The Role of the Imam in Leading American Mosques

Across the country, American mosques are struggling with dwindling attendance and/or stagnancy. The causes generally come back to four interconnected points: a lack of governing principles, the politics of control by personalities, little focus on social integration, and a scarcity of properly trained and empowered imams. The imam, the community’s leading inspirational motivating force, is governed by scripture and both supported as well as held accountable by a community rooted in scriptural values. These values are a broad realm of massive differences subject to an array of cultures that can be a cause for division. Given this reality, Muslims must establish a mission, vision, and core value system for a clear cohesive divinely guided community. This system must priori-tize the community’s relevant needs with a strong focus on the big picture of Islam as it relates to the broader society. The administrative management of mosques should support their imam to lead them accordingly.

Kafāla: The Qur’anic-Prophetic Model of Orphan Care

This article seeks to outline a Qurʾanic-Prophetic model for orphan care by presenting and analyzing some of the Qurʾanic and Prophetic concepts related to this critical topic of kafāla. By attempting to understand the Qurʾan on its own terms and tracing its words’ derivation(s), this essay proposes a Qurʾanic framework of orphan care, one that is strictly centered on kafāla and was exemplified by Prophet Muhammad throughout his life. Based on the Quranic framework of orphan care and the Pro-phetic example, which prioritize protecting the orphan’s interest, I argue that the responsibility of kafāla for orphaned and abandoned children falls on each and every one of us. This essay concludes with specific recommendations that Muslim communities can take on the community-level to fulfill our collective responsibility and alleviate the grievances of orphans. This article applies the methodology of al-waḥda al-binā’iyya lil-Qur’ān (The Qurʾan’s Structural Unity), to analyze and discuss Islam’s approach to or-phan care. The holistic method reads the Qurʾan as a unified text through its linguistic, structural, and conceptual elements. In other words, the divine text, when read in its entirety, represents an integrated whole. In addition, this approach highlights how the meaning of a specific term changes, but never to the extent that its original meaning is violated. Tracing how the relevant terms are derived from their root leads to constructing the Islamic framework for orphan care. As the Qurʾan refers to itself as al-Muṣaddiq (the confirmer or verifier of truth) and Muhaymin (overseer, protector, guardian, witness, and determiner of the truth), it, therefore, judges us by the truth. Consequently, we should seek its judgment when making a decision: “And We have revealed to you, [O Prophet], the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a cri-terion over it” (5:48). Therefore, applying a Muṣaddiq-Muhaymin methodology allows us to trace a term or a concept’s use, how it developed or changed over time, and how these changes impacted its implementation in a given society’s so-ciocultural, legal, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical spheres. For this discussion, the terms analyzed are, in order of appearance: insān (hu-man being), khalīfa (representative on Earth), yatīm (orphan), al-waḥda al-binā’-iyya li-l-Qur’ān (The Qurʾan’s Structural Unity), ‘umrān (cultivating our planet’s balance, peace, justice, and sustainability), tazkiya (holistic purification), taqwā (Allah-consciousness), ‘ibāda (worship), iṣlāḥ (improve, reform, and rectify), fasad (corruption, mischief, ruin, and spoil), tughyān (to go beyond the ḥudūd [limits set by Allah]), ibtilā (test), karam (dignity, honor), karāma (honor), ta‘āruf (getting to know one another), ‘urf (local custom), ma‘rūf (doing what is right, just, and fair), ‘amr bi al-ma‘rūf wa nahiy ‘an al-munkar (enjoining the right/ honor-able and forbidding the wrong/dishonorable), laqīṭ (abandoned child), kāfil (legal guarantor), tabanni (adoption), da‘īy (to be claimed as sons), āwā (a holistic de-scription of an ideal shelter with a mission to improve a displaced person or or-phan’s life), nasab (original lineage), and farḍ kifāya (communal responsibility). Reading the Qurʾan as a “unity” ensures that the divine text will remain rele-vant, for this approach enables scholars to continue developing its ability to pro-vide answers to difficult contemporary questions and challenges.

Directive vs. Non-directive Clinical Approaches: Liberation Psychology and Muslim Mental Health

Liberation psychology (LP) is a psychological framework that emphasizes social justice as a key component of mental health, defined in LP as the ability of human beings to co-exist, live in harmony, and thrive in community. Muslim mental health as a clinical focus continues to develop, and most writing emphasizes the importance of cultural sensitivity in providing effective care for Muslims, which the literature often relates to the collectivistic nature of Muslim majority societies. The literature, in turn, often uses collectivistic tendencies and research to support 1-on-1 directive approaches. This paper questions the use of such directive approaches as potentially re-creating a model of hierarchy and dominance that is connected to Muslims’ mental health challenges, particularly those of Muslim sub-populations. The authors suggest and discuss several LP-based alternatives, especially the use of group therapy as a more appropriate and culturally responsive model, from both di-rective and non-directive clinical orientations.

The Power of Prejudice: Cross-cultural Competency and Muslim Populations

Oh people! We created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. Verily the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the Most God-fearing of you. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing, All-Aware. (49:13) This oft-cited Quranic verse encapsulates the Islamic worldview on the raison d’être of different groups of people and ethnicities, thereby highlighting the importance of cross-cultural communication and Islam’s role in transcending these differences. The same worldview can be adopted in psychiatric practice to provide culturally competent patient-centered care. This paper introduces a clinical vignette of a Muslim patient with poor mental health and her experiences living in the US as a religious minority. The vignette frames the following discussion in the context of rising hate in the country and brings to light the consequences of Islamophobia on the mental health of American Muslim populations. The psychology of outgroup hate is explained by analyzing the literature produced on the interrelated topics of stereotypes, discrimination, prejudice, and xenophobia, and concludes with tools available for cross-cultural competency in a clinical setting.