Neuroscience and Islam

The below resources offer various perspectives on how Islam may correlate with neuroscience.

The Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research has many articles on the brain and neuroscience relating to faith.  Articles and videos include the neurological benefits of prayer, gratitude, and many more topics.

Stanford University School of Medicine Muslims and Mental Health Lab is dedicated to creating an academic home for the study of mental health as it relates to the Islamic faith and Muslim populations.

IslamiCity Neurotheology Youtube Course by UCLA Medical Center physician and professor Dr. Gasser Hathout.

Hybridization of Islamic Education and Neuroscience: Transdisciplinary Studies of ‘Aql in the Quran and the Brain in Neuroscience – This article holds an optimistic approach to interdisciplinary study showing that the concepts of nasiyah (crown) and ‘aql (mind) in the Quran have a correlation with the brain and mind in neuroscience. 

 

More Resources on Islam

John L. Esposito is University Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University and Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is the editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Modern Islam and The Oxford History of Islam, and author of Unholy War, What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam, and many other acclaimed works. Click here for books by John Esposito

Within Islam, the God Most-High, Allah is known to have 99 names.  The 99 names of God shed light into God’s many attributes.  Prayer and reflection on the 99 names of God, give Muslims the opportunity to be representatives of these attributes in the world.  The 99 names of God include loving, peaceful, compassionate, generous, and patient.  

Muslim theologian Bediuzzaman Said Nursi wrote that The Most Beautiful Names of God, help show that: “the true meaning of your life is this: it’s acting as a mirror to the manifestation of Divine oneness and the manifestation of the Eternally Besought One” (Nursi, The Words, 141). Mirroring the divine attributes of love, kindness, and peace have profound neurological effects. For more on Nursi:

Michel, T. (2013). Insights from the Risale-i Nur: Said Nursi’s Advice for Modern Believers. New Jersey: Tughra Books. – Michel writes that “the Qur’an challenges people to look more deeply at the world around them to discover the signs (ayat).”

Some key Ayat in the Qur’an relating to science: 3:191, 17:44, and 96:15-16.q