Interview with Dr. Noorin Saba, founder of Rahmah Foundation
1. A brief background of yourself and your work and your inspiration for starting your work
I am Dr. Noorin Saba from Malegaon, Maharashtra, India. AnUnani medicine Graduate and pursuing Islamic Psychology and Counseling From United Kingdom. Going through trials and difficulties is a part of human life, and it was not different for me. I constantly searched the answers about the purpose of life. This quest got bigger as I grew up. Then by the grace of Allah, I found Quran as my best friend. I always used to open the Quran whenever I felt depressed or had questions about my life. I felt an instant connection with Allah (swt) by reading ayahs about His mercy. I got all my answers through my spiritual connection and experience. I recently saw many cases of suicide in the Muslim community, and it shook me. I questioned myself
“Why are our sisters and brothers taking the extreme step of Haraam? ”
“What should I do to help and support them?”
When the incident of Ayesha Arif Khan happened, I thought it was high time I should do something about it. So I initiated a project called *Rahmah Foundation* and started to work as a social worker in counseling.
2. What do you hope to accomplish with your work?
I genuinely want the Indian Muslim community to be mentally healthy and happy. I want to help sisters who are going through struggles. I want to support them emotionally, mentally,and spiritually so that no sister would take the suicidal path.
3. What do you judge to be your significant successes or accomplishments in your fieldwork? How did you achieve these?
In India, we have so many barriers in the way of mental health awareness.
1.Our Muslim sisters going through any difficulty in life have no access to any counselor or psychotherapist.
2.We don’t have as many Muslim psychologists in India.
3.It is still considered taboo to reach out to mental health practitioners.
4.Many sisters can’t afford to consult psychologists.
Being an online free counseling platform, Rahmah Foundation has managed to break these barriers to some extent.
Having said that, we still have a long way to go and work very hard towards reaching out to as many sisters in India as we can.
4.This position requires a lot of independent thinking and initiative. There is minimal supervision. How do you handle that?
I always ask Allah to guide and help me.
And if your intentions are pure, Allah makes everything easy for you.
5.What techniques do you use in crisis intervention work?
We see that there are different techniques and models in psychology.
But there is no specific approach that we use in our practice. It depends on the person’s conditions and degree of mental and emotional wellness.
But the amazing thing about Islam-based psychology is that we always pray and ask Allah to guide us before our counseling sessions. We don’t entirely rely on mere techniques and models. We rely on Allah to heal the person’s soul, and the inspiration comes from Him to use which tools in which case.
6. What do you think is going to happen in the field in the near future?
We see that the field of Islamic psychology is growing rapidly day by day. Inshah Allah, I hope that soon we will see that every city, town, and district in India has easily accessible Islamic counseling services for distressed people in our community.
7. How would one’s weaknesses interfere with their ability to do this job, and what’s your advice to overcome such weaknesses?
Yes, we all are humans. We make mistakes,and things get complicated for us sometimes. But it is recommended by our mentors always to be connected to Allah, whatever the situation be. So I also do the same.
I often feel overwhelmed by the sisters’ circumstances, but we should keep moving forward to fulfill our aim to provide support to our sisters in need.
A lot of Duas, a lot of self-love and care, and strong family support can push you to prevent the adverse effects in the counseling profession.
8. Please tell us about How one can get involved with working for this noble cause.
You can visit our website: www.rahmahfoundation.in and contact us:
[email protected]
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