By Saira Qureshi
Drawing of the calendar year to its close, this year brings so much to the mind, heart as well as contemplation by the soul. As it should, for we believe in holistic wellness through the teachings and principles that guide our work and our lives as Muslims and Muslimahs who humbly pride themselves in practicing our faith traditions and aspire to consistently live by its high ethical standards, values and principles. The time of the end of the year calls for deepest of reflections from universal existence, the givens of constant strife and mortality to the unseen miracles of infinite mercifulness of Creator Almighty Allah subhana wa’taala.
Supported by the blessing of our intellectual abilities, offerings of several well-designed educational webinars, book readings and programs here at ISIP, we can certainly benefit from reaching within to harness our inner zeal for doing good in the years ahead. Constantly, we have choices and decisions to make which affect our personal lives along with our professional work. To balance it all, we must have well-intentioned goals not just for a day or a week or a month or a year, but for our who lifetimes!
As we hear different perspectives based on teachings and principles of Islam as a faith and their impact on the practice of counseling and clinical psychology fields, we cannot miss the fact how faith inherently ties these fields with its spiritual wisdom – be it through reflections upon the mystic poetry of Molana Jalaal ud Din Rumi (ra) or compelling existential poetry and essays on philosophy about the ‘self’ and universe by Allama Muhammad Iqbal or the examples from our intellectual heritage of scholars and Imams as well as saintly women and men of wisdom in Sufi tradition or the impeccable just leadership of the world in the life example of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
Psychological well-being is not possible when the environments are – even once, constantly traumatic. As conscientious human beings, we cannot turn away and roll blind eyes to the deliberate destruction of the earth and deprivation of innocent lives. We cannot forget nor forgive for the atrocities committed in Gaza, and so many other states and countries. We hope though, that in our lifetimes, we can also witness diverse races to come together and collectively hold the inhumanity accountable. We must look within and see what can make us better human beings and reach out to like minded others from other faiths and races to truly embody mutual sense of regard for life of each other and the earth. From an ecological-environmental perspective, we are all crucial to the health of our earth that is divinely loaned to all of the human race and other species. We have the rights of others and our own to ensure. And we cannot do this fairly, if we are not able to appreciate the significance of spiritual connection that is divinely connecting everything in the universe back to The Creator Almighty. Here, again, our faith guides us to treat everything as a temporal gift and/or trial and response with what is better, work towards what is better and always pray to Almighty Creator for with the best of hopes.
The verses of Quran by our Creator Almighty Allah subhana wa’talaa offer an individual and collective opportunity to connect with the Divine with a true witness status which is Godly itself in nature. We are clearly expected to not disturb the divinely set balance (Surah Rahman 55:7-9) nor distort nature (Surah Rum 30:30). Though we do not realize how well-guided we are (and so very fortunate we are!), our ISIP presence at this point in time and our work, indeed, are fortuitous for generations to come as we carry the formidable responsibility of continuation in excelling through learning and teaching based on our faith’s spiritual principles and their applications through higher educational training, research, and practice within psychology disciplines.
With that, of course, come the challenges of clarifying limiting notions against faith or its usefulness in psychology practice. We are grateful to all of the contemporary and past scholars who have done a great deal of service to preserving the intellectual breadth of depth of our faith as it illuminates the disciplines of counseling and clinical psychology. What will help in achieving acceptance and curiosity about faith-based psychology practice, both for Muslims and non-Muslims, is its honest and open Reflecting as well as creating effective tools of inquiry, diagnoses and treatment interventions such that both the theory as well as the practice of counseling and clinical psychology are complemented through psychological spirituality as an integral aspect of human existence and an elemental protective factor.
In less than two months we will, in sha Allah, reach Ramadan – a month in the Lunar calendar, when as Muslims we get to focus on perfecting our prayers and worship and willfully give up unhelpful and harmful distractions of the fleeting world. May we be truly drawing near Allah swt ourselves and encourage our families and universally anyone who is divinely guided to do the same as we are put in their path to connect with their inner spirituality.
Prayers that we continue to sincerely improve ourselves and our communities and by virtue of such good changes within, we lead others to do good in the world. May our near and far inclinations be true to the spirit of life-constructive and infused with optimism for our generations to come.
Best wishes for ISIP community of dedicated founders, supportive board members, generous presenters, dedicated staff, and most importantly, to our member students and professionals.
