Effect of Holy Qur'an Reciting on Mental Health, Quality of Life and Positive and Negative Affects

In the last two decades, religious behaviors have been studied as components of mental health promotion, and researchers have been looking for behaviors that have the greatest impact on mental health and well-being. Studying and reciting the Holy Qur'an are one of the religious behaviors considered in Islam. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of reciting the Holy Qur'an during one year on mental health, quality of life as well as positive and negative affects.

For this purpose, 60 Qur'anic students of Imam Al Hadi Institute and Jahrom University were randomly selected in two groups of 30 (each group consisting of 10 men and 20 women) and were evaluated in pre- and post-tests. Data were collected through three questionnaires including general health questioner (GHQ), positive and negative affects (PANAS) and quality of life were used. The data were analyzed using independent t-test.

Results indicated that there was a significant difference in post-test between the two groups of Qur'an reciters and non-reciters, in other words, the reciters' group had better mental health (p<0.01), more positive affect and less negative affect (p<0.01) and better quality of life (p<0.05).

According to the results, reciting the Holy Qur'an has positive effect on various aspects of health such as mental health, quality of life and emotions as well as promotes them.