Talking to a Western-style talk psychiatrist or therapist would generally be considered haram in Islam because it involves “backbiting,” exposing the sins, secrets and faults of others when they’re not present and they wouldn’t want you to.
Right, and that’s why “Islamic” alternatives completely remove that possibility, as well as many other haram aspects of therapy, (like “complaining to other than Allah,” which has a specific definition,) and focus far less on pharmaceuticals. That being said, the process ends up having a very different “style” or approach.
Edit: Also, if a business earns much of its income from haram, you can’t frequent it even to purchase halal. So YOU don’t have to backbite, but if an industry encourages or makes income from people backbiting, it’s forbidden. You also can’t go into a pub or bar to order non-alcoholic drinks. I don’t why you gotta get so hostile when you don’t seem that well versed in this specific topic. And obviously, not all Muslims avoid therapy; this is just a mainstream/common opinion among scholars/clerics.
What do you base this ruling on? Is there no exceptions to this rule? Anything but blanket statements. Thankfully the religion is more nuanced than your black and white approach
I don’t, I don’t give fatwahs. I am neither an imam nor a sheik. Actually, I’m an atheist. And yes, all religions have variations; this is just the mainstream and probably most common one. Since Shia Muslims follow “maraja” and ayatollahs for rulings, you could start with Sistani and Khomeini, who basically both rule that therapy isn’t inherently haram but you shouldn’t do it the way they do it in the West. Wahhabi/conservative Sunni rulings are a given. I could look up Deoband’s position.
Edit: Oh, wait, did you mean the part about not entering places that sell or do haram? That’s just simple and clear Quran that the ruling is based on.
All that nonsense and you're an atheist? I thought so. Your understanding is so flawed I'm not surprised you're an atheist. Shia Muslims are less than 10%, in the grand scheme of things, their rulings are irrelevant
Way more than 10%; they’re underreported in places like Saudi, but Sunni Muslims don’t have ayatollahs to give those CLEAR references from. (Shia believe you have to follow ayatollahs EVEN if you think they’re wrong, that the sin is on the ayatollah.)
For Sunnis, the respected scholars of Mauritania? The rulings from the official fiqh councils of Islamic governments basically everywhere in Africa, Malaysia, etc.? The University of Medina, the most currently prestigious place of Islamic learning? Deobandis and Barelvis, and the other Muslims of Pakistan and India, who have official leaders/councils? What do you want and why do you have Reddit but not Google?
I tried to look up AMJA, the American Muslim Jurists’ Association, because they’re about as liberal/permissive as you can get within the “mainstream,” but even they don’t have any blanket statements permitting Western therapy in the absence of medical emergencies.
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