Leveling Up Your Iman with Sister Hosai Mojaddidi
Once again, Ramadan Kareem from all of us at MWP! As we head into the last half of Ramadan, we want to recuperate ourselves and think about how to improve our mental clarity and spiritual focus. This month we spoke with Sister Hosai Mojaddidi on how Islam advocates for both mental and spiritual wellbeing, and on what she recommends we do to come out of Ramadan more spiritually refreshed and mentally healed.
BE SURE TO FOLLOW SISTER HOSAI MOJADDIDI ON INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, AND CLUBHOUSE @HOSAIMOJO TO STAY CONNECTED TO MORE OF HER SPIRITUAL AND MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES.
April 28, 2021
1. Tell us about yourself
My name is Hosai Mojaddidi and I have been an educator for over 25 years in the Bay Area and Southern California Muslim communities. I’m also a speaker, author, writer, and I do mental health advocacy work and spiritual counseling.
I cofounded a website called “Mental Health 4 Muslims” dedicated to public articles on common mental health issues within the Muslim community from both a clinical and spiritual perspective.
I currently teach about social and emotional learning and spiritual development to adults and youth. I also create content on Facebook and Instagram, like infographics centered around spirituality and mental wellbeing and I am a wife, and a mom to two boys.
2. What does it mean to be a spiritual counselor?
What it means to be a spiritual counselor is to help people deal with their spiritual crises and answer questions that relate to their spirituality. If they’re feeling weak in certain areas or they’re not sure about their ritual practice or specific faith concepts, then as a spiritual counselor, I can help them through these trials.
3. How does Islam advocate for mental health?
As you know, Islam is a way of life. In our sharia (laws), we have 5 objectives. They are to protect and preserve life, faith, the intellect, lineage, and property. Mental well being is integral to these. Islam itself offers Muslims a code of social values and ethics that help us to become more adaptable to life, to develop coping skills to deal with life’s challenges.
All the things I just mentioned are part of, what is referred to in the field of psychology, emotional intelligence. Today, many psychologists agree that if a person is more emotionally intelligent, that’s a far greater predictor of their overall mental and physical well being than just having a high IQ.
Our Prophet (peace be upon him) was the most emotionally intelligent person who’s ever existed. He offered so many lessons in all the exchanges he had with people; it didn’t matter who they were, what their age, gender, status, or socioeconomic background was, he knew how to deal with every group which required a great deal of emotional intelligence.
In fact, Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “The basis of reasoning, after faith in Allah, is loving kindness towards people.” (At-Tabarani)
4. How does one determine where they are spiritually? Where do they start in becoming more spiritually aware?
Actually, I just finished teaching a class on a classical text called, “Foundations of the Spiritual Path” by Sidi Ahmad Zarruq who defines the 5 principle foundations required for someone to be on a spiritual path as:
They are mindful of God or have taqwa, not just in public but in private, especially.
They adhere to the actions and word of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), where they emulate his behavior and speech.
They must be indifferent to whether people accept or reject you -- meaning you don’t prioritize being accepted by people; you’re not out to be popular, you’re primarily focused on making yourself more pleasing to God.
They must maintain a contentment with God in times of both hardship and ease.
They must turn to God in times of adversity and prosperity, so having total gratitude whether you’re going through challenges or you have an abundance of blessings.
I think this is a good place to start to compare and contrast your state and determine where you are in your spiritual journey. You can read the brief guide right here.
5. What habits can we have throughout the rest of the month to develop spiritually?
As always, reconnecting with Allah should be our objective. The best way is to have an ongoing conversation with Allah. As some have said, the Quran is like the ultimate love letter to us from Allah. If we read it, we will love Him back. For most of us, when we love someone, it naturally follows that we want to please them. Which in this case means we’ll prioritize the remembrance of Allah, and be good, kind, honest, and compassionate to His creation.
So doing whatever one can do to get a more intimate knowledge of God is key. This can be through the Quran, as well as learning, exploring, and even memorizing the 99 attributes of Allah. You can also read some of the Hadith Qudsi which are a special category of hadith where Allah is speaking to us through the Prophet (peace be upon him). It’s not like the Quran which has lots of lessons, history, warnings, judgements, rulings, etc. It’s a direct conversation Allah has with us, full of very sobering messages. If we nurture our connection to Allah with these three ways, for the rest of this month, God-willing all of the other ritual acts like prayer will just come organically.
6. What is the distinction between spirituality and mental wellness? What are tips you would give to build both?
In Islam, the spiritual heart is the center of our being, and thus the center of human consciousness and conscience. In the Qur’an, for example, Allah describes people who have strayed as those who have hearts, “with which they do not understand (Qur’an, 7:179).” There are over 40,000 neurons in the heart, which confirms that the cells in the heart are communicating with the brain. To read more about the relationship between the heart and mind, I recommend the book Purification of the Heart by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf where he mentions the above phenomena and goes into greater depth about this subject.
We should also mention, however, that a person’s spiritual practice doesn’t necessarily determine whether or not they are susceptible to certain mental health issues. There are certainly very serious mental health diseases that must be understood and diagnosed by mental health professionals trained to do so which do not reflect a person’s spiritual level or commitment but are often caused by an underlying medical problem like a chemical imbalance or a neurological issue.
As for how one can build both, the simplest answer would be to follow the prophetic example as best as one can. We recognize that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the exemplar in practicing mindfulness, encouraging gratitude, and teaching about the importance of regulating one’s emotions. For one, he even had specific supplications (du’as) where he asked Allah directly for protection from anxiety and sadness.
And lastly, we must remember that we are taught in the Qur’an that we can affect our overall well-being which includes both spiritual and mental, by virtue of how grateful we are: "If you are grateful, I will give you more" (Quran 14:7).
7. What are some of the obstacles facing our community right now and how can we help solve them?
The Muslim community in America is comprised of many different groups and people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, identities, and ages. It is difficult to isolate specific problems that apply to the entire community, but perhaps the most obvious ones have to do with a general crisis in faith & knowledge, a decline in spiritual practice, and a disconnect from religious spaces due to generational, cultural, or political differences.
As Muslims, we need to return to the book of Allah and the sunnah of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). If we abandon either, we will continue to see division in the community and an eventual erosion and erasure of faith. We also need to return to each other—we can only thrive and survive if we are one.
One practical way to protect our community from facing the same fate as other declined religious minorities is to prioritize the importance of preserving the religious tradition by supporting religious institutions that not only provide access to knowledge for the masses, but also prepare and train students of knowledge to disseminate the faith correctly once they complete their studies and return to their communities.
