Mindfulness in Salah Prayer and its Association with Mental Health

Plethora of researches has been carried out for the last many decades and has identified relationship between mental health and religious convictions; in particular, range of religious practices has been found instrumental in the promotion of mental health. The aim of this paper is to find out association between mindfulness in Salah (prayer) and mental health of individuals who identify themselves with Islam and to examine the mental health of those Muslims who offer Salah prayer with mindfulness and those who offer without mindfulness. A total of 174 participants with mean age of 21.57 including 62% males and females 38% were selected through convenient sampling. RAND Mental Health Inventory was used to measure mental health and other three variables; three self-reported measures were constructed. They included Islamic religious education scale, Salah education scale and mindfulness in Salah scale. Psychometric properties for all scales were established. The findings indicated that mean on mindfulness and mental health was significantly higher for those who were offering Salah (prayer) regularly (p < 0.01) as compared with those who were not offering it regularly. Moreover, those who were offering Salah (prayer) with mindfulness had also significantly higher mean for mental health (p < 0.01) as compared with those who were offering it without mindfulness. Religious education, Salah education and mindfulness were able to account for 13% of the variance in mental health (p < 0.01). Of note two of the measures included Salah education and mindfulness made a significant contribution in the prediction of mental health (p < 0.01). The present study indicated that individuals who offer prayer regularly and with mindfulness have better mental health as compared with those who don't offer it regularly and with mindfulness. The findings of this study urge to spread awareness regarding offering prayer regularly with mindfulness for the better outcome of mental health in people.