In Therapy, With SheikhaGPT
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When reporter Yassmin Abdel-Magied's friend tells her she's been using ChatGPT as a therapist, Yassmin doesn't know what to think. The chatbot calls her friend "habibti." Gives her Islamic relationship advice. It's helping her reconnect with her faith in ways no human in her life has been able to. But it's also a product built by a tech company with no foundations in Islamic psychology.
This week on the show, Reporter Yassmin Abdel-Magied goes down a rabbit hole to try and understand Islam's relationship to mental health and whether AI can ever truly heal us. And she finds a Stanford professor asking herself the same questions.
This week on the show, Reporter Yassmin Abdel-Magied goes down a rabbit hole to try and understand Islam's relationship to mental health and whether AI can ever truly heal us. And she finds a Stanford professor asking herself the same questions.
Episode Credits
Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Reporter
Taqwa Sadiq
Producer
Sarah Qari
Story Editor
Salman Ahad Khan
Story Editor and Composer
Alexander Overington
Composer, Sound Designer, and Engineer
Heba Elorbany
Fact-Checker
Sohaira Siddiqui
Host
Lina Jaradat
Illustrator
Suggested Reading
Awaad, Rania, and Merve Nursoy-Demir. Maristāns and Islāmic Psychology: A Historical Model for Modern Implementation.
Abdel-Magied, Yassmin. “Are You Using ChatGPT for Therapy?” Substack, 2025.