Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
Ph.D. in Public Administration, Department of Management, Research Institute of Hawzah and University, Qom, Iran
2
Professor, Department of Psychology, Research Institute of Hawzah and University, Qom, Iran.
3
Ph.D. in Cultural Sociology, Department of Sociology, Research Institute of Hawzah and University, Qom, Iran.
10.30471/psy.2024.10299.2260
Abstract
Introduction: Spiritual needs are among the needs that have a special place in the spiritual health system of the family, particularly, the World Health Organization has recently considered the spiritual dimension alongside the physical, psychological, and social dimensions of health, which indicates the undeniable impact of spiritual needs on structuring the spiritual health. From the perspective of Islam, forming a family can provide a suitable space for meeting couples' spiritual needs. However, most couples are not aware of their spiritual needs, and as a result, they do not have the motivation and a purposeful plan to fulfill them. Some domestic studies confirm that failure to meet couples' spiritual needs creates a basis for harming their psychological security and the family moves away from its true function. Therefore, so far, no research has addressed the identification of spiritual needs and the mechanism of their impact on the spiritual health of the family and its stability. Quran-based spiritual health is a new approach in spiritual health studies that is based on the Quranic verses in the form of examples such as purification, good life, piety, and peace, and its scope includes the afterlife and the unseen and visible worlds, as well as the soul, reason, heart, and the secret of man. One of the requirements for realizing this approach is to pay attention to meeting couples' spiritual needs and to diagnose the obstacles to this. The purpose of this study is to examine the pathology of meeting couples' spiritual needs in the context of the Quran-based spiritual health approach.
Method: This study was applied in terms of purpose and was a combination of review and analytical research methods in terms of method, and library method was applied for data collection. Review research is a type of research whose goal is to independently and systematically study the research background to explore, describe, synthesize, explain, and/or criticize patterns, relationships, and trends visible in the body of knowledge that cannot be easily examined by primary research and sources. First, by reviewing the background of domestic studies conducted in this field, the factors affecting the provision of couples' spiritual needs were extracted and categorized, and in the next stage, the evidence and Quranic examples related to each of the factors were presented and analyzed.
Results: Reviewing the relevant background and the Quranic verses led to a triple classification of the factors affecting the provision of couples' spiritual needs that the failure to fulfill each of them can damage couples' spiritual health and cause instability in the family. These factors include: shortcomings in belief, shortcomings in the field of ethics and values, and shortcomings in the field of culture and social relations. The weakness of couples' insight leads to the failure to fulfill couples' belief need through the mechanism of influencing the three areas of perceived origin, belief in the afterlife, and weakness of the perception of oneself and others. The Holy Quran always tries to strengthen images of divine mercy, wisdom, and justice in the minds of humans. By forming this image in the mind, apprehension and worry are removed from humans, and humans are encouraged to work and strive more in life by being equipped with hope. Also, the Quranic verses can provide the basis for individual's spiritual balance and elevation by correcting certain beliefs about the meaning of death, life after death, and addressing human actions in another life.
In the realm of values, moral shortcomings, mutual faultfinding, ignorance of the right and spiritual assistance, and weakness of mental concepts about gender values are considered as obstacles to meeting couples' spiritual needs and, as a result, the spiritual health of the family. Weakness of comprehensive religious education (formal and informal), lack of dissemination of the culture of enjoining good and forbidding evil, weak social prestige, lack of regulation of the level of emotions and feelings within the family, and weak prayer-based spiritual communication are socio-cultural damages that cause spiritual conflicts among couples and disrupt or stop the fulfillment of couples' spiritual needs. The Holy Quran, by giving examples of man's arrogance over the earth, Satan's deception, and creating envy in the hearts of believers, emphasizes that the material blessings of the world are fleeting and mortal, and instead of focusing on insignificant worldly blessings and falling into the trap of unnecessary comparisons, couples should look to God's sustenance, which is much better and more lasting for man. Faultfinding, ingratitude, anger and wrath, pessimism, and slander are among the moral shortcomings that cause the spiritual needs of each other to not be met and, as a result, the instability of the family. By describing couples as clothing for each other, the teachings of the Holy Quran, while providing the basis for forgiveness and creating an intimate atmosphere, prevent many other moral harms in the home environment. Couples, by taking advantage of prayer-based spiritual communication, can participate in helping each other to spread the divine religion, and by wanting to have children, on the one hand, they spread the divine religion, and on the other hand, they improve their social status.
Conclusion: The theoretical findings of this study are consistent with some findings based on clinical trials after spiritual intervention. Recent researches in this field have confirmed the importance of teaching spirituality to couples and its positive effects on spiritual health and marital stability. These researches show that teaching spirituality and paying attention to spiritual needs in marital life not only affects the mental and spiritual health of couples, but also plays an effective role in stabilizing and strengthening the family foundation. These researches also indicate that paying attention to spirituality can be a major factor in reducing psychological problems such as anxiety and depression among couples. In particular, studies have shown that spiritual interventions and focusing on shared religious and spiritual values increase empathy, understanding, and mutual support among couples, which are important factors in the stability of the marital relationship. An important part of family stability depends on trying to prevent the recurrence of damages that disrupts the spiritual health of the family in the area of couples' spiritual needs. Given that prevention always precedes treatment, preventive and care programs for the spiritual health of the family should be pursued seriously years before the family formation; if the necessary preparations are provided for young people to form a family and then have children, without paying attention to the important issue of spirituality and spiritual empowerment, the human health system will be incomplete and the family's movement on the path of divine guidance will be disrupted.
Conflicts of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to the present study.
Keywords
)