Performing Congregational Prayer and its Effects on the Lifestyle and Mental Health of Farhangian University Students and Staff (with a Phenomenological Approach)

In the last two decades, religious behaviors have beenstudied as factors affecting lifestyle and improving mental health,and various researchers have sought to identify behaviors that havethe greatest impact on lifestyle and mental health components. Oneof these religious behaviors that has been of interest in Islam ispraying in congregation. The present study was conducted with theaim of explaining the phenomenology of the effects andconsequences of congregational prayer and its effects on thelifestyle and mental health of students, employees and facultymembers of Farhangian University of Ardabil province.

This research is practical in terms ofpurpose and phenomenological in terms of method. In this research,in order to investigate the effects and psychological-socialconsequences of congregational prayer, 24 expert andknowledgeable people were used, using criteria-based purposefulsampling until reaching theoretical saturation. The data collectiontools were semi-structured interviews and scientific documents.And in order to analyze the data, it was done using the themeanalysis method and using open, axial and selective coding in theMAXQDA2018 software. The validity of the research findings wasensured by using methods of review by members, peer review, andthe collaborative nature of the research. Also, in order to measurethe reliability of the done codings, retesting and intrasubjectagreement methods were used, which obtained 80 percent and 79percent, respectively. Since they were higher than 70 percent, itsreliability was confirmed.

The results showed that the number of primary conceptsobtained from the interviews was 73 concepts, in the form of threemain individual themes including sub-themes (closeness to God,commitment to Islamic ethics and human excellence), social andfamily themes including sub-themes ( Social cohesion, increasingmorale and strengthening social (psychological) harmony weredivided into sub-themes (decreasing psycho-physical tensions,mental health and moral virtue).

Based on the obtained results and for the practicalapplication and use of Namaz works in different dimensions of lifein the society, the serious will of influential factors in this field isnecessary.