How chaplaincy in American institutions is providing solace to seekers of support in faith
By Rasheed Rabbi
March/April 2022
Muslims in American hospitals, prisons and the armed forces no longer need a scholarly and authoritative imam; rather a pastoral figure works closely with them to navigate through their struggle spiritually. Unlike typical Imam, who often seemed to offer religious advice and supplications, these chaplains stress on engaging with the care seekers according to their varied religious terms to expand on it and employ their spiritual drives. Muslim chaplains are not always affiliated to any mosque, but appointed by the state and institutions for religious accommodation, advocacy for civil rights, and Islamic rehabilitative services to develop an ethos of proactive grassroots peer support system.
Their gender and sectarian affiliations don’t get in the way of their mission. Clothed in hospital gowns, orange-glow jumpsuits or military uniforms, they counsel and fulfill the staff and members’ psycho-spiritual needs and infuse Islam within a rigid Christian framework of pastoral care to establish the new “face of Islam” in American institutes (Understanding Muslim Chaplaincy by Sophie Gilliat-Ray, and Mansur Ali).
Rooted in the Latin pastoralis (related to herdsman or shepherds), pastoral care emerged from the Judeo-Christian tradition of being a “shepherd,” as were Moses and Jesus (‘alyhum as salam), to their respective “flocks.” These professionals usually undergo intensive training under the canonical frame of references of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) to provide spiritual care, professional counseling and psychotherapy to empower and heal their patients.
While the clinical method of pastoral training began in the 1920s, Muslim chaplains have integrated Islamic traditions of pastoral care within their communities for almost six decades with the victory of First Amendment lawsuits in 1960s. Their continued service shifted Islamic chaplaincy’s scope from an occasional “visiting imam” to a resident “Muslim chaplain,” a historical development still unknown to many.
The Historical Development of Chaplaincy
American chaplaincy traces its origin to the colonial era. During the American Revolution, the U.S. Army hired chaplains, primarily Protestants and “unofficial” Roman Catholics, to protect the First Amendment right of religious freedom. With the Second Constitutional Congress’ support, President George Washington also set a monthly fee of $20, slightly more than a first lieutenant’s pay (http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1030/p25s02-usmi.html).
The pressing wartime situation increased the need for chaplains in subsequent wars. As Muslims started enlisting, Muslim chaplains had to be included. In 1953 Abdallah Igram, a Muslim Lebanese American and World War II Army veteran, began lobbying President Eisenhower to replace the “X” traditionally used for both Islam and no religious affiliation. Eventually, the letter “I” was adopted (https://beta.prx.org/stories/18895).
In the 1940s, local Nation of Islam (NOI) imams and Muslim community leaders started to visit prisons. Over the next two decades, more organized efforts were made to advocate for Muslim prisoners’ religious rights in the court system and, during the 1960s, to receive religious accommodation (Kowalski, M., & Becker, W. (2015). A developing profession: Muslim chaplains in American public life. Contemporary Islam, 9(1),17-44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-014-0308-9).
These efforts increased in the 1970s, for more NOI adherents were joining the Army, motivated by Warith Deen Mohammed’s emphasis on institutional patriotism and mainstream Islam. To meet this new need, in 1993 Abdul Rasheed Muhammad became the first appointed Muslim chaplain to the U.S. Army.
Likewise, the MSA since its inception in1963, has helped Muslim students develop a religious identity, carry on religious dialogue and maintain other faith traditions on campus. More than 600 MSA chapters across the U.S. have silently been providing the underlying framework for Islamic chaplaincy on campuses. With MSA’s continued visibility and growing number of Muslim students on urban campuses, university officials felt compelled to invest in Muslim chaplains. In 1999, Georgetown University hired the first full-time Muslim chaplain (Kowalski & Becker, 2015). Later, Brown, Princeton, Yale, Duke and other universities followed suit. Over the last 30 years, chaplaincy has been evolving in other areas as well, like agriculture, sports, fire services and airports and grew as a tax-funded institution. Today, our chaplains are an equal stakeholder in shaping this new frontier.
A Unique Space and Voice to Carry Forward
This country’s diverse religious demographic has made chaplaincy an interfaith and religiously pluralistic profession. However, being non-proselytizing and based on compassion and introspection, chaplaincy facilitates a uniquely welcoming space in multifaith environments. This role’s very nature also enables chaplains to integrate the competing notions of Islam, Muslim communities and culture in the American political and religious landscape.
While their institutional attachment broadens Islam’s global space, the chaplains’ connection to local mosques and Muslim communities also instills a safe interpersonal space for care-seekers to nurture an active connection to the greater Muslim community. Based on their tenureship, chaplains’ roles continue to shape institutional policies, staff training and development and improve Muslims’ networks and theological maturity.
In some prisons or hospitals, Muslim chaplains are perhaps the only Muslims that other staff meets on a regular basis. Their presence is equally crucial on university campuses. Regardless of where they serve, these professionals adopt Islamic terminology to express their role and vision for Muslim communities.
Formed in 2011 to promote future research and development in the field of Islamic chaplaincy, the Association of Muslim Chaplains’ (AMC) webpage highlights four values: 1) ikhlas (sincerity) for others as fi sabil Allah (for the sake of God), 2) nasiha (good counsel) predicated upon religious responsibility, 3) rahma (mercy) to reflect the Prophet’s (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) example and 4) haya’ (dignity) to demonstrate modesty, respect, honor, good morals and humility before God and care-seekers. Such translation of Arabic jargon to Western caregiving and appropriation of Islamic theology to pastoral care through chaplaincy pervasively put an Islamic voice into U.S. institutions.
Leading Muslim chaplains make this voice louder by reinterpreting and relating the scriptural sources and anecdotes to modern pastoral settings. For example, Harvard University’s Dr. Khalil Abdur-Rashid reiterated 12:35-55 through the chaplaincy lens, explaining how Prophet Yusuf (‘alayhi as salam) gave dawah in prison and later professionalized his spiritual venture by becoming a state employee.
Similarly, Dr. Bilal Ansari (director for Islamic chaplaincy, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace [HIURP; formerly Hartford Seminary]), relates Prophet Muhammad’s role to pastoral care services. To him, Moses’ experiences in Mada’in were extended and culminated in Prophet Muhammad’s exemplary practices, who was, and still is the Muslim communities’ arbitrator of the best spiritual conduct. Comparing the Prophet’s early companions with contemporary converted communities, Ansari further relates the tahajjud prayer, performed by the new Muslims in Makkah, as indicative of their identity and “a mandatory spiritual exercise of intimacy and discipline” (Pastoral Care and Counseling: Redefining the Paradigms [2004], pp. 21-24). These creative reassessments help promote the Islamic voice in pastoral care settings.
This voice also finds new channels through its empirical programs. For example, Northern Virginia’s iNova Hospital’s NODA (No One Die Alone) initiative ensures the presence of chaplains with dying patients and profoundly blurs cultural and religious boundaries to extend Muslim space in compassionate services. While adding more visibility to the Muslims’ funeral services and mourning traditions, NODA also ascertains that the institution hears and acknowledges the reasoning underlying specific Islamic practices.
As a result, more universities are adopting Islamic Spiritual Care classes. This year, HIURP celebrated its 20th anniversary of accredited Islamic chaplaincy. Dr. Ingrid Mattson, a former ISNA president, pioneered this program after 9/11 with a twin vision to train Muslim chaplains and to develop Islamic chaplaincy as a discipline. The American Islamic College, the Bayan Islamic Graduate School and the Islamic Seminary of America have also developed innovative programs to integrate Islamic theology with psychotherapeutic theories and modalities to meet the needs of both students and institutions.
While chaplaincy in the military, prisons, universities and other institutions require a single unit of CPE or 400 hours of clinical training, hospital chaplaincy requires a graduate theological degree and 1,600 of CPE training. Increasing number of students are committing to these new programs along with the lengthy CPE training to master emerging avenues to embed Islam in America. Several of Muslim endorsing organizations have also stepped forward to align their qualifications within rigid federal guidelines.
The Distinct Dynamic of Muslim American Leadership
Both in form and function, Muslim chaplains manifest their calling by religious conviction, institutional processes and mainstream society’s expectations. For them, the separation between church and state appears beneficial, as Khalid Latif (executive director and chaplain, New York University) noted, for this allows the interplay religious pluralism, constitutional freedom, multifaith care and interfaith dialogue without governmental interference (Harvey Stark, “Looking for Leadership: Discovering American Islam in the Muslim Chaplaincy,” 2015, p. 215).
Their acquired understanding of institutional dynamics and politics, collaboration with multi-faith colleagues, along with coordinating counseling and care, constitute a distinct skillset for professional religious leadership. Hence, it’s not surprising that chaplains are often viewed as “credible Muslim role models” in American Muslim communities (Understanding Muslim Chaplaincy by Sophie Gilliat-Ray, and Mansur Ali, p. 132).
This preference comes particularly from their transformative style of leadership. While they are adjusting to and translating an inherently American profession, along with an historically Protestant practice, Islamic concepts are also being translated into and for an American context to frame the chaplaincy for Muslim professionals. Such an approach connotes a fluid process of interpretation and examination of how religious leaders can understand their roles and develop new tactics to communicate faith.
An added benefit here is that Muslim chaplains are considered part of the solution, unlike imams and Muslim religious leaders, whom the media often portray as part of the problem. Chaplaincy simultaneously resolves that liminality of traditional imams and relocates them from the unhealthy hierarchy of Muslim leadership to harness immanent spirituality throughout the community. With a steady growth, academic endorsements, embedded authority in individual institutions, and professionalism, Islamic pastoral care and Muslim chaplains is no more a glimmer of hope but a sustaining future of Muslim leadership in the U.S.
Rasheed Rabbi, an IT professional, who is pursuing a Doctor of Ministry from Boston University, followed by an MA in religious studies (2016) and Islamic Chaplaincy (2017) from Hartford Seminary, is also founder of e-Dawah (www.edawah.net) and secretary of the Association of Muslim Scientists, Engineers & Technology Professionals. He serves as a khateeb at the ADAMS Center and a Muslim chaplain at iNova Fairfax, iNovaLoudoun and multiple Detention Centers in Northern Virginia.