J Relig Health

DOI 10.1007/s10943-017-0413-1

ORIGINAL PAPER

Mindfulness in Salah Prayer and its Association

with Mental Health

Shahid Ijaz1 • Muhammad Tahir Khalily2 • Irshad Ahmad2

Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

Abstract 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

& Shahid Ijaz

Islamic.psychologist@gmail.com
Muhammad Tahir Khalily
khalily64@gmail.com
Irshad Ahmad
irshadahmad.sp@gmail.com
1
Department of Psychology, Islamabad Model College for Boys, H-9, Islamabad, Pakistan
2
Department of Psychology, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan

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study urge to spread awareness regarding offering prayer regularly with mindfulness for the
better outcome of mental health in people.

Keywords Mindfulness
Salah (prayer)
Salah education
Mental health

Introduction

Spirituality and religiousness are two core beliefs that had meticulous governance over
behaviours of multitude humans since inception of history. Submission to something
superior to self, worshiping, serving and different manners of perception instigating
feelings of relationship with some unseen divine power are the factors that were acqui-
escently witnessed in all minor and major religions of world.
Meaning of spirituality and religiousness became necessary and has been considered
with the systems of beliefs being followed by individuals or groups worldwide. It is
because multiple outlooks exist simultaneously in this postmodern world instead of a
single perspective (Hood et al. 1996). Religion was defined by Adams (1995) as any belief
in which there is particular practice of divine ceremonial or creed or a worship as it is in
five major religions of the world (Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism)
or other minor religions of the world (Adams 1995). However, spirituality has different
meanings; most of the literature describes it in the context of purpose, connectedness to
self or nature, quest for wholeness, faith in higher being, quest for hope and harmony, some
level of divine existence, and involvement in activities that give meaning to lives of people
(Powell 2002; O’Reilly 2004; West 2005).
Swotting elementary conceptions of religiousness and spirituality is apparent that both
of them are more or less concomitant with some practices or activities. Puja and dharma in
Hinduism; meditation and mandalas of Buddhist; church attendance, communion and bible
study of Christians; faith, Salah prayer, charity, fasting and pilgrimage in Islam; and
synagogues of Jews are the key practices of major religions of world (The Big Religion
Chart 2014). These practices have a major role upon mental health of an individual.
Evidence has emphasized on how religion affects mental health of an individual.
Religious practices have a preliminary and vital role upon mental health of an individual.
These practices also help to cope with frustration, anomie, anger, fears, inferiority feelings,
despondency, anxiety and isolation (Schumaker 1992). Koenig et al. examined 100 studies
that examined the association between religious behaviours and practices and factors of
psychological well-being (like happiness, positive effects and life satisfaction) from which
79 reported a significant positive correlation among variables, which indicated that per-
forming religious practices was indicator of better psychological well-being (Koenig et al.
2001). It is obvious from series of researches steered in the psychology of religion that in
general religious practice is associated with increased positive psychological effects like
better quality of life, matrimonial stability, sense of life determination and persistence.
Religiosity is also associated with less anxiety, depression and substance abuse (Koenig
et al. 2001).
According to Islam, Salah has effect upon mental health of an individual. At several
places in Holy Quran, the benefits of Salah prayer have been highlighted. Two important
benefits are ‘‘satisfaction for heart’’ (Ar-Ra’d:28) and ‘‘source of keeping a person away
from wrong behaviour’’ (Al-‘Ankabut:45). Satisfaction for heart is conceptualized ‘‘as a

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state of peaceful mind, in which person is free from worries and depression’’. Two things
explicitly cited in Quran are that those who offer Salah prayer with mindfulness will not
have any ‘‘fear (khaof)’’ or ‘‘despair (yahzanoon)’’. According to Islam, Salah has such an
effect upon the individual that it reduces or removes his fear and desolation. As a whole, it
increases satisfaction of heart. Taking the satisfaction of heart in context of behavioural
sciences, we can consider it as a general mental health of an individual. It is imperative
stance of a religion that a prescribed behavioural and mental activity carried out by his
followers will eventually have an effect on their mental health. In a coming section, we are
quoting Islamic literature on a relation of mindfulness in prayer and its relation with mental
health.

What is Salah?

Salah is obligatory prayer of Muslims. According to Islamic Jurists, it is obligatory on

every man and women who has reached his/her puberty to offer Salah for five times in a
day in a prescribed manner and at a specified time. Salah is a prayer in which there are
certain physical movements, and in every posture there are particular recital words that
ought to be uttered in Arabic language (Yucel 2007). Moreover, in Salah, there are certain
thoughts, feelings and imagination which person must develop during prayer. Primary of
them is imagination of Allah (God), as guided in authentic Hadith (Saying of Prophet
Muhammad, P. B .U. H.), ‘‘worship to Allah as you are seeing him if you cannot do like
this then at least (such thoughts) should be develop as he is seeing you’’ (Bukhari 2007). In
another saying of Prophet Muhammad P. B. U. H., it is commanded to bow and prostrate
until person feel patience. Companion of Prophet Muhammad (P. B. U. H) Ali son of Talib
said, ‘‘When I wished to talk to Allah I go for a prayer (Salah)’’. These two hadiths
(sayings) reflect that two states of mind are integral component of Salah (prayer): imag-
ination of Allah as he is in front of him, and thoughts of talking with him. These pre-
liminary thoughts take Muslim to a state of fantasy where he/she is talking to some unseen
divine power (God).
The word which Holy Quran used for offering prayer is yuqimoona (Al-Baqarah: 3).
Word yuqimoona has come from the Arabic word Iqamah, which means to straighten out.
The word hints at not merely saying or offering one’s prayers, but performing the prayers
correctly and carrying out it in all possible ways and observing all the prescribed condi-
tions and guidelines, whether they are obligatory (Fard) or necessary (Wagib) or com-
mendable (Mustahabb). The notion also includes orderliness, regularity and perpetuity in
the performance of Salah and also an inward concentration and attentiveness, with humility
and feelings of awe are necessary to attain (Shafi 2005, pp. 108–109).

Qualities of Salah Prayer

Holy Quran often uses two words for mentioning quality of Salah prayer: one is khushu and
other is khudu. The two words (Khushu and Khudu) are almost synonymous. However, the
word Khushu refers to the lowering of the voices and of the glimpse when it is not false but
ascends out of a real modesty and with real imagination of Allah—for example, as it is
mentioned in the Holy Quran: Voices have been hushed (Ta-Ha:108). On the other side,

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Khudu commands about the bodily posture which shows self-effacement and modesty—for
example as the Holy Qur’an says: their necks will stay humbled to it (ash-Shu‘ara’:4).
This quality, once attained, shows its spiritual effectiveness for compliance to com-
mands of Allah (God) and obedience to Him with ease; sometimes, this effectiveness
reflects itself even in the attitudes and in personality of the man who has acquired it, and
such a man always comfort himself in a disciplined, well-mannered, modest and self-
effacing way (Shafi 2005, p. 206).

Mindfulness in Salah Prayer in Sharia (Islamic jurisprudence)

The Holy Qur’an and Sharia (rules of Islamic Law) repeatedly stressed the importance of
mindfulness in Salah prayer, as said in Holy Quran, ‘‘And perform the prayer for the sake
of my remembrance’’ (Ta-Ha:14). As absent-mindedness is a hindrance to remembrance
and mindfulness, the man who turns out to be unmindful of Allah (God) while offering
Salah is not fulfilling his duty and obligation of worshipping Allah. At another place in
Holy Quran, it is said, ‘‘Do not be among the unmindful’’ (Al-A’raf: 205). The four great
Ima’ams (Leading Scholars of Islamic Jurisprudence; Ima’am Abu Hanifa, Ima’am Malik,
Ima’am Shafi and Ima’am Ahmed Bin Hambal) hold that mindfulness while saying Allah u
Akbar or Takbeer-e-Tehreema (first uttered Takbeer (uttering a word Allah u Akbar) at the
beginning of the Salah (prayer) is necessary. At that time, person should turn his mind to
Allah and have the intention (niyyah) of submission and intention of offering the prayers
only for the sake of Allah; if individual does not attain this khushu in the rest of the prayer,
then he will not get any incentive for that part of the prayers, but, according to Sharia
(Islamic jurisprudence), this prayer would be considered acceptable (Shafi 2005, p. 208).
Spiritual scholar Imam Ghazali on the other hand is very stern on the matter of Khushu
(mindfulness in prayer), and he considers it as a necessary condition for Salah. He insists
that a person should turn his intention to Allah in every component of Salah (prayer) (Shafi
2005, p. 208).
With the review of Islamic literature, we concluded that according to Islam, Salah
prayer is obligatory for Muslims, prayer which is offered in accordance with Sunnah
(pattern of Holy Prophet Muhammad P. B. U. H) and with mindfulness (concentration) is
considered as the authentic approach of performing prayer, and the prayer offered with
mindfulness has a positive effect on mental health and personality of an individual.
Psychological literature of previous century has also validated that performing religious
practices increases mental health (Koenig et al. 2001). Specifically, it was also confirmed
for Salah (prayer) that those individuals (Muslim) who offer Salah (prayer) regularly have
better mental health as compared to those who don’t offer it regularly (Javeed 2012). Other
researches have related Salah (prayer) with yoga, meditation, and have seen mechanisms
by which Salah (prayer) has effects on mental health (Sayeed and Prakash 2013). The study
by Doufesh et al. (2014) had showed that when individual offers Salah (prayer) this makes
a significant change in functioning of their nervous system. Parasympathetic nervous
system activity decreases, and activities of sympathetic nervous get activated. This would
have an implication on relaxation state of an individual, as they identified that Salah
increases relaxation and decreases anxiety, and this would decrease complication, which
results from anxiety- or tensed-state like cardiovascular disease. In seeing interrelationship,
a fact that needs to be explored more is how Salah (prayer) has effects on mental health.
We hypothesized that it is actually mindfulness in Salah (prayer) which have effects on

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mental health of an individual. Mindfulness in Salah (prayer) means attention going only to
(God) and sense of pondering upon religious scripture (i.e. Holy Quran). We hypothesized
that mindfulness in Salah will be more in individuals who have a better knowledge about
religion in general and particularly have a better knowledge of Salah. This would be
because ignorance about scripture language will make a person absent-minded during
Salah prayer. Arabic language is not a mother tongue of many Muslims. They perform
Salah prayer without knowing meaning of scripture which they utter during Salah. So, it is
quite apparent that they would struggle in making mindfulness in Salah prayer as they
don’t know meaning of what they are saying (i.e. uttering scripture). Instead, they are
offering prayer just to fulfil daily obligation. So, we hypothesized that less knowledge
about scripture (Holy Quran) will ultimately make individual vulnerable to have less
mindfulness during Salah, which results in less benefits (especially positive mental health)
from prayer.
This is pertinent conceptualization of interrelationship among variables. We considered
that four variables are interlinked in the process of increasing mental health by Salah
(prayer). These are Islamic religious education, specifically Salah (prayer) education,
mindfulness in Salah and mental health of individual. We proposed that a person who has a
better Islamic religious education and has a better Salah (prayer) education will have a
better mindfulness in Salah as compared with individual who has less knowledge of these
areas. Secondly, although it was proved in a literature that offering Salah (prayer) is related
to better mental health but that is not such simplistic, we hypothesized that among those
who are offering Salah (prayer) better mental health will be predicted by mindfulness in
Salah prayer instead of just offering it (without mindfulness).

Methods

A cross-sectional data comprising of Muslim population who offer prayer with mindful-
ness and those who don’t offer prayer with mindfulness (aged 16–30; M = 21.57,
SD = 2.05) were taken from Islamabad and Abbottabad city from 1 April 2015 to 4 May
2015. Sample was taken by convenient purposive sampling technique, from International
Islamic University Islamabad and Ayub Medical College Abbottabad. Students were
matched on formal education level, and it was ensured that they had a difference in their
religious education.
It is an exploratory descriptive research that refers to the provision of a rich and accurate
description of quality of mental health of individuals that offer Salah prayer with and
without mindfulness with the help of questionnaires, which provides an understanding of
their religious Salah prayer experiences in terms of mindfulness in Salah prayer and mental
health.

Instruments

For the present study, there were four variables: mindfulness in Salah, Islamic religious
education, Salah education and mental health of the participants participating in the study.
RAND Mental Health Inventory was administered to measure mental health. Mindfulness
in Salah, Religious education and Salah Education were measured through self-reported
close-ended questionnaires.

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1. Demographic Sheet Demographic sheet was designed to see four basic demographic
variables across which participants were matched. These were age, gender, socio-
economic status and formal education which person has achieved.
2. Islamic Religious Education Scale Islamic religious education scale was designed to
measure self-reported competence in Islamic religious education. This included seven
questions regarding knowledge about seven domains of Islamic religion. Seven
domains of Islamic religious education were suggested by committee of religious
scholars who were graduated in Islamic studies from Faculty of Islamic Studies,
International Islamic University Islamabad. These domains include: ability to read
Holy Quran, ability to understand the meaning of it, memorization of Holy Quran,
knowledge about Islamic jurisprudence, knowledge about Ahadit (sayings of Prophet
Muhammad), knowledge about life of Holy Prophet and knowledge about Islamic
history. Person rated his competence in knowledge about these domains on a five-point
scale. Alpha reliability of scale was measured (a = .83); this value of alpha makes it
reliable scale to be used for a research purpose. Higher scores on a scale indicate high
religious education.
3. Salah Education Scale Salah education scale was designed to measure person
knowledge regarding Salah (prayer). This scale included three questions. Three
domains of knowledge were suggested by a committee of Islamic scholars, who were
graduated in Islamic studies from Faculty of Islamic Studies, International Islamic
University Islamabad. Individuals were asked to rate their competence about
knowledge of principles of Salah, knowledge about benefits of Salah (as mentioned
in Islamic Literature) and knowledge about stories of Prophet Muhammad and his
companions (that how they offered Salah) on a five-point scale. Alpha reliability of
scale was measured (a = .82). Value of alpha reflects its satisfactory reliability.
4. Mindfulness in Salah Prayer Scale Mindfulness in Salah prayer was measured by self-
reported measures. This included questions regarding attention in six components of
Salah. There are six internal components of Salah prayer, which include Tukbeer e
Tehrima (first uttered Allah u Akbar at commencement of Salah prayer), Qiyam
(standing in Prayer), Qirat (reciting from Holy Quran), ruku (bowing down), Sujud
(Prostrating in Salah) and Qada-e-Akher (last sitting in Salah prayer) (Haddad et al.
2014). Each question requested respondent to rate his attention (i.e. either his attention
go to Almighty God, for at least one time) in most of prayers of previous month in
these six components of Salah prayer on a five-point scale. Alpha reliability of scale
was measured (a = .89), which reflected that it is reliable scale to be used for a
research purpose. The higher the scores on a scale indicated more mindfulness in Salah
(prayer).
5. Mental Health Inventory Thirty-eight items Mental Health inventory of RAND
medical outcome study (MOS): measure of health-related quality of life was used for
this research. It measures seven variables in total. Three positive feelings of mental
health include: positive effect, psychological well-being and feeling of belongingness.
Three negative feelings of mental health in this scale include Psychological Distress,
Depression/Behavioural/Emotional Control and Anxiety. One measure is for cognitive
functioning (Hays et al. 1995). Cronbach’s reliability coefficient for every subscale of
multiitem scale of inventory exceeded 0.70. Hence, it makes core measures of MOS
reliable enough to be used for group comparison (Stewart et al. 1992).

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Ethical Consideration

Writers had taken approval of research from Ethical committee for Research, Department
of Psychology International Islamic University Islamabad, in February 2015. Informed
consent was taken from all participants who were agreed to participate in research. Con-
sidering confidentiality, their personal information including name, contact details and
address were not taken for this research.

Data Analysis

Data were analysed with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences 22.0 for
Windows (SPSS, IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). In order to fulfil the objectives of the study
and to test the basic hypothesis, statistical analysis was performed. Internal consistency of
all scales was determined. For parametric data, Pearson’s correlations were used to see
relationship between scales and subscales. An independent-sample t test was used to
compare the differences between the scores of mindfulness in Salah prayer, religious
education and Salah education among the samples. Linear regression was carried out to see
predictability of mental health by variables.

Results

A total of 174 participants’ mean age was 21.57 (SD = 2.05). Among them male were 62
percent and 88% were belong to middle socio-economic class (see Table 1).
The psychometric scales used for religious education, Salah education, mindfulness and
mental health inventory show high reliability coefficients ranging from .82 to .93. The
reliabilities are good and acceptable.
As far as the value of skewness and kurtosis is concerned, it indicated that the data are
normally distributed. Therefore, decision was taken to proceed for further parametric
analysis with normality established for the data of the present study (see Table 2).
An independent-sample t test indicated that the mean on mindfulness was significantly
higher for those who offer prayers (p \ .01) than who do not offer prayer. The mean on
mental health was also higher for those who offer prayers (p \ .05) than who do not offer
prayer. To check the difference between who offer prayer with mindfulness and who do not
offer prayer with mindfulness, it was found that the mean was significantly greater for

Table 1 Socio-demographic
Variables Categories N % M SD
characteristics of participants
(n = 174)
Age 21.57 2.05
Gender
Male 108 62.1
Female 66 37.9
Socio-economic status
Lower class 07 04
Middle class 153 88
Upper class 14 08

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Table 2 Psychometric properties of study major scales

Measures No. of items a Range

Min Max M SD Skew. Kurt.

Religious education scale 07 .83 07 34 19.74 4.86 .12 .16

Salah education scale 03 .82 03 15 09.42 2.82 -.40 -.42
Mindfulness in Salah scale 06 .89 06 30 18.17 5.61 -.06 -.37
Mental health inventory 38 .93 96 178 131.07 18.23 -.03 -.32

Skew Skewness; Kurt Kurtosis

those who offer prayer with mindfulness (p \ .01) than those who do not offer prayer with
mindfulness (see Table 3).
A standard multiple regression was used to assess whether measures of religious edu-
cation, Salah education and mindfulness were able to predict the measure of mental health.
Preliminary analyses were conducted to ensure no violation of the assumptions of nor-
mality, linearity, multicollinearity and independence of residuals is occurring. Religious
education, Salah education and mindfulness were able to account for 13% of the variance
in mental health, F (3, 170) = 8.78, p \ .01. Of note two of the measures included Salah
education and mindfulness made a significant contribution in the prediction of mental
health. Salah education made a greater contribution (b = .27, p \ 0.01) followed by
mindfulness (b = .21, p \ 0.01), while religious education did not made a significant
contribution in the prediction of mental health (see Table 4).
To assess the relationship between different major scales and its subscales, a Pearson
correlation coefficient test was used. Result indicated significant positive correlation of
three negative aspects of mental health (Psychological Distress, Depression/Behavioural/
Emotional Control and Anxiety) with each other and with mindfulness in Salah prayer.
Psychological Distress, Depression/Behavioural/Emotional Control and Anxiety were
correlated by their reverse scores, i.e. the higher (or positive) the correlation value is, the
lower (or negative) the relation of Psychological Distress, Depression/Behavioural/Emo-
tional Control and Anxiety with the relevant variable is. Finally, cognitive functioning is
the integrated variable of mental health inventory. This variable has indicated its signifi-
cant positive correlation with all aspects of mental health and with mindfulness in Salah
prayer (see Table 5).

Table 3 Difference between groups regarding mindfulness, mental health and offer prayer
Not offer prayer Offer prayer 95% CI

Measures M SD M SD t (171) p LL UL Cohen’s d

MS 16.89 5.53 19.21 5.49 -2.63 .009 -3.90 -.55 .42

MHI 127.36 17.46 133.29 17.65 -2.21 .029 -11.24 -.62 .34
With mindfulness Without mindfulness
Offer prayer 135.81 17.38 127.35 17.37 2.99 .003 2.70 13.22 .49
MS Mindfulness scale; MHI Mental Health Inventory

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Table 4 Standard multiple

Variables B SE B b
regression predicting mental
health from religious education,
Salah education and mindfulness Religious education -0.09 .33 -.02
Salah education 1.68 .57 .27**
Mindfulness .65 .23 .21**
R2 0.13
F 8.78**
* p \ .05; ** p \ .01

Table 5 Relationship between major scales and its subscales

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1. Mental health – .247** .712** .728** .850** .929** .970** .561** .782**
2. Mindfulness in prayer – .180** .207** .148* .208** .213** .199** .260**
3. Positive effect – .950** .470** .549** .591** .604** .373**
4. Psychological well- – .450** .555** .590** .823** .374**
being
5. Anxiety – .763** .882** .293** .689**
6. Depression/emotional/ – .962** .417** .659**
behavioural control
7. Psychological distress – .429** .721**
8. Feeling of belongingness – .276**
9. Cognitive functioning –
** p \ .01 level (1-tailed), * p \ .05 level (1-tailed)

Discussion

As it is commonly supposed that the more an individual is trained to perform certain

behaviour, better would be the outcome of that behaviour. We had proposed a model based
upon this connotation, that Muslims who have a better Islamic education in general and
particularly better Salah education will have better mindfulness and those having better
mindfulness in Salah (prayer) will have a better mental health as compared with others who
don’t offer prayer with mindfulness. This model was verified by our results. It was found
that there is a significant positive correlation between Salah prayer education and religious
education (p \ 0.01), and both had a positive correlation with mindfulness in Salah prayer
(p \ 0.01). When regression analysis was run, Salah education and mindfulness were able
to account for 13% of the variance in mental health, and both of the measures made a
significant contribution in the prediction of mental health (p \ 0.01), while religious
education did not make a significant contribution in the prediction of mental health (see
Table 4). This reflects that a general knowledge about Islamic religion is not enough to
develop a mindfulness in Salah. Precisely, a knowledge about Salah (prayer), that how
Prophet and his companions (called Sahaba) offered it in different life circumstances (like
in grief and happy moments) and how much importance Salah (prayer) has in religion
(called fazail in Arabic), helps individual to develop more mindfulness in Salah. It is
relevant to consider that we asked individuals to rate that, how much they consider
themselves as having enough knowledge about these domains. We measured individual
perception about his competence in knowledge rather than actually measuring a religious

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knowledge. So it is quite apparent that individual may actually have less knowledge
regarding Salah (prayer) benefits, but their perception regarding their competence could be
high. For them, this less knowledge is also much, and that perception of having enough
knowledge about benefits of Salah is apparently giving them a faith or confidence to offer it
in a prescribed manner to gain a full religious benefit. That self-perception about a com-
petence in knowledge of benefits of Salah (prayer) has found to predict their mindfulness in
Salah prayer.
It was found that offering prayer regularly was positively related to mental health of an
individual (p \ 0.01) (see Table 5). Likewise, findings of this research suggested that there
was a significant difference in mental health among individuals who offer prayer regularly
and those who don’t offer it regularly (p \ 0.05) (Table 3), which shows the consistency
with other jurisdictions (Javeed 2012). It is well-evidenced proposition that there is a sound
relation between religious practices and increase in mental health (Koeniget al. 2001). We
were more interested to see components of Salah which are actually related to mental
health. From Islamic literature, it was made evident that mindfulness is integral part of
Salah. Imam Ghazali quoted Companion of Prophet Muhammad P. B. U. H., Muaddh ibn
Jabal and jurists such as Sufyiin Soori and Hasan al-Basari Salah that prayer offered
without mindfulness is not valid (Shafi 2005, p. 207). Our findings revealed that mind-
fulness was positively related to mental health of an individual (p \ 0.01) (Table 5), and it
made 21% contribution in the prediction of mental health (p \ .01) (Table 4).
In Islamic scripture, it is also indicated that Salah restrains man from evil deeds;
however, if it is performed without mindfulness, then consequently such a man can go
farther and farther away from Allah (Shafi 2005, p. 207). Consistent with this prophecy we
found a significant difference in mental health of those individual who are offering prayer
with mindfulness and those who are not offering it with mindfulness (p \ .01) (Table 3).
Additionally, we found that mental health was significantly related to those individuals
who offer Salah prayer regularly (p \ .05) and with mindfulness (p \ .01) (Table 3).

Conclusion

The present study aimed to examine the role of Salah education, religious education and
mindfulness in offering prayer on mental health. The findings 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 mindfulness in prayer
(Salah) and Salah education play a significant role in mental health. The findings of this
study urge to spread awareness regarding Salah education and offering prayer regularly
with mindfulness for the better outcome of mental health in people.
Compliance with ethical standards

Conflicts of interest Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding Writers have not taken funding from any organization for this research.

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