HISTORY & SCHOOLS OF

PSYCHOLOGY: MUSLIM
PHILOSOPHERS
(CONTINUED)
NIMRAH AHMED
•1) Hergenhahn, B.R. (2009). An introduction to the history
of psychology. NewYork: Wadsworth. (Available online)
ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGES
1. Al-Kindi (801-873)
2. Al-Razi (865- 925)
3. Al-Farabi (870-950)
4. Miskawaih (932-1030)
5. Ikhwan Al-Safa (983)
6. Ibn Sina (980-1037) Avicenna
7. Ibn Bajjah (end of 11th century – 1138) Avempace
8. Al-Ghazali (1058-1111)
9. Ibn-Rushd (1126-1198) Averroes
10. Ibn ‘Arabi (1165-1240)
11. Ibn Khaldun
 IBN SINA (980-1037) AVICENNA INTERIOR SENSES

1. • Common
He wasSense:a Persian philosopher, the father of medicine and one of the most
popular
This dualists
sense collates the information gathered by the external senses.
2. Retentive Imagination:
•This
Integrated works
sense remembers theof Aristotle
information and by
gathered Plato. Adopted
the common sense. Aristotle's 3 types of soul:
3. Compositive Animal
vegetative, animal Imagination:
and rational souls
This sense allows all animals to learn what they should avoid and what they should actively seek in their
• Believed that humans and animals share 5 senses
natural environment.
4. Compositive Human Imagination:
i. Vision
Allows the creative combination of information from the common sense and from the retentive imagination.
5. ii. Hearing
Estimative Power:
This is the ability to make innate judgments about the surrounding environment and determine what is
iii.dangerous
Touchand what is beneficial. For example, an innate and instinctual fear of predators would fall
iv.under
Taste
this sense.
6. Memory:
v. Smell
The ability to remember the outcomes of all the information developed by the other senses.
7. • And there are 7 interior senses also
Processing:
This is the ability to use all of the information and is the highest of the seven internal senses
• However these senses are only integral to understanding the world
• Recognized physiological influence in the treatment of illnesses
involving emotions. Developed a system for associating changes in the
pulse rate with the inner feeling. Once he was treating an ill patient by
feeling the patient’s pulse and reciting aloud to him the names of
provinces, districts, towns, streets and people. He noticed when certain
names were mentioned the pulse would increase. He deduced this was
where the person’s lover lived. He asked him to marry her, after that he
got healed.
• He linked physical and psychological illness together. Eg described
melancholia (depression) as a type of mood disorder in which the person
may become suspicious, develop certain types of phobias. Also said that
happiness increases breath leading to increased moisture in the brain, but
if moisture goes beyond limits, brain loses control
• The Flying Man experiment:
• Question: Imagine you are suspended in a void and your body cannot
touch anything and cannot perceive anything of the external world. You
cannot see your body either, would you be able to tell whether you exist?
• Its your consciousness, your awareness. And hence he said that the soul is
distinct from the body, because even when the body has no incoming
messages, there is still awareness
• Such a person will not affirm anything of the external world or even the
existence of his own body but will, neverthe-less, affirm the existence of
his self as a purely spiritual entity
• He emphasized that we can think away our bodies and so doubt their
existence, but we cannot think away our minds
• For his therapy, he used empathy and complete acceptance of the
viewpoint of the patient/client. Eg, Prince and the butcher
• Was also known to use fear, shock and music therapies to cure
mental illnesses caused by demons. Reading for patients with
depression
• One of his most famous books on medicine is The Canon of
medicine where he mentions the use of different herbs for different
health conditions
• Stated that the mind and body are connected and humans have the ability to
overcome physical illnesses by telling themselves to get better. Hence like
Al-Razi, he also worked with psychosomatic illness
• This mental and physical linkage formed the basis of his approach to
mental disorders and he documented many conditions, including memory
disorders, hallucinations, paralysis etc
• His work is considered to influence 20th century psychoanalysis
• Central to Ibn Sina’s philosophy is his concept of reality and reasoning.
Reason, in his scheme, can allow progress through various levels of
understanding and can finally lead to God
IBN BAJJAH (END OF 11TH CENTURY – 1138) AVEMPACE (A-VEM-PUS)

• He was from Spain- a philosopher, physician and scientist

• He begins his discussion of the soul with the definition that "bodies are
composed of matter and form and intelligence is the most important part of
man—sound knowledge is obtained through intelligence, which alone
enables one to attain prosperity and build character.“
• His definition of freedom is "that when one can think and act rationally".
He also writes that "the aim of life should be to seek spiritual knowledge
and make contact …with the Divine
AL-GHAZALI (1058-1111)
• A Persian Muslim. He was a philosopher, theologian and mystic
• Was a renowned scholar and achieved great respect in Baghdad, he left Baghdad and
retired in Damascus
• Wrote around 70 books
• Discussed the concept of the self and the causes of its misery
and happiness
• He described the self using four terms: Qalb (heart), Ruh (spirit), Nafs (soul) and 'Aql
(intellect)
• Al Ghazali also believed that fear was a learned condition, either taught to children or
gained through negative experiences.
• As a Sufi mystic, al-Ghazali was a firm believer that introspection and self-analysis
were the keys to understanding mental issues and unlocking hidden reasons.
• He added that the self has motor and sensory motives for fulfilling its bodily needs
• He also brought into the history of psychology the idea of needs,
proposing that the human personality had urges to fulfill certain
desires, based upon hunger and anger. Hunger drove such
emotions as sexual urges, thirst and hunger, whilst anger drove
rage, frustration and revenge
 • Al Ghazali believed that the self carries two additional qualities which
ACTIVITY
distinguishes man from animals enabling man to attain spiritual
perfection. These qualities are: 1Aql (intellect) and 2 Irada (will)
• BelievedThink of someone
that knowledge is eitheryou really
acquired dislike.
or innate. Acquired knowledge
is of two kinds: 1 Phenomenal (material world) and 2 Spiritual (God,
soul, etc.).
This
• Heisexplained
Bring what
their AlGhazali
face called
to mind.
that diseases the
Bring
are of two Therapy
something
kinds: ofthey
1 physical &opposites.
have
2 spiritual
Basically
•Spiritual used
diseases to cure
aresaid/done
more thetospiritual
dangerous mind
and weaknesses
result from ignorance and
deviation from God, such as self-centeredness, addiction to wealth, fame
and status, ignorance, cowardice, cruelty, lust, doubt (waswas)
Now try to feel a liking for them. See them in a positive
light, think about them in the opposite way
• Man occupies a position midway between animals and angels and his
distinguishing quality is KNOWLEDGE . Human can either rise to the level
of the angels with the help of knowledge or fall to the levels of animals by
letting his anger and lust dominate him
• He emphasized that knowledge of Ilm al Batin (hidden) is Fard on every
person and asked people to do Tazkiya Nafs or purification of self
• Closeness to God is equivalent to normality whereas distance from God
leads to abnormality
IBN-RUSHD (1126-1198) AVERROES
(EV-VER-ROSE)
• He was from Spain, but established himself in Morocco
• Ibn Rushd’s views on psychology are most fully discussed in his Talkbis
Kitab al-Nafs (Aristotle on the Soul)
• He divided the soul into five faculties:
1. The Nutritive
2. The Sensitive
3. The Imaginative
4. Cognitive
5. The Appetitive
• Averroes taught that animals gain knowledge
by sense organs, whereas man does it by intellect and
knowledge gathered by intellect is the true and correct knowledge
• Therefore his method of gaining knowledge was a combination of
the traditions of Socrates and Aristotle
• Where Socrates thought that sensory organs were a hindrance to the
acquisition of knowledge while Aristotle was of the view that
knowledge needs to
he gathered through empiricism rather than looking inwards
• Averroes further asserted that when a change occurs in
the world, knowledge also changes
• Therefore, knowledge is in a constant flux. Hence, man needs to
constantly update his knowledge
• Averroes was of the opinion that all events have causes and denial of causes is
denial of knowledge
• He concluded that knowledge could therefore be gained by looking at causes
of objects and events.
• In light of this theory, even accidents which apparently do not have a cause actually
have a cause
• Averroes practiced the Aristotelian way of observation and rejected speculation as
a way of acquiring knowledge avoiding unnecessary speculation even in
religious matters
• Later Europeans adopted Averroes's ideas and rejected speculation which was the
reason for their civilization to advance at a rapid pace
• Where Ibn Sina said that only certain levels of understanding can finally
lead to God, Rushd said that all human experiences reflect God’s influence
• His writings are mainly commentaries on Aristotle’s philosophy with
special emphasis on senses, memory, sleep, walking and dreams.
• Discovered that retina and not the lens is the light sensitive part in the eye.
• Was the first to observe that those afflicted with small pox were thereafter
immune to the disease
IBN ‘ARABI (1165-1240)
• From Spain
• He wrote a lot but only about 150 of his works exist
• There seems to be an uncertainty on the exact number of his works
• It is believed that most of his works were written while he was in Mecca
and in Damascus
• His style is known to be difficult and ambiguous
• Ibn Arabi wrote on the theory of soul, perception, the nature of desire,
imaginations and dreams.
• His Sufi interpretation of the heart is that it is an instrument where
mysterious knowledge is revealed.
• Heart is not piece of flesh in the chest but it is ‘‘connected with it
physically as well as spiritually but also different from it.’’
• The heart has an ‘‘inner eye’’ that can perceive Reality. However, the evil
thoughts of the animal soul and needs of the material world can easily
blind this ‘‘inner eye”
• Recognized three elements in man
1. Body
2. Soul
3. Spirit
• Intellect is one of the powers of the rational soul. The rational soul is
absolutely independent of the body and can exist independently as it did
before joining it and will exist after leaving it as in death.
• He explains that Khayal or imagination is always active, even in sleep
resulting in dreams that are an association of images desired by the
individual.
• However, the individual soul may also reveal itself in dreams, and the
symbols must be interpreted correctly
IBN KHALDUN
• Proposed that an individual’s surroundings and local environment shaped
his personality
• This insightful view acted as a precursor for modern ideas such as the
Nature vs Nurture debate
• He followed the lead of Aristotle and Ibn-Sina in believing that the mind
was a Tabula Rasa, and that human behavior was shaped solely by
experience and education
• He explained that the qalb mediates between the Nafs and soul. Its task is
control the nafs and direct the man toward the spirit
• The spirit or ruh is in direct connection with the Divine, even if one is
unconscious of that connection
AND WE ARE DONE WITH THE MUSLIM
PHILOSOPHERS..
• Muslim philosophers played a crucial role in connecting mental illness with physical
ailments. Hence they played an integral role in creating the mind-body link
• Linked Quran and Hadith to mental illnesses
• Aimed at understanding Nafsiyat : Here main aim is understanding the Nafs (the self)
and within the Nafs is the Qalb (heart), Ruh (spirit) and Aql (intellect). So here they
equate a healthy self to a healthy heart, spirit and intellect. Therefore a healthy self,
means mental well being also
• Presently also, Muslims scholars and practitioners are findings ways to find connections
between the mind and the body
• Example- Through Salat. Studies have shown it to relax an individual. There are similar
postures in yoga as are in namaz also
•Thank you