By TwoCircles.net News Desk,
New Delhi: Aligarh Muslim University and New Delhi-based Institute of Objective Studies (IOS) jointly organized a three-day international conference on “Concept of Psyche in Islam” at Aligarh.
Delivering the welcome address at the beginning of the conference on October 26, Prof. Hamida Ahmed, Chairperson, Department of Psychology, AMU, said that in the United States she had seen works on psychology in Buddhist perspective and psychology in Hindu perspective, but precious little on Islamic psychology. She hoped the conference would initiate a process that would ultimately lead to meaningful studies in coming years.
In his keynote address, Prof. Nizar Al Ani, Chancellor of International Academy for Graduate Studies, UAE, laid emphasis on developing an appropriate methodology for the understanding of the human psyche in Islamic perspective.
He said the work done in this regard had not been satisfactory. Work on this idea began in 1972. However, he was hopeful that more substantial work would begin to emerge in years ahead.
In his address Dr. Mohammed Manzoor Alam, Chairman of IOS, welcomed everyone once again to his alma mater as an alumnus of AMU as well as the organising partner of the event.
He said fresh knowledge would have to be created by Muslim psychologists “instead of reiterating” what was already there in the Islamic tradition.
Prof. Roqaiyyah Zainuddin, Dean Faculty of Arts AMU, expressed the hope that the AMU–IOS collaborative effort would advance the knowledge of human psyche in Islamic perspective.
Prof. Shamshad Ahmad, former VC Nalanda Open University and Magadh University, in his presidential remarks observed that each point raised by the speakers was a potential subject for a separate seminar. He said it pointed towards the vitality of the participants’ views.
The conference began with a solemn recitation of the holy Qur’an and ended with prayers for the departed souls of Prof. Iqbal A. Ansari, who passed away on October 13, and for Shahnawaz Alam, a graduate student of AMU who was shot dead in cold blood in the evening of October 25 by a motorcycle riding ruffian without any obvious reason.