In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Peace be upon you, O Abu Saleh Al-Mahdi (may Allah hasten his reappearance and make his emergence easy).
Since the second half of the twentieth century, especially after the 1980s, research on religion and spirituality has increasingly gained popularity among psychologists and in the field of psychotherapy. Time magazine wrote in 1980, “Interest in the study of religion has revived, and God is returning to the scene of human life.” Spirituality is an essential dimension of human existence; sometimes the absence of spirituality can be a psychological problem. Research has also shown over the years that asking patients to leave their religious beliefs behind during treatment is impossible. Religion, as one of the ways of spiritual living, not only plays a vital role in giving identity to many people but also in helping people cope with difficult situations, especially illness, and hardship (Koenig, 1998).
It should be noted that spiritual needs become particularly important when a person’s life is threatened by a disease. Ignoring the spiritual world of a human being is just like ignoring their social environment or psychological state, and the result of this negligence is a failure in treating the “whole person” (Koenig, 2000). We now know that spirituality is a part of human existence and forms the basis of individuals’ identity and being, giving purpose and meaning to life (Koenig, 2002).
In 2012, Bonelli and his colleagues conducted a review study. In this study, 444 articles were reviewed over 50 years, which studied the relationship between religious-spiritual interventions and depression. The review showed that in more than 60% of these studies, it was evident that both religious and spiritual practices, as well as interventions, had better effects on treating depression, or had reduced the seriousness of severe depression.
Studies on the relationship between religion and mental health have advanced and transformed in recent decades. The authors of the book “Spirituality, Religion, and Mental Health: A Handbook for Professionals” not only state that religion and spirituality are closely related to individuals’ health status, but also discuss the impact of religion, its reasons, and which individuals are more affected by.(Rosemarin and Koenig, 2020).
Considering what was discussed above and the popularity of Islam in the region, it seems essential to develop treatment and educational programs with an Islamic model for Muslim communities. For this purpose, great efforts have been made in recent years in our country, Iran, in this field. Various educational and therapeutic packages have been developed by university experts and used in treatment sessions, which are tailored according to society’s religion and culture and, therefore, are more appropriate and practical.
Religious Savior Centred Psychotherapy (RSCP) is one of these methods.
This treatment has been developed based on the pillars of improving quality of life by Frisch (2005) in a Qur’anic framework, drawing on concepts from multidimensional spiritual therapy by Janbozorgi (1398) and, most importantly, centered around the positive concept of “active anticipation of reappearing the savior”
The underlying theory of this treatment was developed by a contrastive analysis of the concepts of “active anticipation” and “attention to Imam Mahdi” Other psychological approaches such as perfectionism, positive psychology, and meaning therapy have also been taken into consideration.
Researchers then used a data-driven theoretical approach through numerous interviews with specialists in this field to establish the foundations of this Islamic educational and therapeutic package focused on the concept of “active anticipation of the reappearance.” Next, the effectiveness of this treatment was evaluated after obtaining ethical codes from the relevant medical university committee, and the results were very promising. Hopefully, the fruitful results of these studies will soon be published in scientific research articles and will be made available to researchers and interested individuals.
In conclusion, since the educational-therapeutic package is beneficiary from both educational and therapeutic aspects, it can be addressed by both clinical patients and non-clinical enthusiasts. This means that the method has a therapeutic aspect for clinical patients, while non-clinical individuals can benefit from their personal development. The educational-therapeutic package acts as a preventive and well-being promoter.
Furthermore, the RSCP group strives to familiarize counseling and psychology experts interested in working in this, and if possible, invite them to collaborate in therapeutic and research areas soon.