Mental Health in Islam: Anxiety, Depression & Healing with Dr Zoheir Esmail | Thinking Islam | Ep.4

Is being depressed a sign of kufr? Is my anxiety due to sinning? In this episode of Thinking Islam, we explore how Islamic approaches towards mental health challenge traditional stigmas and modern psychological frameworks with Dr Zoheir Esmail. From examining the concepts of qalb, nafs, and ruh to investigating whether depression could indicate spiritual disconnection, this conversation unpacks the complex relationship between faith, Eurocentric reason, and mental wellness.

We delve into the history of Islamic approaches towards mental wellness, their developments, from early medieval scholars to contemporary applications in modern therapeutic practice. The conversation tackles the stigma surrounding mental health in Muslim communities, examining fears around hellfire and spiritual disconnection, whilst investigating the fascinating realm of occult sciences, jinn, and evil eye, questioning whether these should be taken seriously as therapeutic tools or understood as sophisticated placebo mechanisms that nonetheless offer genuine healing benefits. Dr Esmail reveals how Islamic psychology creates mental health wellbeing through understanding the human self as naturally anxious by creation, whilst offering spiritually integrated therapy that addresses religiosity and faith to achieve holistic healing that secular approaches often overlook.

Dr Zoheir Ali Esmail is a Lecturer in Islamic Mysticism and Head of the Department of Mysticism and Spirituality. After qualifying as a chartered accountant, he pursued full-time studies in the seminaries of Syria and Qum for 12 years, earning a doctorate focusing on the philosophy and mysticism of Mullā Ṣadrā from the University of Exeter. His research spans mysticism, spiritual psychology, transcendental philosophy, and Quranic exegesis, bringing academic rigour and traditional Islamic scholarship to contemporary discussions on mental health and spirituality.

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📖 Chapters:
0:00 - Highlights
1:43 - Journey Towards Islamic Sciences
5:38 - "Feeling Islam"
15:53 - Love as Mental Illness
20:20 - Qalb, Nafs & Ruh: What Signifies Mental Here?
29:22 - Nafs vs Qalb
36:20 - Stigma Towards Mental Health
42:53 - What is the Human Self?
45:52 - Human Being is Created Anxious
46:50 - Being Depressed: A Sign of Kufr/Evil Eye?
54:00 - Islamic Approaches to Mental Health
1:02:20 - Defining Islamic Psychology
1:06:55 - Religious Guilt as a Cause of Mental Illness
1:11:33 - Anxiety and Fear of God
1:15:54 - Philosophy, Mysticism & Islamic Psychology
1:19:56 - Shi'i & Sunni Approaches to Islamic Psychology
1:27:14 - What is Self-Coaching Mastery?
1:28:58 - Spiritually Integrated Therapy
1:31:44 - Western Psychology as Eurocentric?
1:34:10 - Occult Sciences ('Ulum al-Ghariba) and Islamic Psychology
1:39:55 - Gender and Islamic Psychology
1:43:48 – Thinking Islam Question?


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