Effectiveness of Islamic Spiritual Care: Foundations and Practices of Muslim Spiritual Care Givers

Abstract

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.

Spiritual care at the end of life in the primary care setting: experiences from spiritual caregivers - a mixed methods study

“…As the Netherlands is a multicultural society, harbouring people with various understanding of spirituality, this description of spiritual care in the Netherlands may be incomplete. For instance, as the Islamic view on life and death differs greatly from the Western biomedical view [42], spiritual care for Islamic patients may have a different approach, with different aspects playing a role and different topics being discussed at the end of life [43, 44]. We recommend extra attention to minority groups in future research on spiritual care in the Netherlands.…”

The Evolution of Islamic Spiritual Care and Counseling in Ontario in the Context of the College of Registered Psychotherapists and Registered Mental Health Therapists of Ontario

“…Several research findings also suggest that effectiveness of Islamic spiritual care depends on several factors, such as education and research [9]. In a qualitative study on the effectiveness of Islamic spiritual care, the Muslim spiritual caregivers agreed that learning acquiring a new knowledge in different fields, including religion and social sciences, is an ongoing process and contributes to the effectiveness of Islamic spiritual care [9].…”

“…Muslim spiritual caregivers also need to increase their knowledge about the cultural sensitivities of Muslims and contemporary jurisprudence along with traditional issues, confidentiality and privacy. Isgandarova [10] concludes that theological studies are not enough to provide effective spiritual care, simply because the health of the whole person requires the services of adequately trained spiritual and religious caregivers [9].…”

“…As doctors take care of the body, the spiritual and religious caregivers also engage with the soul compassionately. In this regard, they are the physicians of the soul, experts in the patient wounded by sin, mental and emotional problems, professionals who know how to apply the powerful medicines of a loving Lord and the powerful tools of science so that each redeemed life can be restored [9,10].…”

“…In the past, researchers, who were usually academicians, such as Rahman [16], contributed to the field of health and medicine in the Islamic tradition; however, most of these research findings were esoteric and abstract in nature and did not inform the Islamic spiritual care and counseling practice. Consequently, Muslim spiritual caregivers and counselors realize that they need practice relevant and evidence-based knowledge in their spiritual care and counseling practice [8,9,14,15,17]. This is a new but slow shift in Islamic spiritual care practices in North America under the pressure of the evidence-based health care practices that require not only "the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients" [18] but also respect for the client values and preferences.…”