Editorial
Psychology is the study of human behavior in its observable and unobservabledimensions. It is important to study psychology in order to understandhuman actions and their relations to various aspects of human life.From an Islamic standpoint, human behavior is distinctive from otheranimate and inanimate beings, because it is based on a conscious responseto divine commandments. Human behavior in this sense is subject of revelation.Revelation addresses humans to behave intentionally towards therealization of Allah’s commandments in their lives. Revelation, humanbehavior and human life are the three main components of the religiousphenomenon which is an intrinsic reality in human psyche and social realityof all nations in human history.Psychology is an old science. It is a response to Man’s existential anxietywhich is as old as human consciousness. Man has been indulging in psychologicalanalysis since he started trying to understand himself, his behavior,his emotions, his thinking and learning process, etc. In the West, psychologywas a part of philosophy. But since the early twentieth centurywhen it became the last field to breakaway from philosophy, it has becomea separate discipline, enjoying the status of science. In the Islamic historyof knowledge, education of the self and of others was based on well developedpsychological principles such as motivation (internal and external),gradual change, and individual differences. The study of human behaviorwas also the subject of many Muslim scholars in their attempts to elevatethe personality of individual Muslims from Islam to Iman and to Ihsan; andto avoid the various sicknesses of the heart. This subject was also of a majorconcern to the Sufis. Al Ghazali for example developed the science ofbehavior “Ilm al-Suluk”. His book Al-Ihia has long chapters on variouspsychological phenomena using a systematic methodology. A1 Ghazaliwould typically choose a particular psychological problem, study it,describe it, analyze it, compare it with other problems, advance a diagnosisand then prescribe ways to deal with the problem ...