Abu Zayd al-Balkhi's Sustenance of the Soul

Malik Badri (tr.)

Paperback, 71 Pages

9781565645998

This book is one of the titles selected for the Wardah Books Islamic Civilisation Book Club 2024.

The Cognitive Behaviour Therapy of A Ninth Century Physician

Masalih al-Abdan wa al-Anfus

Al-Balkhi explains symptoms and treatments giving advice on preventive measures and how to return the body and soul to their natural healthy state. In doing so he displays a keen understanding of the human condition and the medical nature of the human emotional state. As astonishing feat given that many of the conditions he discusses were left largely unknown and untreated for centuries before being clinically defined as such, only as relatively recently as the 20th century. A genius, his insights on human psychopathology as well as diagnoses of psychological ailments including stress, depression, fear and anxiety, phobic and obsessive-compulsive disorders, together with their treatment by cognitive behavior therapy, relate to us in every way and are in sync with modern psychology. Importantly they also incorporate a greater dimension to include the soul and the worship of God. 

Contents

Who Was Abu Zayd al-Balkhi?

1. Exposing the Great Need for Promoting the Sustenance of Souls

2. Sustenance of Psychological Health

3. Ways of Regaining Psychological Health When One Loses It

4. Enumerating the Psychological Symptoms (Disorders) and Specifying their Distinguishing Attributes

5. How to Counteract Anger and Get Rid of It

6. Tranquilizing Fear

7. Methods of Dealing with Sadness and Depression

8. Mental Maneuvers that Fend off the Recurring Whispers of the Heart and the Obsessive Inner Speech of the Soul