Program Overview
Having begun in 2021, this is the first and only Islamic psychology program in the United States. It is a public program designed for a broad audience including students, professionals, or scholars from related fields or backgrounds. The program is comprised of theory-based lectures with class discussion, an experiential, practice-based Islamic meditation/muraqaba component lead by an expert in Islamic spirituality, an original final project that the student does that advances the field of Islamic psychology, and a volunteer component that contributes to the student’s personal development. The following is a brief overview of the program and other relevant information.
This module provides necessary intellectual infrastructure for the program as a whole. It begins with a general overview of the emerging field of Islamic psychology including how it is defined and conceptualized, examples of current scholarship and the landscape today.
This course introduces students to Islam by exploring the structure and landscape of Islamic sciences and schools of thought, Muslim contributions to philosophy of science and to the field we today call psychology including topics like human ontology, theories of personality, and more.
This module examines Islam’s version of psychology, namely Islamic spirituality, also known by other names such as the science of Ihsan, the science of the self and more. Specific topics to be explored include various approaches or schools of thought to this science, virtue and character development and spiritual diseases of the heart.
The field of Islamic healing is vast and includes prophetic medicine (al-Tibb al-Nabawi), Sufism (tasawwuf), spiritual modalities such as dhikr, duaa, ruqya, concepts and practices such as muraqaba and muhasaba, and what is today called mind-body or complementary and alternative medicine. This module explores this area of Islamic healing and wellness as well as ways to bring Islamic philosophy, frameworks, and practices into clinical encounters, regardless of the patient’s faith background.
This module will cover select IP topics including parenting and attachment, peace psychology through art and poetry, and more.
In this module students will present their original research topics as final presentations and papers and will have an opportunity for feedback on potential publication.
Program Faculty
FAQ
Please note: Registration is not currently open. Stay tuned for updates.
How is the program administered? The program is fully online and is lead by renowned experts in the field.
Who is this course designed for? This program is designed for anyone wanting to know more about the field of Islamic psychology including students, clinicians, scholars, professionals, and more. This is not a course that focuses on the mental health needs of Muslims, as important of a topic as that may be. Rather, the program focuses on the development of frameworks of psychology that are rooted in the Islamic theological and philosophical traditions and positioned within a modern context.
Is this course accredited? No. This is a public course and attendees will receive a certificate of completion issued by the Alkaram Institute at the end. This course does not prepare or train attendees for clinical practice. However, for attendees who are already licensed clinicians, it will inform your practice by giving you frameworks in which you can Islamically ground your work. For attendees who are currently enrolled in a graduate program elsewhere and are interested in doing their MA thesis or doctoral dissertation on an IP topic, consider applying to our Islamic Psychology Research Fellowship program. For more information, see our website.
For other questions not answered here, please reach out to info@alkaraminstitute.org
