The paper discusses the effectiveness of Islamic spiritual and religious care based on the ethnographic research with 15 Muslim spiritual caregivers. Six themes emerged from the interviews with fifteen Muslim spiritual caregivers. These six themes describe what the spiritual care providers see as effective Muslim spiritual care: 1. The most effective Muslim spiritual care is rooted in the Qur'an and the Hadith; 2. Effective Muslim spiritual care also means creating a caring relationship with the patient; 3. Muslim scholars are one of the important sources of effective Islamic spiritual care; 4. The insights of psychology and the social sciences are a necessary part of effective Islamic spiritual care; 5. There is a need for continuing education; 6. Styles of effective Muslim spiritual care are varied. Introductionhere have been no definitive studies that produced empirical evidence showing the effectiveness of Islamic spiritual care in the Canadian health-care setting. Many studies concentrated on whether or not basic Islamic clergy functions have changed, especially since 9/11, which caused great damage, trauma, consternation, confusion, grief, and sadness to the collective psyche of both Muslims and non-Muslims. Less attention has been paid to the role of Muslim clergy in the effectiveness of Islamic spiritual care in health-care settings. In order to determine what is and what should be, we need sociological and theological analyses of the effectiveness of Islamic spiritual care providers in the health-care setting.

This article first describes Sufism, the mystical/spiritual tradition of Islam then move to define Islamic psychotherapy and the various aspects of muraqaba by providing an overview of the Sufi literature. I will also highlight how the techniques used in muraqaba can be adapted and used as mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, meditation, transcendental meditation, mind-body techniques (meditation, relaxation), and body-mind techniques. Although muraqaba might not be effective for all mental health issues, I suggest a possible value of muraqaba for treating symptomatic anxiety, depression, and pain. Furthermore, Muslim clinicians must be properly trained in classical Sufi traditions before using muraqaba techniques in their clinical practice.

The muteness in the Qur'an about suicide due to intolerable pain and a firm opposition to suicide in the hadith literature formed a strong opinion among Muslims that neither repentance nor the suffering of the person can remove the sin of suicide or mercy 'killing' (al-qatl al-rahim), even if these acts are committed with the purpose of relieving suffering and pain. Some interpretations of the Islamic sources even give advantage to murderers as opposed to people who commit suicide because the murderers, at least, may have opportunity to repent for their sin. However, people who commit suicide are 'labeled' for losing faith in the afterlife without a chance to repent for their act. This paper claims that Islamic spiritual care can help people make decisions that may impact patients, family members, health care givers and the whole community by responding to questions such as 'What is the Islamic view on death?', 'What is the Islamic response to physician-assisted suicide and other forms of euthanasia?', 'What are the religious and moral underpinnings of these responses in Islam?'

The criteria for a new definition and model of what constitutes one approach to Canadian Islamic spiritual care is provided. The authors believe that to be an effective profession, Islamic spiritual care givers need to use both the Qur'an and Sunnah and adequate holistic concept from the social sciences. This involves coherent scientific knowledge based on evidence and serving diverse Muslim populations that also could include a multi-faith approach. The model based on a Canadian context is person centered, sensitive to theological and cultural environment, open to female Muslim spiritual caregivers with a concern for Muslim youth at risk.

No abstract