ABSTRACT
This focus of this chapter is on an examination of the concept of Islāmic healing; the relationship between body, mind, and soul; and how to heal the body and soul using Islāmic spiritual interventions. Islāmic psychologists are increasingly aware that for mental health problems their patients may utilise faith-based healing practices rooted in an Islamic worldview in place of psychotropic medications and/or traditional psychotherapy. Islamic psycho-spiritual healing is not only concerned with restoring the psyche to a state of balance or helping a person become socially well-adjusted, but also with helping the psyche transcend itself and enter the higher spiritual domain that aligns with innate human nature (Fitrah). The healing process is a continuum ranging from illness behaviour to wellness behaviour that involves both a protective dimension and a dimension of repairing and restoring. The general intervention is to seek refuge with Allāh. This is both as action of the heart and of the tongue. The call of prayer (the Adhan) is also a fortress against evils. The regular recitation of the Qurʾān offers protection against the devil. There is also the recommendation to eat a special kind of date (Ajwah). Muslim clients are encouraged to heal themselves through reciting prayers, making supplications or Du’as, reading the Qurʾān, and trusting Allāh. The Qurʾān is a source of healing. Ruqyah (incantation) in Islām is the recitation of the Qurʾān, seeking refuge in Allāh, remembrance, and supplication used as a means of treating sicknesses and other problems. The main purpose of Ruqyah is to treat and cure evil eye, possession of Jinn, envy, and black magic. The essence is to place full trust, reliance, and dependence only on Allāh, the source of all healing and cures. The Scholars advise Muslims who are sick – whether it is spiritual (mental) illness, such as anxiety and depression, or physical illness, such as various kinds of pain – to hasten first of all to treat the problem with Ruqyah as prescribed in Shari’ah.
