Effective Islamic Spiritual Care: Foundations and Practices of Imams and Other Muslim Spiritual Caregivers

In Canada, Muslim communities turn to Muslim spiritual caregivers, especially to imams, for help with various problems. Research has shown that many Muslim spiritual caregivers are familiar with the Arabic language and Islamic values but have limited practice in Islamic counseling and psychotherapy. This study is intended to examine the effectiveness of Muslim spiritual caregivers in the context of Canadian Muslims’ health care. Cross-sectional ethnographic research with fifteen Muslim spiritual caregivers and interviews with them were conducted. Our results show that even though the majority of Muslim spiritual caregivers have no formal training in Western psychotherapy intervention, they nonetheless play a major role in the promotion of Muslims’ health. However, they can be more effective if they apply social sciences in their practice. Results of the study show that it is necessary to bridge the gap between Islamic intervention and contemporary psychotherapy paradigms in order to make Islamic spiritual care more effective