Autism

Published by s.b.f on 1 August, 2010 - 15:01

Just finished a book called 'House Rules' by Jodi Picoult. She is one of my favourite authors.

This novel dealt with the story of a family. The family includes a mother who writes an advice column for a newspaper, a ordinary teenager who gets a thrill from stealing from other households and another son with Aspergers syndrome which is a form of autism.

She wrote the story in the form of each character telling their narrative. And it seems like a difficult life living with an autistic person.

Do you the Muslim community acknowledges people who are autistic etc etc?

Do you believe in disorders such as autism even exist? or like the boy in the book question whether he is just different but does not have a disorder?

Recently I have seen a guy who was in his teens unable to communicate with people. He just sits there and stares at people. It's sad. His prognosis is not so long. It made me think about his afterlife. What happens to people who are not able to pray or accept religion maybe?

Submitted by You on 1 August, 2010 - 15:13

I think mental illness is recognised to an extent in the Muslim community, but at the same time, this is not strictly a religious issue.

I found on mental illness on islam which mentions how some/many mental illnesses were thoiugt as possessions, but it also goes on to mention how there were hospitals for mental illness etc.

This is on mental illness and islam. It has this written in there:

any prevalent definitions of mental illness are related to the culture of geographic areas. Popular beliefs in Middle Eastern, African and Asian cultures view mental illness as: a punishment from God; a result of possession of evil spirits (Jinn); the effects of evil eye; and the effects of evil in objects that are transferred to the individual (the evil is put into the object by someone with malicious intent) (Stein, 2000; Pridmore & Pasha, 2004). Traditionally, Islam does not link all mental illnesses to supernatural causes (Rahman). Furthermore, one of the early Muslim scholars in psychiatric health care, Ibn Sina, rejected the popular notion that mental illnesses originated from evil spirits (Pridmore & Pasha). It is important to note that supernatural causes to illnesses are widely acknowledged and are considered very real within Islam.

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"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.

Submitted by s.b.f on 1 August, 2010 - 16:09

Assuming that we whole-heartedly believe that a jinn has the capability to mess with one's mind, how do we differentiate a jinn's interference with someone with a mental illness?

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Submitted by LookingToSee on 2 August, 2010 - 20:06

is down syndrome similar to autism?

i think it can be a combination of the two. you could start off with just a normal mental illness (depression) and then you become weak (in faith) and a jinn manages to "possess" you and you end up staying depressed etc...

if someone does Ruqiah on you and you've got a jinn in you, then that jinn sometimes actually talks out loud and says what he/she wants to in exchange of leaving the body.

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Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?

Submitted by s.b.f on 2 August, 2010 - 16:34

Lilly wrote:
is down syndrome similar to autism?

No.

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