The human being is body, mind, heart, and spirit. Often times, the self-help industry ignores this truism which brings about hidden, often unintentional misguidance that can lead to spiritual crisis, or worse, distance from our connection with God.

In this thought-provoking article, Dr. Abdallah Rothman shares powerful points including:

• The forgotten rich tradition of 'ilm an nafs' (knowledge of the soul) inherent in Islam.
• What does it mean to change oneself and how does one do this?
• An Islamic perspective of the self as an integrated human being
• Fitrah: The soul’s true identity
• The structure of the soul (along with a visual infographic of the soul)
• Understanding self-development as the development of the soul

It is clear that there is a growing trend of mindfulness extending beyond spiritual communities and into mainstream culture. How do we understand mindfulness from within the Islamic tradition? Is there a place for it in Islam? Is there an Islamic version of mindfulness?
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Listen to the audio or read the text below:

At first when you hear this term "mindful" you think 'full of mind'. The last thing we need is to be more in our minds. We're already so locked into this thinking consciousness where we define ourselves by our thoughts. You could think "well, I don't want to be 'full of mind' I'm already stuck in my thoughts." But really mindfulness is about being conscious. It's about slowing down. It's a contemplative way of being. It's not really about being more connected to thoughts in the sense of identifying with the mind. It's not necessarily about thinking, but meta-thinking: thinking about thinking. It's slowing down and being conscious of what you think and what you do. The core of mindfulness is about being present. And this concept of being present is absolutely an Islamic principle. It's something that we find in the Islamic tradition and is a key factor in everything from ibadah (worship) to akhlaq (manners). Presence is indeed a very islamic principle.

However, this term mindfulness can tend to shift our awareness from the reality of the self, which is a much more holistic picture than what we have come to conceive of as ourselves in contemporary times. To a certain extent the entire modern world has been influenced by the Cartesian assertion, "I think therefore I am". It's taken root in society where people over identify with their thoughts. So that people's entire notion of self is about what and how they think and everything related to the self is based in the mind. And this in particular is really not an Islamic concept.

Abdallah Rothman joins another episode of the Coffee with Karim podcast to discuss approaching theory and practice of Islamic psychology. He gives an intro to how it works and what principles can help believers find more peace and flow through life challenges.

Abdallah Rothman was invited as a guest on the Coffee with Karim podcast. He shares how he traveled the world and sat with Gurus, Rabbi's, Monks and Rastafarians during his spiritual quest. He discusses how his spiritual journey ultimately lead him to both Islam and psychology and how he sees the integration of the two in his work.