The Influence of the Martyrs' Testaments of Kurdistan Province on Promoting Spiritual Intelligence and Self-Esteem

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the martyrs' testaments of Kurdistan province on promoting spiritual intelligence, mental health and self-esteem in university students. This study is a quasi-experimental, post-test, and semi-experimental. The statistical population consisted of all male and female students who were a member of Basij in Payam Noor University of Qorveh Branch in the academic year 2015-2016. A sample of 30 students was selected using available sampling method and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received 9 sessions of martyrs' wills of Kurdistan province based on the book “The Complete Testaments of Martyrs”, but the control group did not attend classes or sessions. Data were collected using King's 24-item Spiritual Intelligence and Cooper Smith's 58-item Self-Esteem Questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The results showed that the mean scores of spiritual intelligence and self-esteem in the post-test were significantly higher than the post-test in the control group. The findings indicate that martyrs’ testaments are effective in improving and enhancing students' spiritual intelligence and self-esteem. Also, martyrs' testaments can be effective in promoting the culture of self-sacrifice and martyrdom