Abdul Rahman Dhaker al-Hashemi

Abdul Rahman Dhaker al-Hashemi is a physician and a consultant in educational psychology and psychotherapy, the originator of the Fiqh al-Nafs ("jurisprudence of the soul") training curriculum and the supervisor of the Makani Center for mental health. His method joins modern psychology to Islamic education in understanding the human soul, and his lectures and lessons reach a wide audience through the official Makany YouTube channel and the center's digital platforms. ^{1 2}

His official website describes Fiqh al-Nafs as a sustained effort to understand the human soul through the revelation of its Creator, for prevention and treatment and in pursuit of tranquillity in this life and happiness in the next, and dates the journey's beginning to 1417 AH / 1997 CE. The method, as the site presents it, rests on a triad of reason, revelation and observation, with revelation as the reference and authority, and differs from academic psychology in its foundations and in many of its methods and ends. ¹

The curriculum is delivered in a three-stage plan: the "Iqra'" sessions, on how the soul is formed, its thinking and its problems, leading to the intellect; the "Nafs" sessions, on insight into the soul, its points of weakness and strength, leading to tranquillity and then happiness; and the "Lita'arafu" sessions, on how to deal with others in everyday life. The sessions are held every year from Ramadan to Ramadan at the Makani Center and broadcast online, and a public version of them is available free online. For newcomers the site recommends starting with the "Ma'a Nafsi" ("With Myself") programme, a series of short recorded episodes presented as an entry point to the material, before beginning the full sessions. ¹

The Makani Center, as its official website defines it, is a center concerned with mental health from the perspective of Fiqh al-Nafs, the home of the curriculum and the seat of its sessions and of many of its works, activities and services, supervised by Abdul Rahman Dhaker al-Hashemi as a physician and consultant in educational and psychological therapy. Its services include educational sessions on mental health across the fields of life, in person and online — some addressed to students of psychiatry, psychotherapy and educational counselling and others to the general public — together with social and educational activities, among them the permanent "Suhbat Makani" club for boys and girls, and counselling sessions in education and psychology delivered by a team of specialists. ¹

His official YouTube channel (@MakanyWorld) gathers his lectures, lessons and consultations, and its video descriptions style him a physician, a consultant in educational psychology and a consultant in psychotherapy, and the author of the Fiqh al-Nafs training material with its trilogy of Iqra', Nafs and Lita'arafu. His official website links to this channel and to the center's other platforms on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and SoundCloud, and the center publishes its session schedules and announcements through its digital channels. ^{2 1}