Baseer Maroof, LCSW · Raleigh, NC · Adults 21+
The classical scholars
Fear, anger, grief and obsessive thoughts, written about a thousand years before modern therapy.
A timeline of the scholars
Tap a name.
Five scholars, 850–1350 CE
Tap a bar, or step through with the buttons. Years CE.
Al-Balkhī’s four ailments of the soul
Written over 1,000 years ago.
The four ailments
Pick one to see what he described, what he suggested, and the nearest modern idea.
The “modern idea” column follows Malik Badri’s notes in his translation, and Awaad & Ali’s papers.
Read more
In Sustenance of the Body and Soul, Abu Zayd al-Balkhī argued that people need care for the soul as much as for the body, and that most people will face at least one of four ailments. (al-Balkhī, trans. Badri)
Five lives, briefly
Tap a name.
Abu Zayd al-Balkhī (c. 850–934)Sustenance of the Body and Soul
A polymath from Balkh. His treatise has two halves: one on the body, one on the soul. He insisted the two affect each other, and that preventing problems is better than treating them. Psychiatrist Rania Awaad and colleagues argue his account of obsessions and phobias anticipates modern descriptions of OCD and phobia. (Awaad & Ali 2015; 2016)
Abu Bakr al-Rāzī (c. 865–925)The Spiritual Physick
Physician and director of a Baghdad hospital, credited with one of the earliest psychiatric wards. His Spiritual Physick has twenty chapters on governing the passions by reason, including one titled “Of Dismissing Grief.” (Arberry trans.; Yilanli 2018)
Ibn Sīnā (980–1037)The Canon
Author of the Canon of Medicine. He linked physical and emotional states and wrote about melancholia. (Haque 2004)
Abu Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī (1058–1111)The Revival of the Religious Sciences
Theologian and spiritual teacher. Book 21 of his Revival, The Marvels of the Heart, explains the four aspects of the soul. Book 22, Disciplining the Soul, argues that character traits can be changed through practice, often by deliberately practicing their opposite. (al-Ghazālī, Books 21–22)
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (1292–1350)The heart’s two illnesses
A Damascene scholar of the heart. In Ighāthat al-Lahfān he divides the heart’s illnesses into shubuhāt (doubts) and shahawāt (desires). He also wrote that the heart rusts through heedlessness and sin and is polished by remembrance and seeking forgiveness, an image you can try on the ‘Ilm al-Nafs planet. (Ibn al-Qayyim)
Reading old books fairly
Two myths, tapped open.
Myth“Al-Balkhī invented CBT.”
He described methods that strongly resemble parts of CBT, and that is remarkable. But CBT was developed and tested in the 20th century, and his work was not a clinical trial. The fair claim: some core ideas of CBT have deep roots in this tradition.
(Badri’s introduction; Awaad & Ali 2015)
Myth“Old remedies can replace modern treatment.”
The scholars were physicians who used the best medicine of their time. Honoring them means using the best treatment of ours, while keeping their wisdom about the whole person.
(al-Bukhārī 5678)
A gentle note: education, not rulings or diagnosis
These pages are education, written to be welcoming whether you practice, are questioning, or simply curious. They are not religious rulings (fatwas) and not a diagnosis. For questions of what is permitted or required, ask a qualified scholar. For your health, see a licensed clinician. Often the best care involves both.
Sources
All sources, linked10 references⌄
- Abu Zayd al-Balkhī. Sustenance of the Soul: The Cognitive Behavior Therapy of a Ninth Century Physician (Maṣāliḥ al-Abdān wa al-Anfus). Translated and annotated by Malik Badri. IIIT, 2013. doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvh4zfhk
- Awaad R, Ali S. Obsessional disorders in al-Balkhi’s 9th century treatise: Sustenance of the Body and Soul. Journal of Affective Disorders 2015;180:185–189. doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.03.003
- Awaad R, Ali S. A modern conceptualization of phobia in al-Balkhi’s 9th century treatise: Sustenance of the Body and Soul. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 2016;37:89–93. doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2015.11.003
- al-Rāzī (Rhazes). The Spiritual Physick of Rhazes (al-Ṭibb al-Rūḥānī). Translated by A. J. Arberry. John Murray, 1950. archive.org/details/spiritualphysick0000arth_t8m9
- Yilanli M. Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi and the first psychiatric ward. American Journal of Psychiatry Residents’ Journal 2018;13(9):11. doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2018.130905
- Haque A. Psychology from an إسلامي perspective: contributions of early مسلم scholars and challenges to contemporary مسلم psychologists. Journal of Religion and Health 2004;43:357–377. doi.org/10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z
- al-Ghazālī. The Marvels of the Heart (Book 21 of the Iḥyā’ ‘Ulūm al-Dīn). Translated by W. J. Skellie. Fons Vitae, 2010. search.worldcat.org/search?q=Marvels+of+the+Heart+Skellie
- al-Ghazālī. On Disciplining the Soul and on Breaking the Two Desires (Books 22–23 of the Iḥyā’). Translated by T. J. Winter. 1995. www.its.org.uk/catalogue/al-ghazali-on-disciplining-the-soul-and-o…
- Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. Ighāthat al-Lahfān (Arabic text). shamela.ws/book/18612
- Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 5678 (from Abu Hurayra). sunnah.com
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