ABSTRACT
When studying its historical location, Islamic counselling is in total contrast with Western-oriented counselling because it is based on an Islamic understanding of the nature of human being. The sources of Islamic psychology are derived from the Qur’an and Sunnah, Islamic psychology and research. The formal and informal literature encompassed a number of tentative explanations and definition of Islamic counselling. In reality, many authors discussed Islamic psychology rather than Islamic counselling. Even though classified as a new phenomenon, Islamic counselling is actually as old as the beginning of spirituality in Islam. Islamic Counselling is a form of counselling which incorporates spirituality into the therapeutic process. In contrast to Western Counselling psychotherapy, Islamic counselling uses a more direct approach as most Muslims come to clinicians seeking advice or an offering of an approach to deal with their issues. In this counselling paradigm, the counsellor has multiple roles including counsellor and spiritual facilitator. Counselling Muslim patients must incorporate the statement of Islamic beliefs and practices including the concept of monotheism; the principles of faith; dignity and morality; remembrance of Allah, supplications, understanding that the world is unavoidably a temporal world; focusing on the next life and the dangers of attaching yourself to the temporary world; the roles of trials and tribulations in a Muslim journey in life; trusting; and focusing on the blessings of Allah.
The proposed model consists of selected concepts and is based on Stage of awakening and intention; Stage of consultation; Stage of contemplation; Stage of guidance-seeking; Stage of wilful decision; Stage of goal-and-route vision; Stage of absolute trust in God; Stage of action; Stage of help-seeking; Stage of self-monitoring; and Stage of evaluation. The Islamic counselling practice model is a circular rather than a linear model. Generally, it is assumed that when one stage was completed, the client would move into the next stage. Islamic counselling should actually be seen from a broader perspective so that it covers the provision of health information, advice, therapy, guidance and counselling, advocacy and spiritual interventions.
