Measuring Muslim Spirituality: Relationships of Muslim Experiential Religiousness with Religious and Psychological Adjustment in Iran

Abstract

Spirituality based on a Muslim perspective centers on loving submission and closeness to God. A 15item Muslim Experiential Religiousness Scale operationalized this definition of spirituality in a sample of 627 Iranian university and Islamic seminary students. Muslim Experiential Religiousness correlated positively with Intrinsic and Extrinsic Personal Religious Orientations, Muslim Attitudes toward Religion, and Satisfaction with Life, and negatively with Anxiety and Depression. This new instrument also displayed incremental validity over religious orientation and Muslim attitude scales, and an ability to explain variance in the relationships of these measures with other variables. Islamic seminarians scored higher on Muslim Experiential Religiousness than more general university students, and this scale mediated contrasts between these two student groups. In short, the Muslim Experiential Religiousness Scale demonstrated a clear potential for assessing Muslim spirituality and thus for advancing a Muslim psychology of religion. 78 Nima Ghorbani, P. J. Watson, Shiva Geranmayepour, and Zhuo Chen