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Coronavirus (COVID-19) rapidly became the “new normal” with profound implications for everyone's daily life. In this paper, emerging psychologists from diverse cultural backgrounds discuss four main ways in which COVID-19 impacted diverse psychological populations.

This paper was written as a reflection on how COVID-19 has impacted diverse psychological populations using authors' academic and personal experiences.

First, the authors explore inaccessible populations with a focus on domestic violence victims living in rural areas. Second, the authors consider consequences of social isolation with a focus on remote workers. Third, the authors investigate the consequences of public (dis)trust in the pandemic with a focus on migrant worker communities. Finally, the authors discuss pandemic-relevant subcultures with a focus on “anti-vaxxers”.

The paper concludes with a discussion of negative implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on diverse psychological populations, both for the present and the future, and ends with an action plan of possible interventions to overcome these limitations.

Overall, the current paper provides a broad overview of how the pandemic has shaped and will continue to shape diverse psychological populations.

This paper aims to scrutinize the misconceptions about maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah (objectives of Islamic law) that complicate its actualization, particularly in Islamic finance.

This study adopts a qualitative inductive method to identify the flaws in understanding maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah vis-à-vis Islamic finance. It uses the views of classical and modern maqāṣid scholars to critically examine the flaws.

This study concludes that the five objectives of the Sharīʿah constitute the framework of maṣlaḥah (well-being). The levels of maṣlaḥah ― namely ḍarūriyyāt (essentials), ḥājiyyāt (needs) and taḥsīniyyāt (embellishments) ― are the categories of the means to ends. The demand for financial products falls under the ḥājiyyāt and taḥsīniyyāt categories, not ḍarūriyyāt. The maqāṣid (objectives) are derived from aḥkām (provisions) being verified by the parameters, while aḥkām are guided by maqāṣid.

This study recommends further research to theorize the concepts of ḍarūriyyāt, ḥājiyyāt, taḥsīniyyat and mukammilāt (complements); to harmonize the maqāṣid with their essential elements and to formulate a conceptual framework for actualizing maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah in Islamic finance.

This paper will improve perceptions and bridge gaps between the understanding of maqāṣid theory and existing practices. It suggests that instead of ḍarūriyyāt, Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) should refer to ḥājiyyāt and taḥsīniyyāt.

This paper identifies and clarifies the misconceptions about maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah vis-à-vis Islamic finance in the existing literature. The findings align with the views of leading maqāṣid scholars in understanding the idea.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the emerging spirituality debate with the aim of generating and sustaining tolerance for spirituality in the workplace, with a specific focus upon the impact this can have upon work-based learners. “Spirituality” is gaining impetus worldwide as a growing number of organisations are proactively accommodating their multi-ethnic and multi-faith workforce by adapting their policies to meet employees’ spiritual needs. As yet in the UK, the majority of organisations fail to recognise neither the basic spiritual well-being of their employees nor the impact this can have upon work-based learning processes.

This study adopts a quantitative approach with questionnaires distributed to a multi-national retail UK-based organisation with an ethnically diverse national workforce. The study was tested by collecting data from managers and employees of this large, multi-million pound retail chain organisation in the UK, consisting of 55 stores and 1,249 employees, in order to gather employees’ perceptions on spirituality within their place of work regarding policies, communication and perceived source of conflict.

The results revealed that the majority of employees deemed spirituality was not something they felt comfortable discussing or appropriate to practice within the workplace and there were no clear policies and procedures in place to support either management or employees.

This paper highlights areas for further research in the broad professional areas of spirituality in relation to organisational approaches to work-based learning. The research is from one organisation and utilising one method – qualitative research would add depth to the knowledge.

This paper highlights areas for further research in the broad professional areas of spirituality in relation to organisational approaches to work-based learning.

Employee spiritual well-being is under-researched and overlooked by organisations. Changing the current spiritual intransigence is long overdue as employees’ spiritual fulfilment leads to high-trust relationships in the workplace and can further support those engaged in work-based learning.

This paper explores the work of the educational theorist Gert Biesta in a setting outside of the context where it was originally developed. It aims to address how Biesta’s approach can help educators and policy makers question the philosophical underpinnings of education in the UAE and thereby start a conversation that is currently absent in this context. The paper comprises three elements: first, an overview of Biesta’s educational theory is given with a focus on ‘subjectification’ and his self-titled “pedagogy of interruption”. Secondly and in brief, I use Biesta’s framework of educational dimensions to analyse the philosophy underlying education in the United Arab Emirates using published government documents and media sources. Thirdly, I report a small-scale qualitative analysis of a specific educational space, three General Studies Courses in a UAE tertiary institution, to investigate the ‘risky’ possibilities involved in implementing a pedagogy of interruption. I find that despite a dominant policy discourse that discounts subjectification, there are significant opportunities for students to develop a strong sense of self. These opportunities are created by a small but strongly motivated group of teachers and taken up, on the whole enthusiastically, by students. However, my assertions are limited by a number of challenges which warrant further research. This paper hopes to provide a meaningful contribution to the limited discussion regarding the aims and expectations of education in the Middle East, and finds a pertinent philosophical grounding for liberal studies teaching in a tertiary context. As such the paper will be of value both to policy and decision makers in the Middle East and to teachers and trainers who teach in multi-cultural and international contexts.

This chapter discusses how ‘hidden’ populations of women who use drugs (WWUD) in coastal Kenya became ‘visible’ through accessing health, harm reduction and rights services. This effort was facilitated by the Muslim Education and Welfare Association (MEWA) and their work with community leaders. Mapping undertaken by MEWA outreach workers identified women who use opioids and other substances in isolated drug use settings. MEWA introduced daily meals in identified sites, needle and syringe services and residential rehabilitation services for opioid withdrawal. The introduction of residential adherence services for HIV and tuberculosis and the provision of methadone enabled compliance with the 90-90-90 UN HIV cascade. These services achieved sustained HIV viral load suppression at 83% and a 100% cure rate for tuberculosis among WWUD. In addition, disclosure and partner risk tracing was established in the ‘drug dens’ for women who test positive for STIs. The introduction of women-only hours once per week at the drop-in centre contributed to a better understanding of drug dependency among outreach workers and clinicians. Policies on gender-based violence were also refined, leading to an increase in reported cases. Programmes targeting families were introduced to promote effective communication and improve parenting skills. Access barriers to social security programmes were tackled by a network of paralegal officers in partnership with Kenyan authorities. Finally, entrepreneurship training and mentorship programmes were implemented to build resilience among WWUD.