Counseling Values and Objectives A Comparison of Western and Islamic Perspectives

Abstract

Counseling has established itself as a helping profession with an academic
base. Its development has been influenced largely by the socioeconomic,
occupational, and technical changes found in western society
as well as the various personal and social problems getmane to its societal
organization. Although emerging as a profession only during the
twentieth century, its origins can be traced back to the post-Renaissance
era. It therefore has a distinct orientation, identity, and focus. The existing
body of knowledge and the relevant repettoire of counseling techniques
and ptactices address the demands of western society within its sociomod
value structure. The question then arises as to whether adding the
tetm "Islamic" to the available discipline of counseling catties any legitimacy
at this stage.
This paper is an attempt to examine critically the evolutionary context
of counseling, the value system in which it is immersed, and the objectives
it endeavors to address. The framework used for this examination
is the Islamic outlook on life and the associated objectives and values that
Islam regards as detettninants of human behavior. It is assumed that this
compatative approach to the underlying perspectives, objectives, and
values will explain the congruence or incongruence between the existing
model(s) of counseling and any alternative Islamic model(s).
It must be realized that Islamizing the prevalent secular-materialistic
counseling thanes and practices cannot be accomplished by merely affixing
the label "Islamic." Thus this paper should not be seen as an attempt ...