International Seminar on Counseling and Psychotherapy An Islamic Perspective

Abstract

A three-day international seminar jointly organized by the
Department of Psychology, International Islamic University
Malaysia (IIUM) and the International Institute of Islamic
Thought Malaysia (IIITM) was held August 15-17, 1997, in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Inaugurating the seminar, the Honomble Rector Dr. AbdulHamid A.
AbuSulayman expressed happiness with the number of participants who
are trying to look at human problems from an Islamic perspective. He
said that intense research and hard work are needed to establish an
Islamic framework of understanding human behavior and that scholars
should not be impatient during this process. He reminded the participants
that Muslim psychologists derive their understanding from the Qur’an
and the Sunnah and that therefore their vision is different from other psychologists
and counselors. He also said that Muslim psychologists have
to delve deeply into themselves to gain self-understanding and selfstrength
before they can help others. The conference was marked by
keynote addresses that were delivered by renowned Muslim psychologists
from around the world.
Dr. Malik Badri of Sudan highlighted the achievements and discoveries
of early Muslim scholars in the field of psychotherapy. He pointed
out that Ibn Sina explained the learning of adaptive and maladaptive
behavior on the basis of associative learning principles. He said that Ibn
Sina and Al-Ghazali also explicated the developments of feeling of
revulsion toward n a h d and useful objects in terms of stimulus substitution
similar to today’s conditioning concept. Dr. Badri further ...