Türk Manevi Danışmanlık ve Rehberlik Dergisi
Yazarlar: Ahmet Canan KARAKAŞ, Ömer Faruk HABERGETİREN
Konular:Din Bilimi
Anahtar Kelimeler:Spiritual counselling and care,Itiqāf,Spirituality,Mental health,Psycho-pathology
Özet: Humankind is a relational being. It is possible to see this rationality in his/her nature. Because human is also a bio-psycho-socio-spiritual being. When the subject is considered in a holistic way, one's spiritual experiences can also affect other parameters concerning his/her health. Indeed, it is a known fact that mental health of individuals having high spirituality is better than those of others. Itiqāf is also an important sunnah that has positive effects on an individual’s spirituality. It is a season of spirit and spirituality that Muslims fulfil in a mosque during the last 10 days of the month of Ramadan. Itiqāf is of the important prayers fulfilled by our Prophet every Ramadan. According to the Islamic belief, itiqāf means going to a secluded place to engage in worship; it means staying in mosques or masdjids during the last 10 days of Ramadan, especially to worship, being engaged in the knowledge of faith and in reading the Quran. The aim of itiqāf is to have a person alone with him/herself paring the relations with the world to the bone, and to get closer to God by engaging in worship and prayer more than ever. This rapprochement could keep an individual away from psycho-pathological issues. In this way, the individual could keep away from the possible fatigue of the issues experienced in real or virtual environments he/she was in relation with. Thus, stepping into the process of spiritual tranquillity, the individual could also minimize his/her psycho-pathological problems. In this study, whether the itiqāf has an effect on spirituality and certain symptoms of mental health have been investigated. This study was carried out during the itiqāf in 2019 Ramadan. 39 volunteers enjoying itiqāf in Mehmet Zahid Kotku Mosque under the Erenler District Mufti in Sakarya, in Sultan Veled Mosque under the Meram District Mufti in Konya, in Kotku Mosque in Üsküdar District Mufti in Istanbul have taken part in the study. Short Symptom Inventory and Spirituality Scale were applied to the participants as pretest-posttest design. It was observed that the pretest average of the spiritual scale was 115,821, and the average of the posttest was 121,462. SSI pretest mean was 46,000 and posttest mean was 41,615. The study showed that the participants' scores in spirituality increased significantly, while their short symptom inventory points decreased insignificantly. The individuals aged mostly between 31-40 years improved in spirituality. For this group of age, the spiritual pretest average is 96,000, while posttest average is 116,000. The maximum decrease in psychopathology is spotted in the age range of 61-70. The pretest average is 56,800 and the posttest average is 41,400. This result can be interpreted that the itiqāf partially affects the general mental health.