Abstract :
This paper explores three issues: first, the historical factors which contributed to calls for the Islamization of psychology; second, the forms that articulations of Islamic psychology have subsequently taken; and third, the difficulties inherent in attempts to Islamize the discipline. It begins with the observation that, from the 1960s onwards, the international academy became mired in debates about social ‘relevance’. In psychology, the anti-establishment posturing exhibited itself in American and European debates about ‘relevance’; while, in the hinterlands of the psychological fraternity, troubling questions were posed regarding the Third World applicability of an intellectual package imported wholesale from the disciplinary centre. It was in response to these concerns of developing nations that efforts to ‘indigenise’ psychology began. Among Muslim thinkers, it was argued that psychologists had regurgitated Western psychological theories and practices which were unsuitable for Muslim populations. As a result, attempts at fashioning an authentic Islamic psychology gathered pace, assuming typically, one of two forms: a critical revision of Western psychology (with accompanying analyses of relevant Qur’anic passages) or an elaboration of the classical Islamic tradition. A quandary arises, however, as to the feasibility of transforming an originally Western discipline whose questions, topics and methods were forged in the maelstrom of specific social contingencies. The fact that the birth of modern psychology was closely related to the rise of a liberal-capitalist hegemony is an important consideration in the search for an Islamic psychology. Moreover, the homogenisation of world culture necessitates critical reflection on the very desirability of Islamizing the discipline.
