I was describing my view as religious person which I believe in existence of ruh (soul). And I believe the existence of ruh after I observed few medical cases which doctors confirm that someone is dead through brain activity that already "off", not through breath and heart that still work with help by machine. It made me realize that brain actually is just a hardware that cannot work without software.
Assalaamu alaikum Ardianto (and fellow travellers!),
(smile) As I'm not the most computer-savvy person, I decided to consult with those more knowledgeable than I (my children and friends!) about this analogy of people to computers. It is an interesting truth that our tools shape the way we see ourselves. In the mechanical age, we compared ourselves to machines. In the electronics age, we compared ourselves to computers. And now in the internet age, we compare ourselves to systems.
(smile) You and I were formed in the electronics age. But our children are being formed in the internet age...
So here goes: our bodies could be compared to the hardware. Our souls could be the operating systems. The programming our parents give could be the pre-installed software you buy the computer with. And the social environment could be the internet, with software downloads available.
A problem in the hardware could mean that your software couldn't run properly, but it still could run somewhat.
A problem in the software would normally
not cause damage to the hardware, unless the software was malicious. In this case, the software could do something like instruct the computer to switch off the internal fan that cools the hardware, and therefore heat would then damage the hardware.
It could be argued that this analogy works. And it does- to an extent. Certainly, the hardware (physical body) is necessary to function in this world. And you can have plain hardware with no operating system (soul). Just nothing would work.You can have malfunctions in the body (like damage caused by a stroke or trauma or genetic defects that cause some part of the brain or its chemistry to not be formed correctly) that can cause you to not be able to function quite like most people. And a person can make decisions (according to malicious programming?), like taking in some kind of poisons (like alcohol) that can damage the body.
(smile) But to be honest, I'm not sure whether these analogies are really bringing us closer to a true understanding of ourselves and life. I wonder if they don't oversimplify ourselves and life and cause us to miss something vital.
(grin) But it certainly was fun to play with this analogy!
Different than some people in the West who seem like believe that psychological problem caused by psychiatric malfunction, I tend to believe that psychological problem caused by life experience that cause psychological trauma. Psychiatric malfunction just a factor that make someone easy or not easy to get psychological problem.
Frankly, I often wonder why when Western people get depressed they always run to medicine to cure their depression. Different than people in my place which trace back someone life experience to find the cause of this depression and then try to cure through psychological therapy, not psychiatric therapy.
But playing aside, it is an established fact that a person's physical and emotional health are
interconnected.
(gently) I'm afraid you are incorrect in thinking that people in the “West” only use medication to deal with their problems.
Like people everywhere, they try various different methods to deal with their problems. You can go to psychologists to try to untangle the effects of an unhealthy family environment, for instance. Or you can join groups that try to help one another deal with a common problem. Like people with addiction problems getting together to admit their problem (the first step towards healing. Many deny their problem), and then sharing their efforts and insights in trying and succeeding to overcome their problem. You can also go to a religious person for help. Some people go for faith-healing (like ruqyah). Or talk to sympathetic strangers. Or phone a helpline. Or get insights and help online. And you can talk with friends and neighbours, too. And you can pick up your Qur'an and immerse yourself in it.
Yes, if you go to a regular medical doctor, they often will prescribe an anti-depressant. And you may chose to use these or not.
(smile) Frankly, from my observation, people in other parts of the world also take anti-depressants, though they might not like to admit it, or they may just be ignorant of the fact. As my professional degrees are in pharmacy, I can tell you with sure knowledge that if you look through the drugs people are taking in non- “Western” countries, anti-depressants and anti-psychotics are there.
(smile) You also seem to think that people in the “West” believe that psychological problems are caused
only by an underlying organic cause (or maybe I misunderstood you?). This is not true. People here are very aware of the effects of unhealthy families on a person's psychology. If you were to come to one of our public libraries here,you would see many books on all sorts of psychological disorders that focus very much on the patterns people learn in their childhoods. If you like, you can search on amazon (a bookseller) online and have a look at all the books on the topic. Or online.
People with organic malfunctions are more
likely to develop a personality disorder under the effects of abuse or neglect than someone with no organic disorder,this is true. It is also true that our emotional and physical health are interconnected. When you are stressed, for instance, the patterns of chemicals in your body are different from when you are not stressed. And under long-term stress, especially in children, whose bodies are forming, the body can adapt to these chemical changes with physical changes in their brains, according to what I have read.
There are also chemical and electrical connections between the different components of our bodies. Someone with an emotional problem, can end up with an immune dysfunction, for instance. An emotional shock can lead to sudden heart failure or fainting.
(smile) In the end, if we are to help people who are suffering, we need to look at the whole person and see what is most appropriate. Depending on the person, and the underlying problem (psychological vs physical, and the interplay of the two), you may chose medication, or counselling or a mixture of the two. Counsellors may use faith, or not. Groups of sufferers working together usually use God as a fundamental force in healing. Religious healers use God, too.
(gently) When people talk about the “West”, there is often an underlying (though perhaps unconscious) level of discrimination in the thought. The idea that people “over there” are fundamentally different from ourselves is not true. Yes, there are cultural differences, but this is true within the “West”, too. French culture is different from British culture is different from Belgian culture is different from various Canadian cultures,etc. But are these fundamental differences? I think not.
You know, the whole East-West divide actually originated in the division of the Roman Empire into East and West, and subsequent political divisions between the two. It's a false divide, in my opinion.
People also confuse the “Western culture” with what I call the
industrial a-culture. It might also be called a
monoculture. Both terms capture
part of what it is. It's a homogenizing force (and I mean force in a destructive sense) that arose with the industrial revolution that flattens real culture (which is a way people use to interact with their local environment (in all its aspects)), and replaces it with a soul-less
imitation ofculture. It has ridden on the back of globalization, and has been sold as “Western culture”, but it
isn't. It's just that it started destroying real cultures in so-called Western countries first.
I have seen this
industrial a-culture everywhere in the world that I have been. It encourages all the human weaknesses, and seeks to control and dominate humans through their weaknesses. It destroys local cultures. It tries to erase God. Historically, it has used the educational system (which is everywhere more the same than many realize) since the industrial revolution, to mould people into submitting to it (if you are curious, you might be interested in John Taylor Gatto's
The Underground History of American Education). It also uses the corporate media, and increasingly the internet, to propagate and reinforce it's messages. In my opinion, it is satanic.
It also tries to convince us that the world falls neatly into two camps: the “West” and the “Rest”. This is false. And those that fall into this fallacy, end up embracing an a-culture. If you have trouble seeing this, imagine the following: suppose you have a photograph. An old-fashioned one in black and white. Now turn all the black-coloured parts white, and all the white-coloured parts black. What picture do you have? Exactly. It's the same picture. People who blindly take the monoculture and do superficial opposites, end up creating a homogenizing a-cultural force that flattens real cultures.
Allah Tells us (49:13):
O People! Truly We Created you from a male and a female and brought forth from you diverse groups (ethnic/cultural/racial/religious?) and subgroups/closer groups (clan/family/class?) so that you could know yourselves and one another. Truly, the noblest/most distinguished/most precious of you in God's sight is the (one) most aware of God.
This is my own translation, as I feel that the usual translations don't fully bring out the meaning of the passage (ok, (smile) neither does mine, but I feel it is closer). The diverging groups and subgroups are a bit variable. Religious divisions, for instance, could be a subgrouping in society, or a defining feature of a society. Also, class may be a defining feature in a society, but this doesn't mean that Allah necessarily upholds the class divisions we've made. But that the effort to recognize ourselves in and through the other,
is in Allah's Plan.
It is Allah's Will that we have differences. It is useful for our spiritual development. The homogenizing a-culture/monoculture is against His Will.
As is the photographic negative that we find in blind rejection (and therefore ironically embracing) of the a-culture.
I believe that we need to look into and through each other's eyes in order to understand ourselves and see our
own flaws and weaknesses. And also to appreciate the Beauty of Allah's Creation. Another person, with a different way of doing things, of thinking about things, is
beautiful (sparkle!). And another way of doing things can open our eyes to different possibilities and solutions, to both spiritual and mundane problems. Subhanallah, what richness!
(laugh) This is perhaps not quite on-topic! After all, we were talking about empathy. And then we diverged into psychological vs organic disorders of behaviour. But then the idea of the “West” came up. And this is such a common misconception, that I felt the need to address it.
Yes, there are Muslims who see Islam as jut a set of rules, not also state of being. In teaching Islam, people like this use method of indoctrination which encourage the students to just follow what they teach without questioning, not method of understanding which encourage students to understand.
On the final point about “religion”. (smile) I'm afraid that I respectfully disagree with those who collapse Islam into merely a set of rules. In my opinion, it describes the state of a person when they struggle to surrender their will to that of Allah's. There are rules, yes. That we live our relationship through our behaviour with other people, yes. That Allah has given different rules for different times and circumstances, yes. But Islam did not start with the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Islam has always been, ever since Creation. But our
deen was
perfected/completed with the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) (Qur'an 5:3).
Some people talk of
deen (often translated as religion) as meaning
a way of life. This definition has got a lot of truth in it, in my opinion. But I think it still is missing some elements. Yes, being in the state of Islam affects one's whole life. But
deen implies being subject to Allah, being indebted to Him, to yielding to Him, to owing Him our allegiance because of the loan He has Given us of existence, of Creation. We owe Allah everything (I am analyzing the root meanings of
deen, here). If we are
Muslims, we recognize this, and we strive to enter a state of
Islam and we live our lives with this realization of complete indebtedness.
Deen is the
way we behave when we acknowledge this debt. But also, with the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), Allah completed His Teaching to us of
how to behave.
To summarize, it seems to me that
deen is at the same time 1) how we behave when we are in a state of Islam,2) a method of finding a state of Islam.
(smile) So yes,
deen can imply a set of rules. But it is more than this.
Islam is also described as a
deen (5:3). I believe this means that when we struggle towards surrendering our Selves to Allah (Islam), we are acknowledging and trying to honour our debt. And the Day of Deen (the Day of Judgement), is the day when we find out how well we have been paying our debt. It's a settling of accounts, sort of. Except that no one can actually repay this immense debt. So it is up to Allah, the Merciful, to Forgive the debt. Or not.
(smile) At least, this is how I understand these things. But of course, I am only human, and I cannot possess the Whole Truth. This is just my own little bit of understanding.
(twinkle) Note to Abz2000, it's “sis”, though I personally prefer “sister”. I'm a bit old-fashioned that way (smile).
May Allah, the Knowing, Guide us to ever-greater knowledge and understanding of how we can act in the light of our complete indebtedness to Him.
so why not try....? XD