Islamic Spiritual and Emotional Intelligence and Its Relationship to Eternal Happiness: A Conceptual Paper

This paper discusses the relationship between spiritual and emotional intelligence and eternal happiness, from an Islamic perspective. In Islam, achieving spiritual intelligence first requires a close relationship with God—established, for example, through consistent purification of the soul, repent...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health
Main Author: Wahab, Mastura Ab. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. 2022
In: Journal of religion and health
Further subjects:B Spiritual Intelligence
B Islam
B Emotional intelligence
B Eternal happiness
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:This paper discusses the relationship between spiritual and emotional intelligence and eternal happiness, from an Islamic perspective. In Islam, achieving spiritual intelligence first requires a close relationship with God—established, for example, through consistent purification of the soul, repentance, acts of worship, performing good deeds and avoiding evil. Through such action, the light of God—which comes with Divine guidance and the knowledge of truth—touches the hearts of believers, causing them to experience pure contentedness. This study takes a qualitative approach, using the NVivo text analysis tool to analyse texts from 43 references, comprising 31 journal articles and 12 books or chapters. The three most frequently used words were ‘Islamic’, ‘spiritual’ and ‘happiness’, while ‘intelligence’ was the fourteenth most-used. This finding highlights the fear of God due to the love of God as the highest obedience, as it is the purest and sincerest degree of worship (i.e. for God’s sake completely). Spiritual intelligence trains the soul from its prone-to-evil state to become more angelic or serene, thereby increasing emotional intelligence. This will be reflected in a believer’s attitude, emotion and behaviours aligning with the conduct commended in Islam, to whom God promises an afterlife of eternal happiness in Heaven. This paper draws on the Qur’an and Sunnah as well as prominent Islamic scholarship to support the Islamic concepts discussed, enriching our understanding and perspective on the Islamic concept of spiritual and emotional intelligence and its role in attaining eternal happiness in Islam. This study also highlights several key concepts pivotal to Islamic spiritual and emotional intelligence as pre-requisites for obtaining eternal happiness, therefore advancing current knowledge on the subject.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-021-01485-2