Islamic Spiritual Health: An Empirical Study of More than a Decade of Activity

As approved by the World Health Organization, spiritual health is one of the four dimensions of health (physical, mental, social, and spiritual). Many countries have noticed this health dimension and have introduced it in the fields of education, research, and healthcare services. However, this important dimension of health in our country has not been given serious and detailed attention so far. This is despite the fact that the dimension of spirituality, from the perspective of Islam, is the deepest dimension of human existence and can have the greatest and most profound effects on other dimensions of human existence. Based on this concern, it has been more than ten years since the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran established the "Islamic Spiritual Health Group" and has made prominent thinkers from the university and the seminary a member of the group, and it has done important and effective activities including conducting research and authoring books, writing scientific articles and textbooks, publishing journals, holding conferences, seminars and scientific workshops, scientific collaborations with other institutions, etc. This article aims to briefly explain Islamic spiritual health, introduce the activities of the Islamic Spiritual Health Group of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and most importantly, transfer the experiences of more than a decade of managing this field to the institutions, thinkers and those concerned in the field of spiritual health.