spirituality

Human beings are constantly active to live their everyday life. They spend long hours of their life on working and activity in closed and confined environments. That along with urbanization, mental and psychological traumas and physical harms has led some to think about leisure time and its significance in their life. Meantime, various schools of thought and ideologies attach great significance to leisure time. Islam also recognizes the necessity of tourism, as a prescribed form of leisure time, at individual and social life. In this regard, tourism with a spiritual approach is followed by an intellectual upgrade and spiritual evolution of humans, leading to intellectual and spiritual enrichment. This study has been conducted to examine the status of leisure time and tourism in the holy Quran and hadiths. This descriptive-analytical research, which is based on Quranic verses and hadiths frequently narrated in authenticated books, aims to examine various aspects of leisure time and tourism in the Quran and hadiths. The findings of this research show that Islam views leisure time as a moral issue. Relying on the Quranic verses and hadiths, tourism may be divided into halal (permissible), makrouh (non- recommended) and haram (strictly forbidden). Quranically tourism with a spiritual approach brings about serenity, durability and blessings while being faith-based and beyond gender division.

Spirituality in the present world has surpassed different geographical, racial, religious, gender, and etc. boundaries. The issue has emerged under such different titles as religion, originality, the meaning of life, etc., and raised a number of debates. The enthusiasm in seeking meaning has been manifested in various fields including tourism as much as the journey is sometimes interpreted seeking for meaning. However, it is yet unclear how the two areas are linked together in different tourism approaches and branches. Volunteer tourism, among these, is known as one of the increasingly prevalent approaches to various forms of tourism. In this regard, the present research intends to find the relationship between volunteer tourism approach and spirituality highlighting literature review. Then, relying on practically available pieces of evidence, spiritual effects of Iranian Pro-poor tourism (Travel of Iranian volunteers to deprived areas) is reviewed and emphasized on volunteer tourists as an Islamic-Iranian voluntary traveling model.

The purpose of the present study is to identify and prioritize spiritual-based tourism strategies in Qom province. The present study is interpretive from the philosophical foundations point of view and is applied from the point of view of orientation. It is also a survey in terms of data collection and from a methodological point of view, it is qualitative. The statistical population of the study is the experts and managers in the field of tourism and the sampling method is judgmental. 10 experts were selected from among the samples. In order to carry out the research, internal and external factors affecting the spiritual-based tourism in Qom province were identified through reviewing the literature and interviewing experts. After the internal and external factors were screened, 15 internal and 14 external factors remained. In addition, the nature of internal and external factors was identified in terms of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and the most effective factors were determined by using the DEMATEL technique for preparing the SWOT table. With identifying the final list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, strategies were prioritized from the perspective of research experts by ARAS method. Three strategies to support provincial headquarters, banks and entrepreneurship funds from web-based tourism businesses and social networks, defining research priorities of tourism-related organizations based on civil society support, and strengthening  training programs to justify diversity in the community and its benefits had the highest priority.

Today, we confront forces bringing spiritual and ethical values into business which have together has a meaningful concept for each business. Nowadays, the growing attention to ethical issues in workplaces has caused the organizations tend to set ethical codes. However, the results of recent studies show that the ethical organizations will obtain more benefits over a long period and will gain better financial and non-financial performance. So this issue has caused the ethical values of organization be an important part of the organization’s culture. Beside this, ethical issues have always been a noteworthy topic in tourism concepts. Therefore, the present research has examined the effect of ethical values and empathy on nonfinancial performance of tour operators in Tehran through the organizational commitment. The statistical population is composed of employees of tour operators and data were collected by the standard questionnaires. Results show that ethical values and empathy in workplace have a positive and significant effect on organizational commitment and following that non-financial performance of organization.

Human beings take a step in the path of discovery and searching the universe. Meanwhile, travel is one of the means of searching wisdom and experience for communicating with the land, nature and the world’s creator, as well as finding meaning and concept of life. Therefore, humans understand travel as a source of perception and take benefits from it for recognizing themselves and the universe. The term "spiritual perception" is defined as a way for understanding and interpreting all non-material affairs related to the origin of human soul which has been investigated in this research. In this regarda qualitative-quantitative method has been applied in which the spiritual perception factors were obtained by using concept analysis method after conducting deep interviews with experts. Four factors of human hypothesis, spiritual truth, outward truth and human interaction were considered. Study population consisted of foreign cultural tourists travelling to the City of Isfahan from March to June 2018.  Gathered data was analyzed by using structural equation and Smart PLS. The results showed that all the hypotheses of research were confirmed and there were meaningful relationships among tourists' spiritual perception and mentioned factors.    

Hajj pilgrimage is one of the divine duties that is held every year by pilgrims. In addition to the jurisprudential issues of Hajj, the pilgrimage of Hajj has many individual, social, and political effects. This pilgrimage provides an opportunity for the pilgrims to gain spirituality. Anther role of Hajj is to create a platform for Muslims around the world to get to know each other. Professor Morteza Motahhari, as an Islamic thinker, believes that Hajj pilgrimage has great potentials for creating spirituality among Muslim societies. There is an international place (Kaaba) that belongs to all the believers of the world and also the same religious identity of the pilgrims of this holy house and some of the practices of this pilgrimage have the capacity to create real unity among Muslims. This research tries to study the role and position of Hajj pilgrimage in Professor Morteza Motahhari's thoughts by descriptive-analytical method and review the capacities of Hajj pilgrimage in creating spirituality from the perspective of Professor Morteza Motahhari.

Literary tourism is a sort of cultural tourism that deals with places and occasions from fictional texts and the lives of their authors. This might be related to a novel or a writer, such as going to a poet's grave. Literary tourism is, in fact, a kind of Tourism that adds to the knowledge and information of tourists and is a kind of combination of entertainment and education helping a lot to know more about society and culture as well as helping nations and cultures becoming closer and closer to each other at the international level. The present study is applied and descriptive survey research in terms of purpose and method, respectively. The statistical population of the study is literary tourists includes the city of Shiraz. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS and AMOS software programs, and a regression method was exerted to test the path analysis of hypotheses. Findings of this study indicate that literary tourism has a positive, significant effect on increasing re-visit tourism destination through the originality of the tourism destination brand, brand love, attachment, nostalgia, and loyalty of attitude and action.  

Pilgrimage can be considered as one of the oldest manifestations of religious tourism history and it is coupled with the formation of religions among human beings. On the one hand, the shrines of the religious personalities enjoy a special place in religious convergence, and on the other hand, it is considered a suitable platform for cultural and spiritual awareness among pilgrims. Nowadays, proper management of pilgrimage and recognition of the capacity to convert these centers into cultural hubs of the country, especially with the geographical distribution of their influence, is very important. Accordingly, it is necessary to describe and analyze religious propositions and pay attention to the potential facilities and talents of religious tourism. This research uses the descriptive-analytical method based on library documents to investigate the impact of pilgrimage institutions as an effective mechanism on spirituality and cultural life.

The aim of this paper is to explore young people’s perceptions of spirituality as well as analyzing the role that spirituality plays in their wellness and travel. The work builds on previous studies that examined young peoples’ attitudes to spirituality, as well as research that examined cross-cultural differences in understandings of spirituality. The research draws on questionnaire data (a sample of 227) that was collected in two languages from young people in Generations Y and Z aged 18-39. The questionnaire was designed in English but was also translated into Mandarin Chinese. Both generations and cultural/language groups view spirituality as more connected to the self or nature than to religion or God. Attention to religion and spirituality scored much lower than other lifestyle and wellness domains. When travelling, the desire to engage in religious and spiritual activities were also ranked low compared to other activities. The data shows that young people tend to define spirituality more in relation to their own self and nature than to religion. Spirituality is ranked relatively low compared to other domains of wellness. However, although religious and spiritual motivations and benefits are ranked lower than some other experiences during travel, many young people prioritize trips that involve better connections to nature and the self, which reflects their original definitions of spirituality.

Introduction: One of the factors that can create the necessary commitment among employees for the success of the organization is the prevailing atmosphere of the organization. In other words, a proper atmosphere and favorable moral climate help to improve performance, achieve goals, and maintain communication in the organization and play a vital role in the performance of the organization (in any field of work). Therefore, this study aimed to explain and design a spirituality-based work ethic model in the workplace in the Crisis Management Organization, Tehran, Iran. Method: This applied research was conducted based on a mixed methodology. The statistical population of this study in the qualitative part consisted of 128 directors of Tehran Crisis Management Organization in 2020-2021, reaching saturation with 19 people. Moreover, the statistical population of this study in the quantitative part included the staff of Tehran Crisis Management Organization in 2020-2021, among which 250 samples were selected based on Cochran's formula. The samples were chosen using stratified random sampling method and the instruments employed in the qualitative and quantitative parts were an exploratory and semi-structured interview and a researcher-made questionnaire, respectively. The collected data were analyzed in MAXQDA-2020 software and AMOS-26 software in the qualitative and quantitative parts, respectively. The AMOS software was used to measure the structural equation modeling and analyze the model fit indices. Findings: According to the findings, the work ethic model was based on spirituality in the workplace. In this model, ethical commitment, professional commitment, and relationship commitment were considered causal conditions of spirituality-based work ethic in the workplace in the Crisis Management Organization. Moreover, organizational ethical climate, Islamic ethical culture, ethical leadership, and ethical and Islamic education were respectively considered a pivotal phenomenon, interactive strategies, intervening conditions, and contextual variables of spirituality-based work ethic in the workplace in the Crisis Management Organization. Conclusion: The results of showed that all the reviewed indices were accepted to evaluate the fit of the modified structural model of the research. Given this, it can be said that the fit of this model was "approved". Furthermore, the total effect values of contextual variables, causal conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and interactions, and pivotal variables on spirituality-based work ethic in the workplace were obtained at 0.40, 0.51, 0.38, 0.65, and 0.61, respectively. The p-value of < 0.01 was considered significant.

In this modern and civilized contemporary era, there are various spiritualist movements and schools claim to satisfy the transcendent nature of man. They are often in opposition to the divine religions and seek to marginalize them. These movements have been emerged and developed in an all-humanist context, and they have a number of epistemological, anthropological, and ontological foundations. In order to prove their ineffectiveness in responding to the thirst of the spiritually thirsty human being, it must be first examined and meticulously criticized their foundations. One of the most important anthropological foundations of secular spirituality is individualism, which, by focusing on the desires and inclinations of the individual, seeks him within the search for the entire truth, and reject other external authority such as divine revelation and prophets. The basis saying that the spiritual behavior of modern human being is only on the needs and desires of the “inside” of man, denies the authority and validity of any external authority and it causes separation of human existence from heavenly religions. In contrast, the anthropological foundations of genuine and Islamic spirituality, rely on the existence of divine and common human nature between individuals. Thus, these Islamic foundations provide the possibility of general advice on spiritual journey. In addition, they consider guidance through revelation and true religion as the only reliable reference to respond to the nature and the transcendent spirit of man.  

Tourism covers all the visitor's activity from the beginning to the end of the trip. It is a journey made for business, experience, relaxation, pleasure and learning. This trip can be rooted in the beliefs and culture of the tourist and based his values. In this case, tourism activities can change the worldview by increasing the tourist's knowledege of visiting nature and heritage. According to most psychologists, not paying attention to mental needs endangers the physical health of community members. Strengthening the positive spiritual dimensions by traveling to religious and pilgrimage sites can mainly meet these significant human needs. The present research is based on descriptive study and library documents. The purpose is to describe the relationship between tourism, religion and spirituality. The results of this study show tourism could be based on the divine worldview. It can also be associated with spirituality and the acquisition of morality and lessons. Based on this, it can be said that tourism activity is based on spirituality. 

Spirituality is considered one of the prominent components of Islam, to the extent that without it, a person will not find the path to happiness. The educational role of spirituality is one of its functions, and given the country's need for faithful elements, educating students based on this component is essential at the level of the Islamic Revolution. The present study aims to answer the question of ‘How the level of spirituality among students at the Islamic Revolutionary University of Mazandaran is?’ The research method is descriptive-survey and its approach is practical. There are about 4,500 postgraduate students at the University of Mazandaran, and based on the sample size formula, 354 students were selected as the research sample using random sampling. The questionnaire was the data collection tool, and its validity was confirmed by several faculty members before the research. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the overall reliability of the questionnaire was 0.963. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical indices in the SPSS software version 24. The research findings indicate that among the research sample, as a statistical population, there is a significant and positive relationship between the Islamic Revolution and the spirituality of students, and spirituality indices such as belief in God, understanding of metaphysical phenomena, self-sacrifice, sincerity, and perseverance have grown. However, it is necessary to reform the education system in a way that strengthens their spiritual mindset, and officials must take serious steps to realize the Islamic University.

SUBJECT & OBJECTIVES : The enhancement and progress of Uganda's higher education system necessitate a foundational integration of religion and spirituality, the vital components that uphold the interests and dignity of Ugandan citizens. This research aims to scrutinize the profound effects of a religious and spiritual-based higher education system on both individuals and the broader societal framework.   METHOD & FINDING : Employing a descriptive-analytical approach, this study conducts a comprehensive investigation into Uganda's higher education system through case studies and document analysis. Additionally, it explores the multifaceted dimensions of religion and spirituality within this context. The findings indicate a positive correlation between implementing a holistic religious and spiritual lifestyle and its constructive impact on the personal and communal aspects of Ugandan citizens' lives within the higher education sphere.   CONCLUSION : Uganda's higher education system faces challenges that significantly impact individual and societal prosperity, leading to widespread criticisms and skepticism. Consequently, it has garnered low scores both locally and internationally. The cultivation of a lifestyle guided by religious and spiritual principles such as freedom, dignity, equality, and justice demonstrates a beneficial influence on the lives of Ugandans. Therefore, integrating religion and spirituality within higher education is a potential avenue to positively transform individual trajectories and societal paradigms, fostering the emergence of independent, esteemed, and morally grounded Ugandan citizens.

Many people travel in search of life-altering experiences, which, in the form of epiphanies, lead to a profound and positive transformation in their daily lives. This paper focuses on the intersections of religion, spirituality, and wellness, and how similar experiences in these areas can be interpreted through viewing people through the lens of the human “soul”. After briefly defining religion, spirituality, and wellness, attention is turned to the medicalization of religion and spirituality in the form on wellness. The relationships between the soul, spiritual health, and travel are then briefly discussed before concluding.

The main aim of this article, which is to express the essence of duʼa, starts with a question: what is duʼa, and doesn't it constitute a gap in the system of causality and rational structure of the creation of the world? A definition of the essence of duʼa and its dynamics is given through the presentation of the essential basis of the creation of the world according to some Quranic verses, as well as Islamic speculative Gnosticism according to which the world is based on desire and demand (talab). On this basis, the ontological status of duʼa and the fact that it does not contradict God's wisdom is underlined. The second part of the study is based on an interpretation of a Quranic verse according to which the reality of duʼa is made possible only thanks to God and through His creation of an innate divine human nature, which naturally searches its God and addresses its demands to Him. From this point of view, the special status of man in respect to all the other creatures who, through his supplications, is responsible of defining his ontological status in this world and the hereafter, is also presented