The Holy Qur'an and The Psyche

Author: Tariq I. Hamdi, M.D., & A.M.H. Al-Jadiry, M.D.

Summary
This is an aspect of the contribution made by the Holy Qur'ân to the field of Psychology and the allied sciences.
Current Psychodynamic hypotheses and concepts, especially the Freudian and the post Freudian, have been looked for in a number of verses which were thought to carry in their contents numerous incidents of such aspects.  It has become obvious from the analysis of the various verses that the 'Holy Qur'an had tackled Psychoanalytic schools developed.

Introduction
The revelation of the 'Holy Qur'ân' to Mohammed, the last prophet to the people, had marked the birth of the Muslim world.

The Holy Qur'ân through its impact upon the mentality and the spirits of the people, had transformed the heterogeneous tribes of the Arabian Peninsula into a great nation. It had extended east and west and stimulated the establishment of the earliest Islamic civilization which supplied science and various sorts of knowledge to many regions of the world (Rodwell, 1933)

Islam fought illiteracy and enhanced the development of humanitarian codes for communication.
The Holy Qur'ân, however, was not a mere book, but a strong living voice addressed primarily to the Arabs. As a book it came to existence after the Prophet's death through the efforts of the third Caliph of the Muslim Orthodox era 'Uthman'.

In addition to being a religious book, it also covers legal, social, educative and humanitarian codes that had provided the Islamic nation with all the sound principles for the development of their community. It may be viewed as a comprehensive encyclopedia to serve humanity in every respect to life.

The reference index concerning what has been written about the 'Holy Qur'ân' is a condensed one; digging through will entail unlimited efforts.

Apparently, the literature written on the Qur'ân" is devoid of a specific reference to the contribution made to the psychodynamic development of personality and the related psychological processes.

Throughout our reading of the 'Holy Qur'ân' we have been attracted to a large number of verses in which the Arabic word 'Al-Nafs' is mentioned.  Its sense depends upon the structure of the verse.  Among which the meaning intended to convey is the sense of 'Psyche or mind '.

Direct or indirect indications to other psychological matters such as 'Instincts, Id, Ego and Super-ego' had also been mentioned. This has driven us to explore as much of the psychodynamic assumptions and concept as possible and to present it in a brief way with the intention to advocate for the fact that 'Holy Qur'ân' is an early reference that had contributed adequately to the central themes of the Freudian and post Freudian schools. This might motivate the students of dynamic psychology to exploit such information in their research to find out other psychological realms in it; expecting that this would help them to come up with answers for the insoluble obscurities of the psyche from its psychological context.

Method
'Holy Qur'ân' contains 143 verses that encompass the Arabic word 'Al-Nafs'. All these verses were analyzed to extract the various meaning of the word.

The word ‘Al-Nafs' referring to the 'mind or psyche' is found in 28 verses.
These have received special attention in this study. Few of these verses were quoted for the purpose of this study.  A brief definition of the psychodynamic concepts: Psyche, Id, Ego and Super-ego have also been given.

Discussion
The word 'Psyche' according to the Oxford dictionary means the spirit, soul or mind; thus it corresponds with the Arabic word 'Al-Nafs' and its various senses. Hereby we give few examples of such verses:
1. "Nor need I swear by the self-accusing soul."
2. "O thou comforted soul return into thy Lord, well-pleased and well pleased with."
3. "Verily, every soul has a guardian over it."
It is also useful here to mention few verses in which the word Al-Nafs conveys the sense of the individual or person: These verses however were not included.
4. "But no soul shall earn aught save against itself."
5. "And kill not the soul, which God hath forbidden..."
6."Said she, 'My lord' verily, I have wronged myself..,"

The 'Instinct' is defined as an inborn condition that imparts direction to psychological processes. The sex instinct, for example, directs the psychological processes of perceiving, remembering and thinking toward the goal of sexual consummation (Hall, 1954). No special mention is made of the word instinct in the 'Holy' Qur'ân' directly while it has been pointed to the instinctual built of the psyche in a number of verses as:

7. "Yet I do not clear myself for the soul is very urgent to evil." 
A pleading of inability to resist such instinctual drive.
8. "Had We pleased We would have given to every soul its guidance."
It points to the fact instincts can be channeled into another direction.
9. "For thus my soul induce me."
That is to say such instinctual impulses drove me to behave so.

Freud's concept of personality is that it consists of three provinces: the 'Id', 'Ego' and 'Super-ego'. These operate and interact with each other and with the environment.  When they form a unified harmonious organization the person is 'mentally healthy'. The person is said to be 'maladjusted' when these systems are not working coordinately (Hall, 1954).

The 'Id' is a Latinized derivation from Groddeck's (1928) 'das Es' (The It) it is held to be the reservoirs of psychic energy or libido and is fully developed at birth.  It is also described as amoral, egocentric, ruled by the pleasure-pain principle and considered, as the seat for the instincts. (Sim, 1974). Here, again, we ought to point out that though there is no particular mention of these 3 constructs in the 'Holy Qur'ân' the evidence which point to them are ample, especially the verses that deal with 'Id':

10. "And the soul and what fashioned it, and through it its sin and its piety."
It means that the Id is born with the individual and that every individual is equipped with good and bad instinct. At the same time it has been declared in other verses, that the instinctual character of the 'Id' may be modified or molded as in the following verse:

11. "But as for him who feared the station of his Lord, and prohibited his soul from lust, verily, paradise is the resort!"
Here, also behavioral approach towards the person (reinforcement of good intentions) is evident. This verse is one example that contains various psycho-social points which include:
Social approval of good behavior
The 'Instinctual' characteristic of the 'Id.'
'Instincts' which can be modified by the 'Super-ego' (fear of God).

Behavioural method of approach, that is to say the incentive for good behavior is the heaven (the technique of 'positive reinforcement'). Moreover, the following verses also point to the 'Id' and its instinctual characteristics.
12. "Yet I do not clear myself, for the soul is very urgent to evil".
13. "But if a bad thing (befall) they say this is from Thee."
14. "For thus my soul induced me."
15. "And the soul and what fashioned it, and through it its sin and its piety."
External forces can influence the 'Id' and mould it in any shape as in this verse:
16."Had We pleased We would have given to every soul its guidance."

The 'Id' impulses are modified by the ‘Ego’, which tests reality and deals directly with the external and internal environment. The 'Ego' is considered as largely conscious logical and has moral standards (Hall, 1954; Sim 1914). From the following verses direction to the 'Ego' can be verified :
17. "For no soul shall be obliged beyond its capacity."
18. "God will not compel any soul beyond what He has given it."
These point to the defamed capacity and the threshold of tolerance of the 'Ego'.
The following verse bears indication to the Ego and Super-ego as well:
19. "And every soul shall come - with it a driver and a witness!"
The driver here corresponds with the Freudian 'Ego' and the witness with the Super-ego. The Ego's defense 'projection' which prevents the ego from disintegration, is obvious in the following verse:
20. "Nor need I swear by the self accusing soul."
 
Another psychological description of the Ego appears in this verse:
 21. "O Thou comforted soul..."
In the following verse we find an indication of obsessional traits:
22. "But We created man, and We know what his soul whispers."

The 'Ego is influenced by the 'Super-Ego' which is the moral or judicial branch of personality. The 'Super ego'  is primarily considered unconscious. It is the moral monitor that is responsible for the sense of guilt and a consequence of a child's assimilation of his parent's standards (Hall 1954, Sim 1974). T'he 'Super-Ego "received no less attention and clearly demonstrated in the coming verses:
23. "And the soul and what fashioned it, and through it is sin and its piety."
It is meant here that the individual is born with two conflicting powers; the power if 'Id' which is bad and the power of the 'Super ego' which is good. The 'Super-ego' can influence the impulsiveness of the 'ld' as in this verse:
24. "But as for him who feared the station of his Lord, and prohibited his soul from last, verily, paradise is the resort!"

A demonstration of how the 'Super-Ego' acts as a supervisor is shown in this verse:
25. "Read thy book, Thou art accountant enough against thy self today!'
We already have mentioned the following verse which engulfs an indication to the "Super-Ego'
26. "And every soul shall come - with it a driver and a witness."
The witness here is the 'Super-Ego'.
The same thing applies to this verse:
27. "Verily, every soul has a guardian over it."

Conclusion
This is a mere presentation of fact, which if presumably unattended to before, to attract the intention to it.

We are now at the threshold of the immense realm of psychology and the allied sciences in the 'Holy Qur'ân'; hoping that those who are interested in this particular field will conduct further research to find out other aspects of the 'self'.
 
References:
1. Abdul-Aqi, M.F. (1945) The indexed Dictionary of the Name in the 'Holy Qur'an' (Arabic) PP. 710-12 (Beirut).
2. Brown, J A C. (1961) Freud & the Post Freudian, PP. 28-29, 68-71, Penguin Books, (London)
3. Groddeck, G.D. (1928) The book of the IT. New York: Nervous & Mental Diseases Publishing Co.
4. Hall, C.S. (1954) A Primer of Freudian Psychology. PP. 22-49,   A Mentor Book, The New American Library, New Jersey.
5. Palmer, E.H. (Trans) (1954) The Quran, Oxford University Press,  London.
6. Rodwell, J.M. (Trans.) (1933) The Koran, PP. 1-18, J.M. Dent & Song LTD, London.
7. Sim , M. (1974). Guide to Psychiatry, 3rd Ed., PP. 32-33, Churchill Livingston, Edinburgh & London.
   
Authors:
Prof. Tariq Hamdi, M.D.  F.R.C. Psych., D.N.P. Professor of Psychiatry & Neurology, Dept. of Neuro-Psychiatry, Medical College, Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad.
Dr. Abdul-Monaf H. Al-Jadiry, M.B., Ch.B., M.R.C. Psych., D.P.M. Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry & Neurology, Dept. of Neuro-Psychiatry, Medical College, Baghdad University.


with permission from:
http://www.islamicmedicine.org/