Plans for 2012

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I received a message in the Shout Box. It said, "Assalamu'alaikum Dr Ridhwan. I love the idea of being a happy Muslim by understanding the basic belief in Islam, al Qadr. I think, the assignment that you gave us on understanding al-Qadr was somehow changes the perception of many of us in the class." In many ways, this short message highlights my plans for 2012.

In 2010, my focus was on understanding the concept of happiness. That is where my reading in the area of positive psychology was a great help. In 2011, my focus was on using the internet to develop positive emotions. By and large, learning more about Islam helped students resolve their doubts and deal with the difficulties of their everyday life in a better way. Parallel to this, I asked my students to research al qadar in some detail. My focus for 2012 will be, God willing, to understand how a practical understanding of al qadar helps people become happier. I also hope to use psychological tests to measure the psychological state of my students at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester. That will hopefully help us to better understand the underlying processes that enable people to be happy.

Conference paper available for free

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Happiness in Islam

Alhamdulillah, I am due to present my overall findings for the "Happiness in Islam" project at a conference organised by the International Association of Muslim Psychologists (IAMP) at IIUM that will be held, insha Allah, from 5th Dec 2011 to 7th Dec 2011.

My wife keeps telling me that it is difficult for somebody reading this blog to understand exactly what is the data that I have collected and what are my conclusions on the project so far. I think that it is a fair comment. At the same time, I don't want to re-arrange my blog because it is helpful for me to look back and observe how my ideas / knowledge has changed over time. Therefore, if anybody is interest in getting the 'overall picture', they are welcome to email me at fontaine008@gmail.com. I will email back a copy of the conference paper.

By the way, the fact that I don't make regular postings does not mean that nothing is happening. I have about 160 students continuing this project. One group of 30 students will finish early December and one group of 130 students will finish in January 2012. I am also discussing with a PhD students on the possibility of testing my students in respect of their emotional intelligence and their spiritual intelligence at the beginning of the assignment and at the end of the assignment to see whether there is any significant differences.

Relying on Allah

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Tawakkal (Relying on Allah)

Tawakkul (relying on Allah) is an important concept in Islam but what does it really mean? What are the implications for Muslim organisations?

My interest in tawakkal started when one of my ex-students started playing for a futsall team. This is a semi-professional team so they have a coach, they train three times a week and if you don't perform, you are off the team. At first, he played well. Then, some of the wors players on the team were dropped and they were replaced by some of the best futsall players in Selangor. All of a sudden, he could not play well anymore. He was afraid of being dropped from the team and that fear stopped him from playing well. That was the first time I thought abotu tawakkal in the context of a management situation.

If your employees are in fear, they can't perform. Theoretically, if they have tawakkal, they will not be in fear because they know that Allah is helping them

I spoke to various high-performing atheletes about this issue. In particular, I interviewed a 2nd dan Aikido master. His take was not that tawakkal was necessary for high performance but that it is necessary for people to continue improving themselves. A big problem in martial arts is those people who train, obtain a black belt and then stop. According to him, tawakkal would be very important so that people continue to strive and continue to push themselves to the limit. Ultimately, they can do so because they are not afraid because they trust in Allah.

So how do you develop tawakkal? Well, sufing the internet and listening to one good Islamic talk every week seems like a good place to start.

Integrating my various research projects

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Problems and Solutions


A few days ago, I realised that all my research projects are linked.

My longest on-going research is in the area of fire fighting. Fire fighting is a situation where problems in organisations repeat themselves. Individuals in organisations try to find 'quick solutions' but their efforts tend to fail, as the complexity of the situation overwhelm the people who try to solve them. My research shows that most managers in Malaysia - whether Malay, Indian, Chinese, working in large companies, medium size companies or small companies - experience severe fire fighting.

The danger of fire fighting is that it naturally leads individuals in a state that psychologists call "learned helplessness". People simply give up. The problems they face at work are so complex, so multi-faceted, that people don't even know where to start. People go through the motions but deep down they don't really believe that the situation will ever get better. One way to solve this problem is by using a technique called Positive Deviance Inquiry (PDI). In a paper that I hope will be published in 2012, I explain that PDI is a very practical tool for Muslim leaders.

In any case, this fire fighting situation creates a feedback loop. Fire fighting causes individuals to become helpless. But helpless individuals are more likely to treat 'solvable' problems as unsolvable problems.

So how do we break this vicious circle? Well, my experiments with getting my students to listen to Islamic talks for 12 to 14 weeks have shown me something. First, the intervention has an impact. About 80% of students (many of which are part-time Masters students who are working full-time) report feeling better about things. The process of listening to Islamic talks gives them hope, optimism and makes them more resilient. In other words, this process can probably turn helpless individuals into individuals that are psychologically stronger. That might not make fire fighting disappear but at least it will theoretically reduce the negative impact of fire fighting on an organisation. The best part of this intervention is that it is virtually free and its impact is presumably long-term as the process involves Muslims understanding their religion better.

So what has this got to do with happiness? Well, as this blog has progressed, it seems clear that I started with a very vague project and that it has become more and more specific as I have progressed. I think that 'happiness' is still relevant (although the technical term in the literature is "subjective well being"). The work that I have read indicates that happiness is not a state where people are 'relaxing'. Too much relaxation simply leads to boredom. Happiness requires individuals to work hard to achieve their goals. They will experience many disappointments but they are psychologically strong enough to persevere until they reach their goals. In short, this intervention leads directly to psychological strength and indirectly to a more happy person. And Allah knows best.

New articles on happiness

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I have been reading the Academy of Management Journal (AMJ). The AMJ is considered to be the no 1 journal in management worldwide. Anyway, there are a couple of articles that relate to happiness. In particular, Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller (2011) point out that happiness is an important issue in management (although we use terms like 'job satisfaction' because it sounds better) and with many practical implications at work. In particular, they note that most interventions are 'ephemeral' (i.e. short-term effect and then decays). My focus is now on intervention and measuring the long-term effect of the assignment 1 & 2. My observation to date is that many Muslim students have specific misunderstandings about Islam. These misunderstandings a) prevent them from fully appreciating Islam and b) creates cognitive dissonance. In many cases, students report that assignment 1 allows them to remove some misunderstandings about Islam and that makes them happy. Presumably, that kind of intervention is NOT ephemeral. I am toying with the idea of a Theory of Specific Religious Misunderstanding (TSRM). TSRM would assume that all Muslims have some specific misunderstanding about their religion. Until that misunderstanding is cleared up, they cannot progress. I will give an example. One student that I observed knew that if you don't pray, you go to Hell. However, he believed that Muslims who pray also go to Hell. So of course, he did not see the point in praying. Having clarified that misunderstanding, he is now praying much more regularly than before. He also reports being more at peace than before. Anyway, I need to collect more data before I go developing a new theory ;)
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