Islamic solution for 21st Century Societal Problems: Transcendent Integrative Psychology Based on the Khalifah Method

Overview
We live in the global world which is currently plagued by severe societal problems. This paper attempts to present the transcendent integrative psychology based on the Khalifah Method developed by the late Prof. Mohd. Al-Mahdi Jenkins and Dr. Abdul Aziz Azimullah which addressing the challenges of human motivation and psychology of learning in the twenty first century. The Khalifah method focuses on two areas. First, it gives a positive and an accurate worldview, that is, if one is given a way to see the world in positive and accurate manners which is understood in Islam scientifically and objectively, in combination with traditional interpretation. Second, it emphasizes a good and broad understanding of human motivation and the laws of learning by which all human development takes place, that individual or society will naturally and inevitably move toward everything that is good and right, that is naturally Islamic in essence

Why
1.

The worlds trade on illegal drugs is estimated to be worth US$400 billion about equal to the value of the worlds pharmaceutical industry. More than 45 million Americans are regular drug users; one in every eight American is a drug addict. Drug addiction is growing exponentially worldwide. Every day more than 800 million people in the world go hungry. More than 1.3 billion people live on less than US$1.00 per day. 1% of the worlds super-rich people control more than 50% of the total wealth and revenues of the world.

2.

Why
3.The worlds oil and mineral reserves might be exhausted by 2040, only 35 years away. Our energy hungry civilization will collapse if there are no alternative energy sources. 4.More than 100 million people worldwide are HIVpositive the numbers are growing every year. 5.More people die each year from suicide than in all the worlds armed conflicts

Why
6. America spends more than US10 billion dollars on pornographic materials every year, more than its foreign aid programs to the whole world. 7. The prostitution and sex trade is worth more than US$550 billion annually worldwide. More than 50 million women and children are enslaved in this disgusting trade. Young children are routinely sold for prostitution in Latin America, South East Asia, South Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa.

Why
8.
In 2003, the US spends US$396 billion on its military alone. Worldwide, the military expenditure exceeds US$1000 billion annually, more than enough to feed the worlds poor for the next 10 years. The final cost of the war in Iraq will be more than US$3 trillion.

9. There are more than 27 million slaves and many million more in child labor worldwide. In India alone, there are more than 44 million child labors that are depriving of their childhood. 10. 82% of the worlds smokers live in poor, developing countries. Multinational cigarette companies use devious advertising and promotional campaigns that relate smoking to prestige and social status. They target the youth in poor countries by selling cigarettes in small packs as well as single sticks. Once hooked on cigarettes, they will be smokers for life. The health cost of smoking will bankrupt most countries of the world in the near future.

Why
11. In many countries, bribery payments make up to 20% of the average GDP of the country. 12. In many developed and developing countries, more than 30% of the children are born to unmarried single women, many of them still school-going teenagers.

Why
13. The continuous environmental destruction of planet
earth is unsustainable. The doomsday clock at the University of Chicago now stands at 5 minutes to midnight, i.e. we are close to an environmental doomsday within 15 years. Climate change, global warming, environmental pollution, if not rectified within the next 15 years, may cause massive catastrophe in the 21st century. Most probably more than 3 billion human beings will die in this runaway environmental disaster that can happen within the next 100 years.

14. And there are many more shocking facts of gross moral, social, and environmental destruction going on every day. The world is going insane!

Why
In this challenging 21st century, Islam and other world religions can play a vital role to transform 21st century humanity. All religions in the world working together can help make the 21st century a better world for all. Muslims empowered in the right direction can play a leading role in the transformation of the 21st century civilization. Core intrinsic values of Islam as well as in other religions will enable human beings to have hope for the future. By emphasizing the core values of justice, love, and peace, human beings can be given a new sacred mission to make this world a better world for all. Let us review the challenges in the 21st century that all of us have to journey together.

The Foundation of The Transcendental Integrative Psychology

Modern secularized men have lost touch with their inner selves. As a result, they are only using one dimension of their potential intelligence based on I.Q. This brute monodimensional intelligence gives rise to arrogance and atheism. In all major traditional systems God gives us the ability beyond the five senses to realize emotional and spiritual reality which ultimately lead to the understanding the reality of God. Secularism and atheism have cut off our inner intuitive capability. As a result, modern men can only see the physical reality as the only reality in which he lives and die. Atheism, which is prevalent today, begins in the late 17th century. The basis of modern atheism was based on Cartesian, Newtonian and Kantian philosophy.

The Foundation of The Transcendental Integrative Psychology

Kantian ideas promoted by positivist philosophers still influence modern scientific atheism in the 21st century. These promoters of Kantian philosophy based the argument on the old model of science that is proven false today. They based their theory of knowledge on Euclidean geometry and Newtonian view of the universe. Todays science has been modified by Einsteins theory of relativity, non-Euclidean geometry, quantum physics, string theory and algorithmic information theory. These new scientific discoveries enable us to discuss the nature of Godhood within the rational scientific paradigm. Prominent physicist Sir Dr. John Polkinghorne said:

The Foundation of The Transcendental Integrative Psychology

No one has seen a quark, and we believe that no one ever will. They are so tightly bound to each other inside the protons and neutrons that nothing can make them break out on their own. Why, then, do I believe in these invisible quarks? ..... In summary, it is because quarks make sense of a lot of direct physical evidence I wish to engage in a similar strategies with regard to the unseen reality of God. His existence makes sense of many aspects of our knowledge and experience: the order and fruitfulness of the physical world; the multilayered character of reality; the almost universal human experience of worship and hope I think that very similar thought processes are involved in both cases. In do not believe that I shift in some strange intellectual way when I move from science to religion In their search for truth, science and faith are intellectual cousins under the skin.

Transcendent Precepts : Understanding the Human Self from the Islamic Perspective
Let us discuss the nature of the human self from the scientific and Islamic perspective. We need sound scientific knowledge to understand the reality of our existence as a composite being. From the Islamic perspective, we have four or more aspects that constitute the human self. We also understand from teachings of prophets from Adam to Abraham to Jesus to Moses to Prophet Muhammad, including great teachers like Buddha, Lao Tze, Confucius, and others that human self is not purely physical but have other inner dimensions, i.e., the transcendent/spiritual dimension of the self.

Transcendent Precepts : Understanding the Human Self from the Islamic Perspective
From the perspective of Islam, human being consists of at least five domains/aspects. Based on the Quranic revelation the five aspects are our spirit/ruh, aspects or domain, our inner heart, our mind, our physical self, and the combined aspect of our nafs. Only God knows how many more aspects we have. We call them aspects because, in the end when we look at the root cause of everything that exists in this world, they are all creations or manifestation from God. The five aspects as mentioned in the Quran are, the Ruh which is the spirit aspect, the Qalb, which is the Heart aspect, the Aqal which is the intellectual/ mind aspect and the Jasad, which is the physical aspect. We also have the combined totality of the human self/human psyche or the Nafs. We have all these five aspects as we live on this earth. But how then do we relate these aspects? What is the nature of these aspects?

Transcendent Precepts : Understanding the Human Self from the Islamic Perspective
To simplify our understanding or our spirit/ruh, heart/qalb and mind/aqal aspects; let us represent them in a diagram. This diagram does not represent the real nature of us which is beyond any physical representation or description. This diagram is just an analogy for us to understand and realize our true nature.

Transcendent Precepts : Understanding the Human Self from the Islamic Perspective

Diagram 1 Human Self in the primordial state

Transcendent Precepts : Understanding the Human Self from the Islamic Perspective

Diagram 2: Human self in this world

Transcendent Precepts : Understanding the Human Self from the Islamic Perspective
When we live in this world, we use fused with the physical body (jasad) the existence within space and time. The physical body is a temporary aspect / domain that would be separate from our ruh, qalb and aqal aspect.

THE KHALIFAH HYPOTHESIS

The Khalifah Hypothesis states that, if any individual or social group is given two things:
A.

A positive, Accurate and motivational worldview, that is, if one is given a way to see the world that is positive, accurate and motivational which I now believe to be Islam understood scientifically and objectively, in combination with traditional interpretation, and; A good and broad understanding of the laws of learning by which all human development takes place, that individual or social group will naturally and inevitably move toward everything that is good and right.

B.

THE KHALIFAH HYPOTHESIS

For this, Khalifah hypothesis we can now understand the role of Khalifah in this world. The whole purpose of the creation of the universe is so that Allahs Khalifah can exist on earth, what exactly is the Khalifah suppose to do? Through on research Islamic scholars have from the earliest days of Islam concluded that the responsibilities of Khalifah of Allah on earth mainly three:
1. 2. 3.

To perfect himself To perfect society, and To perfect the physical world of space and time

THE KHALIFAH HYPOTHESIS

To
a) b) c)

restate it more simply, especially responsibilities of Khalifah of Allah are: To make yourself good To help others become good

for

children,

the

three

To make the physical world good (clean and beautiful so it is pleasing to Allah). These responsibilities actually cover absolutely everything a human being can do. And so everything a human being is supposed to be doing as Khalifah of Allah is making goodness prevail- in him, in society and in the physical world. And that is the totality of mans responsibility in his life-until he enters the spiritual world (in the next life) . Thus, we have as our total responsibility the obligation to bring good to ourselves, to others, and to the physical world.

THE KHALIFAH MODEL OF LEARNING BASED ON TRANSENDENT INTEGRATIVE PSYCHOLOGY

In the last hundred years or so a number of interesting, even useful, personality theories have been offered by adherents of the various schools of psychology and psychiatry. In general, these theories have shown considerable insight into the human condition, but none has ever dealt sufficiently with the full range and complexity of variables which influence human development. A theoretical construct of personality development was needed which provided a mechanism by which we could come to objectively understand the influences, both within and without, which determine the course of our development. Without this knowledge we would never be able to gain control over our own development by utilizing to its maximum the great potential of our free-will. It is necessary to consider all of the variables in the environment influencing the development of the personality; and it appears that three sources of input include all of these variables. Of the three sources of input the first, physical environment, is largely self-explanatory. What must be explained is why interpersonal communication is considered as a separate source of input rather than as part of the physical environment. At this point it might be of benefit to diagram the three sources of input in relation to an individual personality.

Note: the physical environment impinges directly on our various sensory inputs.

Note: Personality B can only communicate (impinge on the sensory inputs) with Personality A through the manipulation of the physical environment: but; the source self is not empirically observable, rather it is an abstract concept

Note: inner speech originates within Personality A, becomes a conscious process through entering the perception: and, as do the other sources, affects the total past learning history (TPLH).

Figure 1.2 : Khalifah Model of Learning

The Consciousness of the Individual

The Consciousness of the Individual

A World that is Truly Good

Once we have the answer as to why all the problems exist in the world, we must find a solution. The solution is also obvious! To remove all the terrible problems in the world, we have to stop the wrong messages from being written onto the consciousness of individuals and the collective consciousness of world society. There is no other way! We cannot have a society that receives wrong messages and not have these terrible problems. If we have a society that writes only good messages onto the consciousness of the whole of humanity from the three sources of the environment, all of those terrible problems will disappear.

A World that is Truly Good

Conclusion
The Khalifah Method of transcendent integrative psychology solutions for the twenty first century societal problems is in line with the rightly understood and practiced of Islam, since Islam which Allah has perfected for us and given to us as our way of life, is the perfect plan for the social engineering of a good and right society. Through understanding the Khalifah model of learning and parenting, all parents and educators can raise the children in the right way. As a result, they are able to create a right family, community, and ultimately create a right world. Hence, a world of right communities becomes an ever more right Muslim world; and, an ever more right Muslim world creates ever more right communities.

Thank You
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