islam and mental health_ featuring —hadiyah muhammad _ abdullah ibn yusuf _ linkedin

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Islam and Mental Health: Featuring —Hadiyah

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Muhammad

Hadiyah Muhammad is a first-year Health Behavior

Health Education student at the University of

Michigan. Her research focuses on mental health

issues in U.S. Muslim communities and identifying

the intervention efforts and instructional programs

best suited for mosques and Islamic centers of

learning.

My parents converted to Islam as young adults in the

late 1970s. Choosing to become Muslim changed my

parents’ health behaviors immediately. I was born to two people who, in love with

their new way of life, no longer consumed pork, alcohol, and tobacco, preferred

men and women separated at gatherings, fasted during the month of Ramadan,

and joined a community of like-minded converts to sustain their practice and

grow religiously. Islam does not separate day-to-day action from belief; therefore

the behaviors that my parents immediately accepted as a common daily practice

were not simply rituals performed during certain times of the year. My parents’

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conversion to Islam was their attempt to create a new and better life for

themselves and my family. Interestingly, while the physical health behaviors of

my parents changed almost immediately, the mental health challenges remained

the same among my uniquely Muslim nuclear family and my non-Muslim

extended family.

In college, I would read magazine articles about women experiencing depression,

domestic violence, or self-esteem/self-worth issues. I believed I was immune to

those kinds of problems because of my Muslim identity and upbringing. It was

not until a devastating personal experience that I was forced to ask myself hardquestions that I needed help in answering. In that journey of truth and

reconciliation, I discovered that I was not immune to mental health challenges,

and I began to wonder about resources in my community to help me recognize

and break dysfunctional family habits and behaviors. With so many questions, I

sought help from a therapist and began to read anything related to Muslim

mental health.

While on this journey, I read two articles that changed my life: “Minding Our

Minds – the Lost Skill of Disciplining Our Own Thoughts” and “Minding Our

Minds – Thinking Our Way to the House of Joy on Earth” by Leslie Schaffer and

Kamal Shaarawy. In these articles, printed in Al-Jumuah Magazine, the authors


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destigmatize counseling and normalize mental health problems. They offer

solutions from an Islamic perspective, citing the Qur’an, hadith, and classic books

by Imam Ibn al-Qayyim, Imam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazli, and Syed Qutb. The biggest

lesson from their articles is that Islam is a transformational religion. The answers

for any affliction we experience in life can be found in the Qur’an and sunnah of

the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). How is it that we have excelled with

performance of the physical health routines and not the mental health ones? This

question led me to study health behavior at the University of Michigan School of

Public Health.

What I have learned in my first year of graduate school is that behavior change is

a unique and delicate process and that the most important determinant of

behavioral change is intention. This is a foundational concept of Islam. The

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said, “Actions are only by intention and every man

shall have what he intended.” About this statement, Imam ash-Shaf’i said, “This

hadith is a third of all knowledge.” The connection of intention and action is

important and the major difference between “My intention is to stop overeating”

and “My intention is to understand why I choose to eat in manner that is

unhealthy and against the core tenets of my faith, so that I can stop this

behavior.”


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As I mature in my faith, I better recognize the depth of protection God provides

for our mental health with a religion that offers instruction for every action –

from how to enter a room and use the bathroom to how to bury the dead. I believe

part of the answer to the aforementioned question is explained by the gap in

communication about why we engage in the common daily behaviors that

characterize Muslims all over the world and how those behaviors are a protection

for our complete mental and physical health in our particular environment. For

example, it’s important to understand the unique challenges Muslims encounter

while living in America. In talking about alcohol, it’s imperative that discussions

focus around the Islamic prohibition of alcohol within an educational context thatalso offers solutions to prevent its use.

Alcohol and other challenges that face American Muslims are often different from

those of Muslims in other countries. In fact, the challenges of Muslims living in

Durham, North Carolina, are different than those living in San Diego, California.

Understanding communities in the context of their environment is necessary to

promote health through the religion to influence informed intention-making

practices of members. In addition to this gap in communication, many of our

communities lack the patience, understanding, training, and effort to support the

holistic well being of its members.


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Written by

I believe mosques in the United States are in a unique position to engender

sustainable change in individual lives for the creation of healthy, creative, and

progressive communities. I once heard Dr. Abdul-Hakim (Sherman) Jackson say

that we are all human beings first because if we stopped practicing Islam we

would still be human beings. Just as Schaffer and Shaarawy did in their articles,

we need Muslim health professionals to promote mental health well being by

explicating knowledge from the religion and developing strategies to

communicate that knowledge to the community. But first we have to accept that

Muslims, all Muslims, are simply imperfect beings who practice a perfect religion.

What do you think about mental health counseling in the context of religion and

communities of faith? Are there additional opportunities for support or are there

unique barriers that make therapy more conducive in a secular environment?

Have you ever experienced successful counseling or mental health support

stemming from a specific religious perspective?

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Holiday Shopping 2015: Naughty or Nice?

American consumers, start your engines! This weekend kicks off the holiday

shopping season and here is what you need to know. The always-dubious

National Retail Federation (NRF), the industry cheerleader, is predicting a 3.7

percent increase in holiday spending. But as Barry Ritholtz has noted, “the

methodology employed by the NRF survey is defective, because it relies on asking

consumers how much they spent last year, and how much they plan on spending

this year.” Of course, people have “no idea what they spent last year. No clue

whatsoever,” which is why “the track records of these surveys are awful.”

So what’s really going on for consumers, as we head into Thanksgiving week?

Although wage gains have been slow to pick up overall, relatively low inflation has

amounted to extra money in the wallets of most Americans. They are spending

some of that money on long lasting goods, like cars, as well as services; and also

saving at a decent 4.8 percent rate. But it is anyone's guess as whether they will be

naughty or nice this holiday season.

And bad third quarter earnings reports from Macy's and Nordstrom

notwithstanding, the death of brick and mortar retailers has been overstated.

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Despite the rapid growth of digital sales (the government said that overall E-

commerce jumped 15.1 percent in the third quarter from a year ago), most

shopping occurs in physical stores. In fact, last quarter, E-commerce accounted

for just 7.4 percent of overall retail sales.

But these numbers are somewhat misleading, because overall retail sales include

the big-ticket automobile category, as well as gas and groceries. According to

consultancy Strategy&, these groups are responsible for almost half of total retail

sales. Without them, online’s penetration of its “addressable market” is closer to

16 percent.

But that’s not the whole story: Deloitte found that nearly two-thirds of in-store

retail sales will be influenced by digital interactions this holiday season, as

consumers smarten up and conduct research on their desktops, tablets and

phones and consult shopping apps to land the best deals.

Speaking of those bargains, shopping early can pay off. According to Adobe

Digital research, online prices should hit rock bottom on Thanksgiving Day,

where consumers will snag an average discount of 27 percent. So if you are one of

the 45 percent of consumers who can sneak away in between football games and

family time to click away, you’ll be rewarded.

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If shopping on Thanksgiving -- even from the privacy of your home -- doesn’t sit

well with you, try the Monday before Thanksgiving, which has been a good option

to beat the rush and still get deals. Adobe also found that the best time to buy

depends on both discounts and product availability, especially for hot-selling

gifts. In fact, this weekend is the best time to shop for toys and Monday is good

for electronics, though the entire week leading up to Thanksgiving will deliver

bargains.

And a quick word about security…after a number of data breaches at some of the

nation's top retailers, many are worried about protecting their identities fromthieves. Experts say that when shopping in a store, the safest choice is cash at the

checkout counter, but that too has risk, because who really wants to shop with

wads of cash? For convenience, credit cards are the safest option because issuers

usually provide protection against stolen, damaged or lost items. Additionally, if

credit card information is stolen or compromised, your liability is minimized,

whereas a debit card thief could drain your bank account before you notice.

Finally during this time (and always), carefully review your credit card statements

as soon as you receive them to make sure there aren’t any unauthorized charges.

If there is a discrepancy, call your bank and report it immediately. If you think

that your information has been compromised or that you have been a victim of


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Written by

identity theft, go to the FTC website for step-by-step instructions about what you

need to do.

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11/23/201 I l d M l H l h F i H di h M h d | Abd l l h Ib Y f | Li k dI


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11/23/2015 I l d M t l H l th F t i H di h M h d | Abd l l h Ib Y f | Li k dI


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11/23/2015 Isl am and M ental H eal th: Featur ing H adi yah M uham mad | Abdul lah Ibn Yusuf | Li nkedIn


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