PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES

AMONG EARLY MUSLIM

SCHOLARS
Based on a book by Muhammad Uthman al-Najati
“Al-Dirasah al-Nafsaniyyah `inda `Ulama’ al-
Muslimin”

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 1

 REFERENCES

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 2

 EARLY MUSLIM SCHOLARS
1. Al-Kindi 8. Al-Ghazali
2. Abu Bakr al-Razi 9. Ibn Bajah
3. Al-Farabi 10. Ibn Tufayl
4. Ibn Miskawayah 11. Ibn Rushd
5. Ikhwan al-Safa 12. Fakhruddin al-Razi
6. Ibn Sina 13. Ibn Taimiyah
7. Ibn Hazm 14. Ibn Qayyim al-Jauziyah

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 3

 My approach
• Not giving literal/direct translation, but to give the nearest equivalent
psychological term to technical words
• Not treating early Muslim scholars’ ideas as fact, but as
ideas/theories that can be criticised
• Keep awareness of the influence of Greek philosophy on early Muslim
scholars’ thinking.
• Screening out any false/weak aqidah ideas among early Muslim
scholars, if any, and highlight the scientific aspects of it or its
potential for future theoretical development

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 4

 8. AL-GHAZALI

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 5

 Learning Outcomes
• Write 1 academic lesson that you have learnt from this lecture
• Write 1 behavioural action that you want to perform based this
lecture
• Write 1 feelings that you have after listening to this lecture

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 6

Background
• Name: Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali
• Popularly known as Hujjatul Islam Imam al-Ghazali
• Born on 450H/1058M at Ghazalah, near Tus, at Khurasan. He is
Persian-blood.
• Some said he is named al-Ghazzali because his father work as silk-
weaver.
• Some said he is named al-Ghazali because of his birth town, al-
Ghazalah.

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 7

Famous books
• Ihya’ `Ulum al-Din
• Ma`arij al-Quds fi Madarij al-Nafs
• Kimiya’ al-Sa`adah
• Al-Jawahir al-Ghazali min Rasa’il al-Imam al-Ghazali
• Maqasid al-Falasifah
• Mi`yar al-`Ilm
• Tahafut al-Falasifah

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 8

Two Types of Psychology of al-Ghazali
• Basic psychology
• Focusing on the theory of soul e.g. animal soul, rational soul, muhrikah
(motivation), mudrikah (perception)
• Influenced by al-Farabi
• Applied psychology
• Riyadah al-Nafs (psychological training), tahzib al-akhlaq (moral reform),
therapy for akhlaq al-mazmumah

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 9

SOUL
• Al-Ghazali emphasised on soul as a central study.
• To him, understanding the soul/psyche will lead to understanding of
Allah
• He quoted two Qur’anic verses in the preface of his book Ma`arif al-
Quds
• Fussilat 43:53
We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the
truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a Witness?

• Al-Dhariyat 51:20-21
And on the earth are signs for the certain [in faith]. And in yourselves. Then will you not see?

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 10

Soul (similar to al-Farabi and Ibn Sina)
• Al-Nafs al-Nabatiah - Vegetative soul
• Al-Quwwah al-Ghaziyah – Nutritive faculty
• Al-Quwwah al-Munammiyah – Growth faculty
• Al-Nafs al-Hayawaniyah - Animal soul
• Al-Quwwah al-Mudrikah – Perceptive faculty
• Al-Quwwah al-Muhrikah – Motive faculty
• Al-Nafs al-Natiqah - Rational soul
• Al-`Aql al-`Amaliy – Practical mind
• Al-`Aql al-`Ilmy/al-Nazari – Scientific/theoretical mind

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 11

ANIMAL SOUL
• Motive
• Perceptive

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 12

Al-Quwwah al-Muhrikah (Motive faculty)
• Divided into two
• Ba`ithah `ala al-fi`l (Stimulative) – Sexual/physiological motive
• Fai`ilah (Active) – Aggressive motive
• Commentary: Could have inspired Freudian theory

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 13

Al-Quwwah al-Mudrikah (Perceptive faculty)
• Touch
• Smell
• Taste
• Vision
• Hearing

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 14

Touch
• The sense is distributed throughout the skin, flesh, sweat and nerve
(`asab) (see picture in next slide).

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 15

LO 3.11 Sense of touch and experiencing pain

Menu
• Touch is the fore-front of the soul
• Commentary: Perception of touch is processed throughout the
sensory cortex and motor cortex in our brain (see picture in the next
slide)

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 17

LO 2.11 Parts of cortex controlling senses and movement

Menu
• Sensation of touch: Hot-cold, damp-dry*, hard-soft, rough-smooth
• Commentary: Temperature, pain*, texture, pressure

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 19

Smell/Olfaction
• Centre of smell is at the front part of the brain (muqaddam al-dimagh) and
nipple-like shaped at the upper part of the nose.
• Commentary: Olfactory receptors come together at the glomerulus, a
structure which transmits signals to the olfactory bulb (a brain structure
directly above the nasal cavity and below the frontal lobe)
• Smell occurs via air and not because the air transport the smell but the air
changes itself to become a smell
• Commentary: For air-breathing animals, the main olfactory system detects
volatile chemicals, and the accessory olfactory system detects fluid-phase
chemicals.[3] Olfaction, along with taste, is a form of chemoreception. The
chemicals themselves that activate the olfactory system, in general at very
low concentrations, are called odorants.
21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 20
LO 3.10 Senses of taste and smell

Menu
• Animal sense of smell is stronger than human sense of smell
• Commentary: Many vertebrates, including most mammals and
reptiles, have two distinct olfactory systems—the main olfactory
system, and the accessory olfactory system (used mainly to detect
pheromones)
• The first sense occur during pre-natal stage is touch and then smell

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 22

Taste/Gustation
• The sense is spread at the tongue
• Commentary: Humans have taste receptors on taste buds (gustatory
calyculi) and other areas including the upper surface of the
tongue and the epiglottis
• Saliva changes to form taste quality

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 23

LO 3.10 Senses of taste and smell

Menu
Vision
• Vision occurs when there is a reflection of image (intiba` al-surah al-
mar’a) at the aqueous humour (al-rutubah al-jalidiah) through the
cornea (al-shafaf).
• Commentary: Different from Greek philosophers and in line with
contemporary biological psychology.

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 25

LO 3.4 Parts of the eye

Menu
LO 3.4 Parts of the eye

Menu
• The centre of the vision is where the two eyes’ nerve met in the front
part of the brain.
• Commentary: Contemporary psychology found that most visual
activities are centred at the back of the brain ie occipital lobe. Maybe
al-Ghazali is referring to optic chiasm at corpus callosum which is also
involved in visual processes (see picture in next slide)

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 28

LO 3.5 How eyes see and how eyes see colors

Menu
Auditory
• Hearing occurs due the effect of nerve (al-`asab) (neuron?) on inner
surface (al-sath al-dakhili) inside the brain (al-simagh).
• Contemporary: Afferent neurons innervate cochlear inner hair cells,
at synapses where the neurotransmitter glutamate communicates
signals from the hair cells to the dendrites of the primary auditory
neurons.

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 30

LO 3.7 Parts of ear work
together to hear sounds

Menu
LO 3.7 Parts of ear work
together to hear sounds

Menu
Internal Sensation (Perception? Memory?)
• Three functions of internal sensation:
• Perceive but not stored (encoding?)
• Stored but not perceived (storing?)
• Perceived and acted upon (recall?)
• Perception is divided into two:
• Perceived form (maintenance rehearsal?)
• Perceive meaning (elaborative rehearsal?)

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 33

• Healthy people might feel disgusted with yellow honey if he/she
associated it with yellow bile.
• Comment: Classical conditioning; conditioned response.
• Healthy people might be startled by a colourful rope because its
association with a snake?
• Comment: Classical conditioning; stimulus generalisation.

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 34

• The centre for internal sensation is the inner part of the brain (tajawif
al-dimagh)
• Contemporary:
• Reticular formation for selective attention?
• Thalamus relays sensory information from the lower part of the brain
to the association areas of the cortex

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 35

• Scientific/theoretical thinking
• Practical thinking
• Commentary: Sensory area vs. Motor areas in the brain cortex?

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 36

Motivation
• Primary, instinctual motives: hunger, thirst, temperature and sex.
• Four attributes: sab’iyyah (wild animals), bahimiyyah (farm animals),
syaitaniyyah (devils) and rabbaniyyah (Godly)
• Wild animals – aggression
• Farm animals – sexual and pleasure seeking
• Hunger, thirst and sexual motives seems to be dominant
• Commentary: Some similarities with Freud, minus the atheistic
philosophy, theory and therapy.
• But al-Ghazali also stress the role of learning in influencing motivation
21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 37
Happiness
• Just like Miskawayh, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali also believed
that true happiness is achieved by improving the the practical part of
the mind (motor area of the brain?)

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 38

Behaviour Modification (Ta`dil al-Suluk)
• Akhlak/morality/behavioural problems can be changed via
• learning (ta’allum) (environmental factor – behaviourism?)
• genetic (warathah) (biological factors - biological perspectives?)
• `aqal (cognitive factor – cognitive perspective?)
• Lust (shahwah) and aggressive (ghadab) motives (psychodynamic
perspective?)
• Individual differences (some are quick and some are slow to change –
humanistic perspective?)
• Spiritual factor
• To condition charity behaviours, need shaping, desensitising etc.

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 39

Essence of Akhlaq
Disorders Healthy Disorders • Contributions to
Lose self control Al-Shaja’ah Coward personality/trait theory,
(Courage)
Impulsive Al-`Iffah (Dignity) Passive
psychological disorders
Dull/Lost Al-Hikmah Stupid/Fool • Departure from the normality of
(Wisdom) akhlaq is abnormal
Masochist Al-`Adalah Sadist
(Justice) • Highly similar to contemporary
positive psychology (see next
slide)

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 40

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 41
• Use opposite therapy e.g. generous therapy for being stingy, humility
therapy for arrogance, diet therapy for gluttony
• Contemporary: Reciprocal inhibition by Wolpe can be defined as
anxiety being inhibited by a feeling or response that is not compatible
with the feeling of anxiety

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 42

• If the behavioural problems have becoming habit and difficult to
change, use gradual approach.
• Contemporary: In shaping, the form of an existing response is
gradually changed across successive trials towards a desired target
behavior by rewarding exact segments of behavior.

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 43

• Also include cognitive aspects in his behaviour therapy
• Contemporary: Cognitive-behaviour therapy. This technique
acknowledges that there may be behaviors that cannot be controlled
through rational thought, but rather emerge based on prior
conditioning from the environment and other external and/or
internal stimuli. CBT is "problem focused" (undertaken for specific
problems) and "action oriented" (therapist tries to assist the client in
selecting specific strategies to help address those problems),[4] or
directive in its therapeutic approach.

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 44

Application to Educational Psychology
• Distance the children from peers with bad behaviours
• Contemporary: Peer pressure (or social pressure)
is influence a peer group, observers, or an individual exerts that
encourages others to change their attitudes, values, or behaviors to
conform to those of the influencing group or individual.

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 45

• Teach Qur’an and stories of the Salihin
• Contemporary: Read the benefits of reading books to children on
brain, behaviours, cognition, self and health.
• Acknowledge and reward good behaviour
• Operant conditioning
• Provide opportunity for play time after study time
• Contemporary: Play allows children to use their creativity while
developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and
emotional strength.

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 46

 THE END
• Question & Answer session

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 47

 Learning Outcomes
• Write 1 academic lesson that you have learnt from this lecture
• Write 1 behavioural action that you want to perform based this
lecture
• Write 1 feelings that you have after listening to this lecture

21/4/2015 Dr. Alizi Alias, IIUM 48