headed the world’s first psychiatric ward in Baghdad where the patients were treated through herbal medicines, diets, music therapy and aromatherapy,

What changed then?
Much of Islam’s intellectual heritage has been unfortunately lost today with time. As a result, our attitude, as Muslims, towards mental health has dramatically changed. I believe there are many reasons for this, but colonialism and the separation of religion from science may have played a role. In the Euro-centric Western world’s efforts to formalize psychology as an “empirical” science since the 19th century, psychology, once defined as the study of the “soul”, gradually adopted a reductionist secular paradigm that quantifies human cognitions, explains observable behaviour, and no longer acknowledges the existence of our soul and the Divine in our lives. Consecutively, this may have shaped the way perhaps our grandparents and parents viewed mental health and led to the birth of taboos surrounding mental health, especially among Muslims.

However, the revival of the Islamic psychology movement through Dr. Malik Badri’s groundbreaking publication, The Lizard’s Hole (1975), shows a growing interest in revisiting and studying the superabundant Islamic psychological literature from the past.

Although we still have a long way to go in addressing cultural stereotypes and ensuring Islamically integrated mental health support for Muslims worldwide, I’m optimistic that we’re already taking small steps to crafting a new legacy.