© Serials Publications Man In India, 97 (22) : 425-432 AN ANALYSIS ON STAGES OF ADDICTION ACCORDING TO IBN QAYYIM AL-JAWZIYYAH’S THEORY OF AL-`ISHQ Abdul Wahab bin Md. Ali * Wan Mohd Yusof bin Wan Chik * Wan Hishamudin bin Wan Jusoh * and Mohd Sufian bin Mokhtar * Abstract: Addiction is a human mental condition that occurs through certain various stages. Each individuals’ craving towards certain things or objects has its own symptoms and differs according to each specific context. This area of knowledge had drawn several Islamic scholars in the past to perform in-depth research on the aspects of addiction and craving behavior. One prominent scholar, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah comprehensively discusses this issue in several of his literatures by introducing the ‘Ishq’ concept or theory. This research aims to find a connection between ‘Ishq’ theory and the stages of addiction through inductive, deductive and comparative methods. As a result, we found that there exist a strong connection between ‘Ishq’ theory and addiction through the definition as well as its stages. Thus, the therapy approach that was suggested by Ibn Qayyim with regards to the stages of addiction could be a good input in outlining rehabilitative measures in dealing with addiction related issues. Keywords: Addiction, Rehabilitation, Craving, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Ishq Theory. INTRODUCTION The love of something usually ends up by the person being controlled by his or her feeling of al-`Ishq. Al-`Ishq on the other hand, generates addiction. In the modern medical context, according to Linda L. Simons (2008), addiction has been classified as an illness by Dr. Benjamin Rush since 1810. Conversely, to associate addiction with mental problem or immorality has thus been avoided. Even the phrase “addiction is an illness” has been formally used by American Medical since 1945. In the context of Muslim literatures, the classification of addiction as a malady is not new. In fact, one of the prominent Muslim scholars namely Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah has already mentioned it since the seventh century of Hijrah (14 C.E.). Although he does not precisely use the term addiction (idman in Arabic) to describe the sickness, the nomenclature utilized by him which is al-’Ishq brings about a similar result as the word addiction. In explaining his theory, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah has articulated meticulously the stages of al-`Ishq. Hence, this article is projected to analyse in a comparative method the stages of addiction with the stages of al-`Ishq as proposed by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. * Abdul Wahab Md. Ali, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, 21300 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia. E-mail: abdulwahabmdali@yahoo.com, Corresponding Author