It's such an honor to be here and to present with Shaykh Omar Suleiman and my
good friend Sarah and to be talking about a really important topic that we
have that's not, it's very unaddressed and something that we're not talking
about as much as we need to. Subhanallah when we look at the field of Islamic
psychology, we're still in the infancy stages. It's not to say the scholars have
not addressed it in the past but in terms of resources in English that are
easy to understand for the average person and they're easily accessible,
there is very limited information on the intersectionality between Islam and trauma.
Most of the therapists who do give talks, it's very, it's usually about the stigma
of mental health, which is important. Or it could be about anxiety and Islam or
depression in Islam-all very useful things but subhanAllah trauma is such a major
thing that people don't know that they're experiencing and they don't know
that it could be the underlying causes for their anxiety or their depression.
And so, you know, people are walking around they're walking around very
vulnerable, they're walking around wounded, thinking there's something wrong
with them when there isn't. It's just because they're not looking at it from
the lens of trauma. And so if we have people who are walking around
traumatized, anxious, or depressed. Whether it's a big T trauma like Sarah
said or a small T trauma, these individuals, they need to be helped
because, I mean, it's so much suffering to be able to carry around that burden with
you on a day to day basis. And then when we look at the context of the family, we
know that if one person in the family is affected, the whole family is affected. So
trauma can also not just impact the individual but we're looking also at
maybe a wife not being able to connect with her kids, or a husband not being
able to connect with his wife all because of trauma, so it also is on the
family level. And then you can take it a step further and as Shaykh Omar Suleiman
said, you know, we are a really traumatized community and subhanallah, I can't
even imagine that if our mental health was better, if
we would, I would imagine that we would be in a much better framework to be able
to tackle on these really big issues that are at hand. But because we're so
self-absorbed not necessarily in a bad way, in a narcissistic way, but in that we
are so pained that we cannot look to other people, that we, it inhibits our
ability to go and connect on a bigger scale. So some of the goals that Sarah
and I had with the series was if we can get people to heal on a smaller scale
that it can have a profound effect across the entire ummah Inshallah. We also
wanted to approach it from the perspective of Yaqeen and conviction.
A lot of times trauma will be the trigger for people leaving Islam and
it's when they are in the midst of the storm it's really hard to see out of it
and if we can help some of these people who are experiencing this trauma, I'm
optimistic Inshallah that we can we can help them and be able to address
some of the people leaving the religion as the Shaykh had mentioned. So the
framework for our series was the Duha approach and we wanted to find something
that was Islamic but was also psychologically sound and when we look
at Surah Al-Duha, subhanallah, you know it's 14 it's over 1,400 years old but it
has, each ayah has an evidence-based treatment that Allah, the creator of the
universe, was comforting the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasalam), the best of mankind, and if we can
take that model of Allah helping Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wasalam) with his distress, we
felt, Sarah and I felt that we can also use this model for for ourselves. And
just to give a little context with the surah, the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasalam) was distressed
for some time before the surah was revealed to him. That's because there was
a revelation for some time. And when you look at it through the lens
of attachment which is a really big thing in psychology, , the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasalam)
he had, he had lost his parents, he lost his uncle, he lost his wife, he
lost one of his sons. And so the idea of also losing that connection to Allah
must have been very, very hard for him. So I will read the English. We know Surah Al-
Duha, (Arabic recitation of verse)
and then Allah says, "your Lord has not taken leave of you nor has he detested you," and
Subhanallah it's really interesting that's one of the first one of the first few
ayahs of the Surah, because attachment is so paramount to, to our healing. It's not
just, you know, Allah showing his attachment or comforting the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasalam)
saying I have not abandoned you, I have not forsaken you.
But we can also take the same, that and when we are in the midst of trauma, it
feels like we're in a big storm and that we cannot, we cannot get out. And so when
we feel that connection to someone else it can have a really profound effect on
on our healing. And so if you are someone who has experienced trauma, know that
you're not alone. You have people to help you and more importantly, you have Allah
to help you. He has not abandoned you during the hard time and if you have a
loved one who has experienced trauma, knowing the power of attachment and
helping them can really help them significantly. So knowing by being there
about being available to them, and comforting them, sitting with them in
their pain, can really make a huge difference. And then the next ayah, "and
the hereafter is better for you than the first life and your Lord is going to
give you and you will be satisfied."
Perspective, shifting perspectives is a really important tool in psychology. When
we're in trauma, like I said, it feels very overwhelming, very daunting, and
looking to the future or looking to the other side of the storm can really
help lift us out of depression and trauma and so here, you know, Allah is
telling the Prophet that it's going to get better, it's going to be better in
the next life. And we know in "inna ma'al usri yusrah, inna ma'al usri yusrah." So
it's gonna get better here and Inshallah it will get better in the
Hereafter. And then, and by the way I know I'm going
over this very superficially. Inshallah you can visit our article for more
in-depth information. And then he says, "did he not find you an orphan and give
you refuge, and he found you lost and guided you, and he found you poor and
made you self-sufficient." So one of the major things in our publication was that
we wanted to integrate cognitive behavioral therapy into our series and
this is a very popular method in psychology where you kind of look at the
origin of your thoughts, because your thoughts have a profound effect on your
on your feelings, which has a big effect on your behavior. So here, Subhanallah,
Allah is is almost rephrasing,
cognitively restructuring some of the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasalam)'s thoughts.
So he's saying did he not find you an orphan and give you refuge? So the way cognitive
behavioral therapy works is you look to your thoughts, and you acknowledge them,
but then when you are ready you start to shift them with healthier, with healthier
cognitions. So if you're thinking, I'm never gonna get through this. This is
just the end of it, you're like no, Inshallah things will get better. This is
a really tough time in my life but I am looking forward to X Y and Z and I do want
to point out just a disclaimer. This is not the first step in trauma treatment.
You have to be able to attach, just the way a lot you know showed his connection
to the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wasalam), you have to be able to attach with your family or
friend, who's experiencing trauma first, or if you are
experiencing trauma yourself you have to be able to attach and, and feel secure
with someone and process your trauma first,
before you begin to do this and I just want to point this out so people don't
walk out of here thinking okay I'm gonna go and cognitive restructuring everybody's thoughts.
People are going to get very mad at yo.u So this is a very important part of
therapy and in healing but it's definitely not the first step and then
Allah says, so for the orphan, so "as for the orphan, do not oppress him,
and as for petitioner, do not repel him," and when we were doing, when we were
working on the series Sarah pointed out this is really behavioral activation.
It's one thing to work on your thoughts but then it's something else to go and
take action. So as Sarah mentioned, trauma stays on our body so once you
begin to process it it's also important to go out and take action and the
research shows if you go out and help other people it's, it has incredible
benefits for your own mental health. And then lastly, "but as for the favor of your
Lord, report it." There's also research that shows people who use gratitude
lists or gratitude letters, meaning that you might write a letter to someone and
express how grateful you are to them, or maybe before you go to sleep you think
about three things that you're grateful for or just even make a list, but this
has really profound mental health benefits. And so SubhanAllah like you see
all these evidence-based treatments throughout these ayahs and this is just
scratching the surface. There's so much more to it so what are some of the just
takeaways that we can have is that if you're an individual, you are not alone.
Allah has not forsaken you. There is help available
and Allah is available to help you too. You just have to reach out to him. And if
you have a loved one, again that's, that has experienced trauma, think about the
power of attachment. I'm imagining there's probably a lot of people here
who do volunteer work, who maybe even are physicians. There's something called
trauma-informed care. And so if you're working with people who have a lot of
trauma it's important to be able to kind of read up on that and know how
you as whether as a physician or a volunteer can be able
to help people without accidentally re-traumatising them. And then lastly on a
community level, you know, we just hope that we can find a way to incorporate
these principles so we can all heal together
Inshallah. I do want to, oh actually there is one important thing, especially if you
are in the work of Dawah, I think I had mentioned this before. So trauma can be
something that comes before people leave Islam but interestingly enough it can
also be something that leads people to Islam. So if you are in Dawah work, knowing
trauma-informed care is very very important to make sure that you are not
accidentally saying things or doing things that might lead people away from
Islam. But just to leave off on a positive note there was a research
review and they showed that fifty percent of people who experience trauma
actually ended up better than they were before. So it wasn't that they were back
to the same functioning that they had before but they were actually better
than when they first had the trauma. So you can look at 50 percent and say, oh
that's not good, but you can also look at and say 50 percent, that's not too bad.
And SubhanAllah if we work together I'm optimistic, Inshalah, maybe we can
increase it to 75 percent, the more we have, you know, talks like this and
can have publications where people can read up more about trauma and how it can
impact the community. So how can people have post-traumatic growth. Through
tribulations people might find that they are stronger than before. They might find
new relationships through their trauma. They might have a stronger relationship
with Allah subhana wata'ala. So trauma is not a death sentence. It could be the
beginning of an amazing growth opportunity as
well. So check out our series Inshallah for much more in-depth information.
I just kind of went over everything very quickly.
And may Allah help us all heal individually and collectively inshallah.
(Applause)