Islam and the Contemporary World

Islam and the Contemporary World

The Necessity of Observing the Client's Best Interest in Agency from the Perspective of Shia Jurisprudence

Document Type : Original Research Article

Author
Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Fundamentals of Islamic Law, Payame Noor University, Qom Alternatively
10.22034/icwj.2026.593655.1054
Abstract
Contemporary psychology has produced an extensive body of research on re-silience and psychological well-being, yet this literature has rarely engaged classical Islamic sources of spiritual formation. This article offers a contempo-rary reading of Khwājah ʿAbd Allāh Anṣārī's Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn (d. 481/1089), a foundational text of practical Sufism structured as an ordered sequence of "stations" (manāzil) marking the wayfarer's inner transformation. Rather than treating the text as a purely devotional document, this study asks what re-sources it offers for understanding resilience, emotion regulation, and mean-ing-making in the face of adversity. Using a conceptual-mapping method that places the classical stations in dialogue with constructs from resilience psy-chology—cognitive reappraisal, distress tolerance, locus of control, and post-traumatic growth—the article argues that Anṣārī's schema constitutes an im-plicit model of psychological hardiness grounded in surrender (tawakkul), pa-tience (ṣabr), and meaning derived from transcendence. Particular attention is given to the station of ṣabr as an anticipation of contemporary resilience theo-ry, and to the advanced stations of love (maḥabbah) and subsistence (baqāʾ) as resources for meaning-making beyond hedonic well-being. The article con-cludes by considering applications and limits of this model for pastoral coun-seling and mental-health practice, cautioning against conflating spiritual sur-render with maladaptive passivity or "spiritual bypass." The study contributes to an emerging conversation between Islamic contemplative traditions and positive psychology.
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