Altaf Husain – Distress, Isolationism, and Spirituality

Altaf HusainApril 27, 20130 comments

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Nawafil Mental Health Spirituality Taqwa Muslim Life in the West Prayer Fasting Purification of the Soul

About this lecture

In this lecture, Altaf Husain explores the interconnected challenges of distress and isolationism facing Muslims in the West, and offers a practical Islamic framework for cultivating genuine spirituality. He emphasizes that there is no authentic spiritual growth without first fulfilling the obligatory acts of worship, then supplementing them with voluntary deeds (*nawafil*), and actively working to purify the soul through suppression of the lower desires. Drawing on Quranic verses, Hadith, and the classical concept of the three states of the *nafs*, he calls Muslims to respond to external pressures and internal struggles not with despair, but with a deepened commitment to Allah.

Dr. Altaf Husain serves as an Assistant Professor in the Howard University School of Social Work, in Washington DC. He received his Ph.D in Social Work from Howard University and his Master of Science in Social Administration from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Husain’s research interests include displaced populations (homelessness, victims of disaster,immigrants and refugees), mental health and psycho social well-being of adolescent immigrants and refugees of color in the U.S.; immigration policy and its impact on the family; cultural competence; and the development of social service agencies in the Muslim community. Dr. Husain has written and researched on the topic of Islam and Muslims, most recently completing a quantitative study of Somali youth in the United States. He has been invited by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to provide insights on Islam in general and specifically on the Somali Diaspora, in light of the disappearance of a few dozen Somali American youth from the United States in 2008-2009. Dr. Husain servedas a two-term national president of the Muslim Students Association of the U.S.and Canada (MSA National). Dr. Husain presently serves as a board member andchair of the Leadership Development Committee of the Islamic Society of NorthAmerica (ISNA). He was a founding board member of the Islamic Social ServicesAssociation

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