Nausheen Pasha-Zaidi

This book integrates research in positive psychology, Islamic psychology, and Muslim wellbeing in one volume, providing a view into the international experiential and spiritual lives of a religious group that represents over 24% of the world’s population. It incorporates Western psychological paradigms, such as the theories of Jung, Freud, Maslow, and Seligman with Islamic ways of knowing, while highlighting the struggles and successes of minoritized Muslim groups, including the LGBTQ community, Muslims with autism, Afghan Shiite refugees, and the Uyghur community in China. It fills a unique position at the crossroad of multiple social science disciplines, including the psychology of religion, cultural psychology, and positive psychology. By focusing on the ways in which spirituality, struggle, and social justice can lead to purpose, hope, and a meaningful life, the book contributes to scholarship within the second wave of positive psychology (PP 2.0) that aims to illustrate a balance between positive and negative aspects of human experience. While geared towards students, researchers, and academic scholars of psychology, culture, and religious studies, particularly Muslim studies, this book is also useful for general audiences who are interested in learning about the diversity of Islam and Muslims through a research-based social science approach.

Spirituality, struggle, and social justice

Toward a Positive Psychology of Islam and Muslims

Nazli Akram seemed to have it all - a husband, two beautiful sons and a picturesque house in the suburbs of Arizona. But her outwardly idyllic existence masked the chaos brewing within the confines of her own mind. A young Pakistani-American woman, struggling with a failing marriage and her own sacrificed ambitions, Nazli s once-promising future quickly deteriorates as she succumbs to her own personal demons and follows a dangerous path of despair and mental illness. But her story is lost through the years until her youngest son - now a grown man on a quest for his own identity - uncovers the audiotapes of the mother he doesn t remember. And his discovery finally gives voice to a woman whose life and death have been shrouded in a veil of shame and silence.

A Novel

The Colour of Mehndi

Louise Lambert

This volume looks at positive psychology from a culturally-responsive, empirically-driven perspective to avoid a descent into pseudoscience. Through evidence-based, regionally relevant topics in the field of well-being, this volume shows how increasing levels of excellence in the GCC region enhance upon business, education, research, and social innovations. Grounded in the empirical research literature, each chapter applies psychological concepts to locally relevant considerations, such as culture, religion, and socio-political contexts, making this book an essential tool for understanding positive psychology and well-being in the GCC nations and beyond.

Nausheen Pasha-Zaidi

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