ISLAMIC HISTORY OF

PSYCHOLOGY
1. AL-RAZI (Rhazes)
2. IBN-SINA (Avicenna)
3. IBN-RUSHD (Averroes)
4. AL-GHAZALI (Algazel)
Islamic Philosophy

Has nothing necessarily to do with Islam.

Refers to Philosophy introduced in an Islamic Society, “falsafa”.

 400 – 1000
Dark Ages  with reference to the western world

Islam was a powerfulforce.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)  570(Mecca) Islam

spread with speed.

 400 – 1000
632  Muslims had conquered Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Persia,
Sicily and Spain.

The expansion  contact with ancient philosophical

works.

Islamic philosophers  translated, studied and

expanded on this ancient
wisdom.
 400 – 1000

Efforts were initially focused on making progress in subjects

that were of practical use to the people at the time.

This slowly changed and efforts were eventually re-focused

on how to make philosophy compatible with Islam (Just like
they did with Christianity years later).
 The translation of the Arabic versions of the Aristotelian corpus, the
commentaries, and the abridgments produced a cultural turning point
in the intellectual history of the Western world.
The ancient Greeks defined philosophy as "the love of wisdom" and there was
a special reason for this peculiar definition. Since only "gods" can possess
true wisdom, Pythagoras said famously, we humans can love it, not own it.

One can aspire to gain the knowledge of things, but do so only by

acknowledging its transcendent roots.

The Muslim philosophers gave a more precise definition of philosophy and

called it the ability "to know the reality of things as they are to the extent
possible for human beings, and act accordingly." Philosophy defined as such
entailed a fundamental premise upon which all thinking rested: there is a
"reality" outside my mind and I can know it with the proper means.
GOLDEN ISLAMIC AGES
(8 -12 CENTURY)
TH TH
 HIKMAH

The Muslim philosophers, who read Aristotle mostly through the eyes
of Plato, were already familiar with the term "wisdom" (hikmah) from
the Quran and the sayings of the prophet of Islam. In its rich
etymology, hikmah means reason, principle, pillar, reasoning,
thinking, the ability to know the difference between right and wrong
and leading a virtuous life in accordance with reason and virtue.

The Quran praises it as a blessing; Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) refers

to it as "a Muslim's lost property," which he/she should seek wherever
it is.
Wisdom is often attained by learning in other
ways; By three methods we may learn
wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest;
Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and
Third by experience, which is the bitterest.
(Confucius)
According to Muslim Philosophers

• If philosophy is to be more than mere cleverness, it ought to

enable us to connect with the deeper aspects of reality that
are larger than one’s mind or self.

• In a broad outline, this is the conceptual framework through

which the classical Muslim philosophers approached the
main problems of philosophy.

• Islamic philosophy has also been described as the

systematic investigation of problems connected with life,
the universe, ethics, society, and so on as conducted in the
Muslim world.
 ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY

Kalaam Falsafa
Ilm al-Kalām Falsafa is a Greek loanword
Arabic: ‫علم الكالم‬ meaning "philosophy" (the
is the philosophy that seeks Greek pronunciation
Islamic theological principles philosophia became falsafa).
through dialectic. In Arabic, the This was mostly the work of
word literally means "speech“. Aristotle translated in Arabic.
More theoretical. More practical.
AL-RAZI (RHAZES)
 Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya Al-Razi
(Rhazes) (854-925)

• He was a philosopher, physician, alchemist and polymath.

• He was a doctor and wanted everyone to not suffer, he

questioned why there are so many evils in the world when
it’s been made by God who is such a great creator?

• The answer to this was that God did not bring this evil but
instead our soul was stuck with a poor choice it made of
becoming associated with matter than spiritual things. We
are not obsessed with getting knowledge instead we are
obsessed with getting money and fame.
• He believed the world’s universal laws are forever. He said
Prophet’s sayings must be respected for the truth they
hold more than just the miracles The Prophet had. This
shows his inclination he had towards Rationalism.

• He believed that unexpected high emotional outburst has

a quick healing effect on psychological, psychosomatic
and organic disorders.

• He also wrote that religious pressures can be overcome by

reason for better mental health. (Faith Healing)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3671693
IBN SINA (AVICENNA)
 Abu Ali Al-Husayn Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Sina
(Avicenna) (980-1037)
 Avicenna became a physician before he was 20, and as a young
man was considered the best of the Muslim physicians (Alexander
& Selesnick, 1966).
 He wrote books on many topics, including medicine, mathematics,
logic, metaphysics, Islamic theology, astronomy, politics, and
linguistics. His book on medicine, The Canon, was used in
European universities for more than five centuries (S. Smith,
1983).
 In his analysis of human thinking, Avicenna started with the five
external senses—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Then he
postulated seven “interior senses,” which were arranged in a
hierarchy.
 First is the common sense, which synthesizes the information
provided by the external senses.
 Second is retentive imagination, the ability to remember the
synthesized information from the common sense.
 The third and fourth are compositive animal imagination and
compositive human imagination. Compositive imagination allows both
humans and animals to learn what to approach or avoid in the
environment. For animals, this is a strictly associative process.
 Those objects or events associated with pain are subsequently
avoided, and those associated with pleasure are subsequently
approached. Human compositive imagination, however, allows the
creative combination of information from the common sense and
from the retentive imagination. For example, humans can imagine a
unicorn without ever having experienced one; nonhuman animals do
not possess this ability.
 Fifth is the estimative power, the innate ability to make judgments
about environmental objects.
 Sixth is the ability to remember the outcomes of all the information
processing that occurs lower in the hierarchy, and
 Seventh is the ability to use that information.
 For Avicenna, the active intellect took on supernatural qualities; it
was the aspect of humans that allowed them to understand the
cosmic plan and to enter into a relationship with God.
 For Avicenna, an understanding of God represented the highest level
of intellectual functioning.
 As a physician, Avicenna employed a wide range of treatments for
physical and mental illnesses. For example, he attempted to treat
melancholic patients by reading to them or by using music as
therapy.
 Emotions and Behavior:
 At times, he even tried to frighten patients out of their
ailments.
 Alexander and Selesnick (1966) give the following example:
When one of his patients claimed he was a cow and bellowed
like one, Avicenna told the patient that a butcher was coming to
slaughter him. The patient was bound hand and foot; then
Avicenna proclaimed that he was too lean and had to be
fattened, and untied him. The patient began to eat
enthusiastically “gained strength, gave up the delusion, and was
cured.” (p. 64)
 Ibn-e-Sina recognized physiological influence in the treatment of
illnesses involving emotions. He, for example, developed a
system for associating changes in the pulse rate with the inner
feeling. In this regard, he identified love sickness (ishq).
 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.
 Ibn Sina also gave psychological explanations for certain somatic
illnesses, he always linked the physical and psychological illnesses
together. He described melancholia (depression) as a type of mood
disorder in which the person may become suspicious, develop
certain types of phobias. He stated that anger heralded the
transition of melancholia to mania, and explained humidity inside
the head can contribute to mood disorders. He recognized, this
occurred when the amount of breath changes: Happiness increases
breath leading to increased moisture in the brain, but if moisture
goes beyond limits, brain loses control.
IBN RUSHD (AVERROES)
Abu Al-Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd
(Averroes) (1126-1198)
 He disagreed with Avicenna about the arrangement of human
intelligences, believing that all human experiences reflect God’s
influence.
 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 be
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.
 Averroes practiced the Aristotelian way of
observation and rejected speculation as a way of acquiring
knowledge avoiding unnecessary speculation even in religious matters.
 Discovered that retina and not the lens is the light sensitive part in the
eye.
 Was the first to observe that those afflicted with smallpox were
thereafter immune to the disease.
AL GHAZALI (ALGAZEL)
Abu Hamid Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Al Ghazali
(Algazel) (1058-1111)
 Al-Ghazali was a great philosopher.
 He studied Greek philosophy gaining mastery over it, and then
studied religion and acquired vast knowledge on that as well.
 Having a thorough knowledge of the subjects led Al-Ghazali to
see a conflict between religion and philosophy.
 Al-Ghazali had a unique idea about the soul of human beings.
He taught that the soul was like God and said that “Allah has
breathed His own spirit into man.” This entailed the soul being
a higher expression of man’s existence. Therefore, Al-Ghazali
also differed from Aristotle on the concept of unity of body
and soul.
 Another contribution of Al-Ghazali is that he distinguished
between positive and negative virtues.
 In his views:
 Positivevirtue is doing a good deed. For example, someone
helps the poor.
 Negativevirtue is to avoid a bad deed. For example,
someone avoids indulging into a criminal act.
 Related to his idea of the soul being the higher expression of
man’s existence, Al-Ghazali also distinguished between three
stages of being which are:
 Lowest, the material world of existence
 The second is the physical world
 The third is the world of divine.
 Al-Ghazali also gave a long list of vices such as hunger, sex,
speech, self assertion, love of wealth and hypocrisy.
 The vices of hunger and sex are physical needs.
 The vice of speech is to use bad words or to say such words
which would harm someone.
 Another vice described by Al-Ghazali was a unique idea of self
assertion which means that being over-assertive and trying to
dominate others and not listening to what they have to say.
That is over-asserting one’s own beliefs and thoughts.
 The next is the vice of love of wealth. According to Al-Ghazali
like all other vices it makes a person forget about all
moralities and values and he pursues his desires blindly.
 The last vice described by Al-Ghazali is the vice of hypocrisy
which means that a person appears differently from what he
actually is.
 One of Al-Ghazali’s greatest contributions is that he
proposed two kinds of selves:

 Nafsay-Ammarah; the primitive self or the negative, bad

self
 And Nafsay-Mutminah; the satisfied self or positive good
self.

 Nafsay-Ammarah is original state of self in which an

individual is dissatisfied.
 Nafsay-Mutminah is the satisfied self when the individual
has achieved his potentials and desires and gotten rid of
the bad self.
 According to Al-Ghazali, an individual can change and
improve themselves from Nafsay-Ammarah to Nafsay-
Mutminah by doing the right things which according to him
are six:

Masharaqa To put oneself straight. When the person decides that they would
change themselves and do those things only which are right or
which are deemed right by the society.
Maraqaba To guard oneself from evil and bad things.

Mahasaba To criticize oneself for anything which is not good, which would
ultimately lead to the improvement of that habit or doing.
Maaqaba To punish the self for the wrong doing and forcefully restraining
the self from it.
Mujahida To express the self fully and properly and not keep anything
hidden.
Maataba To cleanse oneself of any bad deed or doing.
THANK YOU