Position Paper 4(ilikaiyisah Muhammad kamal 0720266)

Since most of the assessment instruments in the market were made based on American culture, Muslim counselors should not used standardize assessment instrument at all. Discuss.

Most of the techniques and theories in counseling are based on American perspective. Lots of researches and observation focused on the human development among the American society. Hence, since we as the Muslim and as the Muslim counselors to implement certain assessment instruments sometime it does not match with the clients background whose tend to be a Muslim as well. In my opinion, Muslim counselors should not standardize assessment instruments because most of the assessment instruments based on scientific researches but not spiritual concept and secondly, there are lots of barriers of culture differences between the American culture point of view than Muslim culture point of view such as their heritage, genetic, religions and family background.

For the firsts point, most of the assessment instruments based on scientific researches and observation from the American culture but not on the spiritual values or concepts. In Muslim culture, religion is most important in their life. Every routine in their life based on the Quran and As-Sunnah Prophet Muhammad SAW which means spiritual values in every Muslim life is essential. For the Muslim counselors it is wrong to neglect the spiritual values in the assessment instruction. For instance, if we do something wrong such as arguing or misbehave toward our mother perhaps, there will be bad consequences in the future. It all stated in the Quran as our guide which if we wrong doing with our parents especially our mother; we get the punishment now or afterlife. We as Muslim highly depending with our religion law hence, if the assessment instructions do not match with the Muslim personality of attitude how we know the real problem or dilemma surrounding the client. Additionally, the Muslim counselor should not standardize assessment instructions at all.

For the second point, there are lots of barriers of culture differences between the American culture than Muslim culture as their heritage, genetic, religions and family background so standardizing assessment instructions is not a good ideas. The reason why should the Muslim counselors should avoid it because if they doing certain assessments based on the American culture, does the outcome reliable and valid? For instance, the client born in religious Islamic background, and the counselors assess this client with western approaches, does it bring good perception toward the counselors? It hard to say yes in this situation because the client will think “I should come here, it will be appropriate to ask ustaz or ustazah because the counselor kind of secular”. Hence, I strongly believe that Muslim counselors should not standardize the assessment instructions at all.

In conclusion, the American culture and Muslim culture totally different. By standardizing the assessment instruction will bury the image of Muslim counselors as a Muslim. There are lots of other suggestions that can be improved by implementing Islamic methodology in the counseling assessment instructions which give lots of benefits to all Muslim society.