Professor Malik Badri (1932-2021), Father of Modern Islamic Psychology Passes on

Dr Salami Mutiu Olagoke

Professor Malik Babikir Badri was a distinguished expert in the field of Islamic Psychology. Born on 16 February 1932 in Sudan. He obtained his first degree (with distinction) from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon in 1956 after which he obtained both his Masters and Doctorate degrees from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. He further did a post-doctoral research in the Department of Psychiatry at the Middlesex Hospital, London.

Prof. Malik Badri had long experience of teaching Psychology and extend his contribution to knowledge with numerous academic achievements. Professor Badri served as senior clinical psychologist in a number of hospitals and clinics in the Africa and the Middle East and was the founder of the Psychological Clinic of the University of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1971, and the Applied Psychology Department of the University of Khartoum. He has published widely in psychology and education and his works has been translated into many languages of the Islamic world.

Aside being a distinguished professor in the department of Psychology at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) where I met him in 2008, he later served as an eminent professor of the Ibn Khaldun Chair in the Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, IIUM. Malik Badri further extended his knowledge of Islamic Psychology to Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University in Turkey. On 8 February 2021, Professor Malik Badri returned to his Lord in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

As a student of this great scholar, his distinguished personality, academic prowess, spirituality, fatherhood, and humanity cannot be expressed in words. He made me to understand that the field of psychology is not limited to the secular worldviews in terms of theory and practise. He pointed out the existence and essence of the spiritual element of man and it plays a major role in our optimal functioning. One of his publications; The Dilemma of Muslim Psychologists, alerted us how and why we need to liberate our understanding and practices of psychology so as not to “fall into the lizards’ hole” He draws his knowledge from prominent early Muslim scholars and when he was appointed as a professor of psychology (Majorly Islamic psychology) in the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) in July 1994, he developed courses on the contributions of some early Muslim scholars and physicians such as Al-Ghazali and Al-Balkhi.

His search for knowledge keep rising. After being granted permission by the Turkish government, Professor Malik Badri unravelled an historic manuscript from the Ayasofya Library in Istanbul, illustrating Abu Zayd al-Balkhi’s (a 9th century genius of psychological medicine) tremendous contribution to the fields of cognitive and behavior therapy and psychosomatic medicine. He made us to acknowledged how early Muslim scholars have contributed immensely to human emotional and psychological functioning.

Professor Malik Badri is a writer. Asides Abu Zayd al-Balkhi’s Sustenance of the Soul: The Cognitive Behavior Therapy of a Ninth Century Physician, Some of his archives of books includes; The AIDS crisis: A Natural Product of Modernity’s Sexual Revolution; Contemplation: An Islamic Psychospiritual Study; Cultural Adaptation and Islamization of Psychology: A book of collected papers; Cyber-counseling for Muslim Clients; Islamizing and Indigenizing Psychology, among others.

Until his death, he keeps writing and sharing knowledge. We all need to await his last book that will be jointly published by International Institute of Islamic Thought and Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. May Allah (SWT) accept all his efforts as acts of ibadah and grant him jannatul firdaus, ameen.

▪︎ Dr Salami Mutiu Olagoke
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia.
salami@fpm.upsi.edu.my

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