The Contribution of Muslim Scholars to Mental Health Management

Abstract

Islamic civilization had a significant and weighty presence in the scientific arena since the dawn of Islam, and it had rich and diverse scholarly contributions that encompassed various arts and fields of knowledge, including the psychological sciences. Muslim scholars contributed to the establishment and development of these sciences concerned with the human soul and the production of knowledge related to it — all in connection and interaction with their religious foundations, which aimed to achieve human well-being in both the present and the hereafter. Abu Zayd al-Balkhi is considered one of the leading figures in this field — the field of mental health management — and a pioneer of psychiatry, or what he himself called "the interests of souls" (Masalih al-Anfus). He was truly innovative in this domain, introducing concepts unprecedented before him, as he himself stated in the introduction to his treatise "Masalih al-Anfus" (The Management of the Interests of Souls).