By reaching perfection and closeness to God and reaching the source of the light of existence, man can benefit from his endless mercy. Almighty God is absolute perfection, and nearness to absolute perfection is the main goal of creation. Considering that those who are not God do not have anything of their own, and whatever perfection God’s servants have is originally from God and belongs to him, the closer people get to God, the more they will benefit from God’s mercy. Therefore, in the work environment, this perfection appears in the form of spiritual intelligence and spiritual health based on Islamic teachings and affects organisational variables such as occupational stress. Today, the role of spiritual intelligence is considered an important issue in improving spiritual health, reducing occupational stress and effective social functioning, especially in an Islamic environment, which leads to a better understanding of employees about their job. Therefore, the present study aims to evaluate the effect of spiritual intelligence of Muslim managers on the spiritual health and occupational stress of employees in Islamic organisations in Iraq. The statistical population includes 3422 Muslim managers and employees of 50 service organisations (including finance, education and tourism) in Iraq in 2022. The results of the hypothesis test in Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) shows, spiritual intelligence has a significant effect on spiritual health (
The findings of the research indicate that spiritual intelligence leads to the improvement of spiritual health and as a result reduces occupational stress, especially in an Islamic environment. Therefore, it should be taken into consideration by the managers of the organisations in order to achieve the maximum benefit in light of Islamic teachings.
Nowadays, spirituality based on Islamic teachings has broadly attracted attention in response to the turbulent and complex environments of organisations. In general, spiritual intelligence is specific to human beings and originates from awareness of a transcendental dimension. Transformative intelligence is one that empowers people to be creative and change laws and roles. In addition, it helps humans make countless adjustments and transform conditions in the best way possible (Abdullah
Over the past decades, health has been analysed based on certain dimensions (physical health, mental health and social health). Suggesting the inclusion of spiritual health in the concept of health faced experts in the health field with an important aspect of a person’s individual and group life. Because of this suggestion, the World Health Organization (WHO) dealt with the issue of whether the spiritual dimension should be included in the definition of health in addition to physical, mental and social health (Banks
Today is an era of competition and complexity, and all organisations are dealing with each other and often have unpredictable behaviours. Therefore, the only way to get people to work is to encourage them to develop their spirituality, the proper foundation for which must be laid by their leaders and managers (Shaari & Matore
Spiritual intelligence is the ability to behave with wisdom and compassion while maintaining inner and outer peace, regardless of the situation. People with high spiritual intelligence can behave fairly and compassionately while judging. In addition, spiritual health lays the foundation for achieving meaning in life (Yang & Wu
Today, attention to the spiritual dimension of health has been considered in many of the definitions provided for health, and suggestions have been made to include spiritual health in the definition of health by the WHO as a health dimension. The lack of differentiation between spiritual health and spirituality in many sources is one of the significant topics. While it can be rationally argued that there are some overlaps between the definitions of spirituality and spiritual health, it is common and challenging to consider them synonymous with each other or at least to use them in different texts without distinguishing between them (Young
It is clear that introducing the definition of spiritual health to the Western health literature and secular systems has not seriously altered various dimensions, including medical education and the provision of daily medical services and university counselling centres. In fact, the problems of modern systems and the serious challenges faced by them persist, and the complexity of these challenges is increasing every day. Spiritual and religious values are considered a general and inclusive concept in the definitions related to the countries of East and South Asia. Moreover, the spiritual and religious basis is considered important in European public health texts. The American public health literature has referred to a combination of spirituality with religion and well-being while the spiritual health dimension has been overlooked in the definitions of health by the WHO (Azizi
Furthermore, they defined spiritual health as a feeling of being connected with others, having meaning and purpose in life and having belief and connection with a higher power (Chapman
Different definitions have been provided for mental pressure. For instance, Gordon (
Fontana (
Physical definition: physical exposure to external pressures (force in feet, pounds, kilograms, pascals) where the material is deformed by the force and eventually breaks.
Biological definition: the body’s reaction to external forces (heat, altitude, high pressure, lack of sleep).
Novel sociological definition: vulnerability to diverse work needs, time pressure and psychological and social conflicts that are related to today’s world.
Some state that mental pressure is caused by the body’s response to any arising need (Perrewé et al.
Positive mental pressure: useful or good tension, which is related to the feeling of happiness and cheerfulness and doing work and stimulates the person to perform better and create opportunities and challenges.
Negative mental pressure (distress): unhelpful or bad tension, which is long-term and causes several mental pressures. It is caused by the aforementioned needs or unfavourable responsibilities.
This was a descriptive survey in terms of methodology and an applied one regarding the objective. The statistical population included 3422 Muslim managers and employees of 50 service organisations (including finance, education and tourism) in Baghdad and Najaf in 2022. Data were collected using field and library methods, with the former involving three standard questionnaires and the latter focusing on a review of the literature.
Data analyses were performed using descriptive and inferential statistics. In addition, the research hypotheses were tested in Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) software by applying structural equation modelling (SEM). It is important to note that that 3422 out of 3397 questionnaires were completed and entered into the analysis process. Based on the demographic characteristics questionnaire, 78% of the employees were male and the rest (22%) were female. In addition, all participants were Muslim. Regarding marital status, 67% of the respondents were married and 33% were single. The general model of the research was designed in the LISREL software, and the conceptual model of the research was investigated using SEM in order to evaluate the relationships between research variables, reliability coefficients and model quality using the test results.
The spiritual intelligence of Muslim managers has a significant effect on the spiritual health of employees.
According to the results obtained from the structural model, spiritual intelligence on spiritual health has a
Structural model of the first research hypothesis.
The spiritual health of Muslim managers has a significant effect on the occupational stress of employees.
According to the results obtained from the structural model, spiritual intelligence on spiritual health has a
Structural model of the second research hypothesis.
Spiritual health has a significant effect on the occupational stress of Muslim employees.
According to the results obtained from the structural model, spiritual intelligence on spiritual health has a
Structural model of the third research hypothesis.
Without any doubt, spirituality in human life is as important as breathing. Spirituality is a human value, positive, existential and dependent on the ontology of human dimensions, which plays an important role by creating a desire for life and search for the meaning of life – and beyond life. Spirituality is a global phenomenon required by all people to find meaning and accept life through connection with oneself and others. Therefore, physical health needs communication with a doctor of the body, and spiritual health needs communication with a doctor of the spirit. Since the human soul has complex capacities and dimensions, there are connections and influences between the soul and the body, between the individual and the society, between the world inside and outside of man, between the unseen world and intuition and between the world and the hereafter. The sure way of spiritual health is to rely on the divine revelation that has the necessary scientific framework for these complex relationships. This shows the necessity of religion. Spirituality in the Islamic world can be defined in two ways: spirituality is a state created as a result of ignoring material affairs and focusing on inner affairs. Therefore, spirituality can be defined as attention to the reality of the world since it is the opposite of attention to material affairs. Here, reaching the truth of the world means getting close to God. Accordingly, paying attention to God can be considered the basis of spirituality in heavenly religions. A number of religious intellectuals provide a functionalist definition of spirituality: spirituality brings a way of facing the universe and inner satisfaction in a person’s life. Therefore, to them, spirituality is an approach, not a school. The difference is that spirituality in a school is a part of principles accepted by all fans and thinkers of that school, but spirituality in approach is not the same, and different types of spirituality can be established in this certain approach to the world and religion. Islamic spirituality is a feeling and state [
Spirituality is one of the most important basic needs of humans that can affect their other needs. In Islamic spirituality, epistemological answers can be given to the fundamental questions of man regarding ontology, the truth of humanity and the purpose of creation. In order to achieve spirituality, humans need to correct and revise their vision and attitudes in these three levels and focus on the relationship between spirituality, monotheism, self-knowledge and philosophy, and the purpose of creation. The foundation of Islamic spirituality is based on the knowledge of God and monotheism, and it finds meaning in it. In the philosophy of ethics, it has been proven that the root of virtues dries up by removing God and monotheism, and such a person does not see any motivation to acquire virtues. A person who does not believe in the origin and resurrection may not do anything because of the necessity of socialising and living together with the same species. However, this respect for manners is not rooted in belief and inner values; rather, it may be out of necessity or fear of the police. Human nature refers to the mental and psychological characteristics of humans. Human nature has unique characteristics. Humans are multidimensional beings who are potentially and actually institutionalised in their nature, which has the ability to grow to the extent of Allah’s caliph. When your Lord said to the angels, “I am going to place a successive ‘human’ authority on earth”’ (The Holy Qur’an, Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 30).
In addition, achieving perfection and the highest goal of life is being close to God and reaching the source of the light of existence [
Managers’ emotional abilities in recognising appropriate emotional responses when faced with everyday events lead to expanding the scope of insight and creating a positive attitude about them. Therefore, managers who are able to identify, control and use these emotional capabilities will benefit more from social support, a sense of satisfaction and mental health and can generate this feeling in the organisation and employees. Meanwhile, the workforce satisfied with their job and workplace can play a significant role in supplying comprehensive quality and productivity in government and commercial organisations and can be the basis for economic, social and cultural development. Given that stress reduces growth and health, and with regard to its growing trend in service organisations caused by the mental pressure of the work put on employees in addition to the psychological load and pressure of clients, this factor can increase occupational stress. However, occupational stress can be reduced if managers and employees seek to improve their spiritual health. In this regard, the results obtained from testing the research hypotheses, which are presented in
The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.
Q.A. wrote the original draft; S.G.T. contributed to project administration; T.A. contributed to conceptualisation; M.H.A. was responsible for validation; Z.T.S. contributed to data curation; T.K. was responsible for visualisation; I.M. contributed to investigation; A.A.R.-C. contributed to conceptualisation; D.S. was responsible for methodology.
This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.