Unconventional Duha Research Unitary

There are experiences that modern science calls hallucinations—moments when the mind sees or hears what others cannot. Psychiatry classifies them as symptoms; neurology measures them in waves and neurotransmitters.
But to the one who lives through them, they are not numbers.
They are realities that move, speak, accuse, sometimes comfort.
They belong to the hidden theatre of the soul.

This reflection is not written to oppose psychiatry, nor to question the need for medical treatment.
It seeks to open another window—one framed by the language of the Qurʾān and the sages of ʿilm al-nafs.

Islamic psychology does not begin with pathology but with fitrah: the soul’s original harmony.
When that harmony falters, the imbalance may appear as anxiety, despair, or the voices psychiatry calls hallucinations.
To see these experiences only through chemical imbalance is to heal the vessel but forget the traveller within it.

The Qurʾān reminds us that the human being is shaped from ṭīn—earthly matter—and enlivened by the Divine breath. Between these two natures lies the nafs, the soul that thinks, feels, imagines and desires.

Among its gifts is the quwwah al-khayāliyya—the imaginative faculty.

Through it we dream, create, remember and receive meaning.
Yet this same faculty, when untamed, can blur the border between the inner and outer world. Then imagination spills into perception; the unseen pours into the seen; the person becomes overwhelmed by their own inner sea.

From the secular view, this overflow is illness.
From the tawḥīdic view, it is imbalance: the ʿaql (intellect) no longer steering the khayāl (imagination), the heart no longer mediating between body and spirit.

Medication may calm the storm on the surface, but it cannot alone restore the deeper order.
True healing begins when the person, guided by wisdom and support, realises that the mind is not an enemy but an instrument that needs tuning—through prayer, grounded routine, companionship, remembrance, and the gentle disciplines of heart and thought.

Both lenses describe the same surface event—a mind hearing or seeing what others do not—yet their ontologies differ.
One looks at the wiring; the other at the hierarchy.
Where psychiatry speaks of disconnection between cortical regions, Islamic psychology speaks of the loss of ʿaql’s governance over khayāl.
The language differs, but the observation may be the same phenomenon viewed from two realms.

When Perception Becomes Unclear: Qur’anic Guidance for Reality Testing

The Qurʾān teaches:
“Do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart—each of these shall be questioned.” Q 17:36

This is more than moral advice; it is a spiritual filter for perception.
It calls the intellect to verify what the senses and the heart report—
a divine form of reality testing.
From this āyah and from the broader tradition of tazkiyah, we can derive a gentle step-by-step method for moments of intrusive thoughts or hallucinatory experiences.

A Qur’anic-Theological Guide for Moments of Intrusive Perception

1. Pause — Restrain immediate belief.
   When a voice, image or fear arises, do not rush to accept or reject it.
   “Do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge.”
   Awareness itself is the first defence.
2. Seek refuge — Re-orient to the Source.
   Quietly say: Aʿūdhu billāhi mina sh-shayṭāni r-rajīm.
   This act acknowledges that not all inner noise deserves obedience; some must simply be handed back to Allah.
3. Evaluate the message — Does it call to good or harm?
   The Prophet ﷺ said:

“The truthful dream is from Allah and the confused dream is from Shayṭān.”
(Bukhārī 6989)
Anything urging despair, harm or self-destruction is not from the Merciful.

4. Verify through reason and trusted others.
   The ʿaql must question: Is there evidence for what I perceive?
   And the believer consults companions, family, or a healer who fears Allah.
   This keeps perception tied to community and reality.
5. Anchor in remembrance.
   Recite:

“Those who believe and whose hearts find peace in the remembrance of Allah—indeed, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find peace.” Q 13:28

Dhikr settles the heart and quiets the overactive imagination.

6. Ground the body.
   Wash face and hands, perform two rakaʿāt, breathe steadily.
   Re-engage the senses with the physical world—touch, sound, light—so imagination returns to its proper seat.
7. Record and reflect.
   Write what was experienced and how it felt.
   Over time this helps separate transient thoughts from enduring meaning.
8. Seek help when needed.
   Remember: medication or therapy are not lack of faith but means created by Allah.
   The Prophet ﷺ said, “Seek treatment, for Allah has not made a disease without appointing for it a remedy.” (Abū Dāwūd 3855)

These steps turn a frightening episode into an act of tawajjuh—turning toward Allah.
They transform confusion into mujāhadah (inner struggle) and tawakkul (trust).

The Return: When Perception Finds Its Anchor

Even in the most turbulent states of mind, Allah says:
“We created man, and We know what his soul whispers to him, and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.” Q 50:16

The Qurʾān does not deny inner voices—it surrounds them with divine nearness.
Even when perception trembles, the Listener remains unchanged.
To remember this closeness is to find an anchor when the mind feels unmoored.

Psychiatry steadies the clay; Islamic psychology re-awakens the light.
Together they return a person to wholeness.
For the mind may overflow, but the One who fashioned it never abandons His creation.

And Allah knows best.

Epilogue: A Prayer for the Restless Mind

O Lord of the seen and unseen,
You know what the soul whispers,
You are nearer than the jugular vein.

When my thoughts rise like waves
and my heart forgets its rhythm,
teach me to pause before belief,
to say softly: Allāhu Aʿlam — You know best.

When I see what others cannot see,
remind me that You are the One
who opens and closes the veils of perception.
If what I see is a test, let it purify;
if it is confusion, let it fade in Your light.

Grant me a mind that listens to truth,
a heart that anchors in remembrance,
and a body that finds stillness in prayer.

Guide those who care for the afflicted —
the physicians, the healers, the companions —
that their hands may serve as instruments of Your mercy
and their words as reminders of Your nearness.

O Light of the heavens and the earth,
settle the storms of imagination,
polish the mirror of the heart,
and let every whisper within us
return to You in peace.

Allahumma Āmīn.