ABSTRACT
The spiritual dimension is one of the central tenants of the human psyche and yet is missing from both the Western and Islamic views of behaviour and human nature. This chapter explores the concepts of guilt and shame to show how they are regarded as essential for the progress of psycho-spiritual growth and development in Islamic belief and counselling. Islam’s equivalent concept to convey shame is the word haya, which is a term to denote life and living. From an Islamic perspective, indulging in repetitive thoughts that are negative to one’s reality, such as hopelessness or destructive thinking, is harmful to one’s self and wellbeing. Loss of hope leads to loss of faith. What Muslims generally are not aware of is that negative thinking becomes a problem for us when we forget that God has given us a set of experiences that teach and remind people to have faith in God and trust Him in every situation that He created.
