Peace, one and all…
This post is very much a work in progress. I post it here, in a very incomplete form to encourage the development of discussion on the topic.
In his 2007 report, entitled ‘Islam at Universities in England: Meeting the Needs and Investing in the Future’, Dr. Ataullah Siddiqui offers a useful definition of what chaplains are and do:
‘Chaplains/advisors are individuals of faith who provide advice and care adapted to a specific institutional context: a church, a prison, a hospital or a university. They may well conduct religious services but their particular and principal function is to minister in the broadest sense to anyone, of any faith or none, who seeks guidance and support’ (p.44)
This definition suggests that chaplains are:
- Members of a faith community
- working in a specific institutional context
- sometimes required to perform religious services (depending upon their particular faith and institutional contexts)
- givers of advice, guidance, care and support to everyone, regardless of their respective faith commitments, or lack thereof
Siddiqui argues that the rise of Muslim chaplains in the HE sector should be situated within two inter-related contexts: a significantly expanding UK Muslim student body; and an increase in what might be called issues of self-definition and identity within the British Muslim community. He argues that the growth of this sector is
‘underpinned by the hope that the concepts within Islam of women’s rights, interfaith relations, business ethics and environmental ethics can, and should, be mediated through a combination of religious understanding and building of bridges with secular society’ (p.44)
I would agree with this hope. There is much that can be done in the newly emerging field of Muslim Chaplaincy. I also think that much careful study, thought and reflection is required – as is the development of Muslim Chaplaincy conversations. Muslims can bring a great deal of good to the provision of pastoral care, within and beyond, the Islamic tradition itself.
Siddiqui draws attention to four key areas of ‘need’ within Muslim HE Chaplaincy:
- Spiritual Needs
- Counselling and Emotional Needs
- Education/Religious Specific
- The Need for Continuity
These areas are all important, if they are understood as approximations rather than as a self-contained whole. It is interesting to note that under (1) the report focuses solely on prayer. Prayer is, of course, absolutely fundamental, in Islamic life and spirituality. However, it strikes me that more could and should be said in this regard.
I would tentatively suggest the addition of another area: that is, the addition of what we might call discursive or existential needs. In other words, Muslim Chaplaincy (both within and beyond HE) should open up the possibility of discussing the meaning of things. Within a health context, a Muslim Chaplain might well talk with a patient about the meaning of their illness, and illness in general. In the context of Higher Education, with all its opportunities for learning, a Muslim Chaplain should help provide a framework in which students can discuss what their studies mean to them, and to their Islam (or faith/non-faith in general). That is, all human beings have a need to draw meaning from their lives, and also to embed and expand these meanings through discussion. This is not to suggest that a Muslim HE Chaplain must always agree with that meaning, with that individual’s conclusions. Rather, the Muslim Chaplain must always strive to honour the other person’s pursuit of meaning.
There is indeed much that needs to be thought about if Muslim Chaplaincy is to emerge as a vibrant socially directed service, and these few remarks have done no more than to scratch the surface. Insha Allah, I will offer more thoughts on this topic as time and God permits.
Related post: Islam in Universities
Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman
Abdur Rahman's Corner 
Abdur Rahman, thank you for your wise reflection on Dr Siddiqui’s report and on the nature of (specifically) Muslim chaplaincy and (more generally) of chaplaincy as a practise in different settings.
I was at a healthcare chaplaincy conference a few years ago. One of the most enlightening sessions for me was a conversation between three members of the multi-faith chaplaincy team at one of the great psychiatric hospitals and a service user from that same hospital. The chaplaincy team leader was a Christian and the other two members of the team present at the conference were a Muslim and a Buddhist. The service user was a Hindu lady. The conversation (which was part of a continuing conversation between the four) focused on existential questions. The Hindu lady did not mind which of the chaplains she talked to. All of them honoured, to use your phrase, her pursuit of meaning. And it seemed that her mental health problems circled around her pursuit of meaning and identity.
She said she found it easier to talk to any of the chaplains of any faith than to the psychiatrists. The chaplains understood the root of her problems and were ready to listen and respected her as a person.
Of course, chaplaincy is also about a great deal else, but it seems to me that this is an area of the life of faith in which existential questions may well be highly salient and the capacity of the chaplain to honour the other person’s pursuit of meaning and not to try to force him or her down a particular path must be great.
Peace Barney,
Conversations of this kind have been very helpful for me. I have been helped to look out of the box by such conversations, where my own basic assumptions have been challenged – in a creative, positive manner.
Abdur Rahman