Ustadah Zahida: Sexual Abuse

"There are a lot of books in the market on sexual abuse, and from an Islamic perspective, I do not encourage anyone to read them. They are not very Islamic. People who have experienced sexual trauma are often in a very fragile state can take ideas from the book that are unislamic.

About 15 years ago, I went for counseling myself to Aliya Haeri, at that time I had been reading so many books on abuse. When she heard that, she told me to burn all of my books!!

There are good things that are in the mainstream books, but they encourage a lot of unislamic actions. Expressing their feelings in unislamic ways. I attend many courses but I have to have my Islamic filter with me at all times. 75% of the information given will be good, and the 25% that is bad will often be very bad and Islmaically forbidden. I would recommend everyone to use their judgement and discuss things through with a practicing Muslim counsellor. Sieve out unislamic things, ignore the bad.

I recommend "The Keys to the Quran" which are a set of five books, "The Journey of the Self". They have been written by a Shia Spiritual Counsellor but I have found them to be extremely beneficial for Islamic Counselling.

Islamic counselling shouldn't be long winded. We shouldn't be encouraged to "Just do what makes you feel happy!" or "Stay naked if that's what makes you feel free!". It doesn't matter what you have been through, you can get out of it. Accept your destiny and stop wallowing in what happened, but make an action plan on how to overcome it."

Two books I would recommend would be:

(click on books to buy from Inspirity's Book Clinic - they can be cheaper if bought second hand - also from the book clinic)