Reading the therapeutic contract in the Quran

Day # 28

The practice of fasting is attached, in our minds, to many benefits, both in terms of health and spirituality. The one meaning I had never thought of is the practice of negation of likeness.

Andalusian islamic scholar and renowned mystic Ibn Arabi, wrote that the attachment to the degree of negation of likeness is a very important aspects of fasting. This negation of likeness (we are not like God, we are not in his image, we are completely different and there is nothing like Him) is a lived experience through fasting. We stop eating, drinking, having sexual relationships, from sunrise to sunset, (which are all basic human needs for the survival of our species) to understand experientially the unsustainability of our claims to power and omnipotence. We are invited to think of the nature of the One who does not have any of these basic needs. When we break our fast, we break through that experience to understand the difference between us humans who rejoice when we break our fast and begin to consume, compared to our creator who is As-samad, the eternal, who does not have any needs as Surat Al-Ikhlas explains;

112:1  Say, ‘He is God the One

112:2  God the eternal

112:3  He begot no one nor was He begotten

112:4  No one is comparable to Him.

One fundamental rule in object relations theory is that there is no true relatedness except through separateness. This seems to be a fundamental rule as well for accepting guidance and submission in faith.

It is this dynamic relationship between Master/subject that is the central foundation of psychic development, psychic maturity and psychic wellbeing from an internal Slavic perspective.

It is emphasised and detailed in the opening surahs of the Quran to set the methodology of guidance and faith.

In conclusion, I have tried over the past four weeks to comment on the intricacy of the therapeutic contract in the Quran. This engagement to safeguard us from and guide us through psychic difficulties seems to be a primary task, or higher objective of all prescribed rules (sharia laws) on a personal and interpersonal level.

Thank you for reading, and until we meet again, peace be upon you!

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Ramadan Reflections, psychoanalytic perspectives