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Islam Isn’t Just Therapy | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine
Are you using Islam to simply feel better, or to genuinely change for the better?
Imam Tom Facchine speaks on the rise of therapy culture, including how it can reduce Islam to simply a self-help tool.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
One of the things that we should be concerned about in the age of social media, in the age of self-help gurus, in the age of the proliferation of therapy and therapy culture, and we're not saying anything is wrong with therapy, but therapy culture, is the reduction of Islam and the instrumentalization of Islam.
And Islam simply becomes a tool for some type of thing that you're after in the dunya. Whether it's healing, it could be good things in and of itself. We can call it the yogification of Islam. People just show up and they do these things and they talk about these things that are in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah, but we're only using it to reduce stress. We're only using it to heal from a trauma. We're only using it in this way. That cheapens it. That takes it away.
We actually put ourselves in the driver's seat in that scenario, and that's not literally Islam. Islam is submission. Right? Which means that you are allowing Islam to transform yourself. That's the difference. That Islam, genuine Islam, is that you are going to change. You're not going to be the same person.
You're one person right now with your comforts, with your needs, with your addictions, with your hurt, with your pain, with your experiences. If you're only trying to use Islam and stay the same person, just being a little bit less stressed or something of that nature, then perhaps you are instrumentalizing Islam in this way.
Rather, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that everybody has to enter Islam, according to one interpretation, with their whole selves. Or as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, when it came to my life and my death or my living and my dying, it's all for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So be careful. Everybody has to understand, especially in today's culture where we are skewed towards emphasizing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's mercy.
And some of that has a historical common sense reason because there were other people, perhaps the previous generation, perhaps the place that we're living, that overemphasized Allah's wrath. Absolutely. That happened. But the solution is not to go to the other extreme. The solution is not now to just everything is lovey-dovey, Islam cuddly, Islam cute, and that it's just about feeling good.
A good coach or a good teacher or mentor is going to be able to find that sweet spot where you are being affirmed and challenged.
I was just in a masjid in New York City and they had a, mashallah, very, very nice gym. Everything that you could want to do. And they go there regularly. Great, mashallah. Health is important. But if you had a personal coach who said, you know what? You can bench this much. That's good enough. You can do so many push-ups. Why don't you stop there?
We don't want to hear that from a trainer or a coach. We want motivation. Like, come on, you can do more. You can do more. It's a push ourselves because we want to change. We want to transform. But nor would we want someone who's only going to challenge us. So if you have a personal trainer or coach, you're worthless. You're nothing. You can't do anything like that. That's the opposite extreme, right? We need someone who's going to be like, good job. Push through a little bit more. Come on, let's try to do 20% more than last time.
And so that's how we should expect things to be with Islam. Islam is not going to tell you that you are fine. Everything that you're doing right now and everything that you think about everything and everything that you feel is completely valid and fine. No, it's not going to. It's going to challenge you. Like, you might feel a certain way about this, but you know, you're wrong. That you have to submit yourself to what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants. But then it's not going to be like that for everything.
There's going to be things that align with who you were or who you are or your, you know, whatever your history or experience, there's going to be other things where it departs. That's exactly the work to do. The work to do, it's a dirty word in today's society, is conform. Islam is about conformity. Yes, it is. It's about conforming yourself to what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants. That's the meaning of Islam.
Al-Fatiha.

















































