DOES RELIGIOSITY HELP MUSLIMS ADJUST TO DEATH?: A RESEARCH NOTE

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1 OMEGA, Vol. 7(1) , 2008 DOES RELIGIOSITY HELP MUSLIMS ADJUST TO DEATH?: A RESEARCH NOTE MOHAMMAD SAMIR HOSSAIN, MBBS, MS, PH.D. MOHAMMAD ZAKARIA SIDDIQUE, MBBS, M.PHIL., MCPS Medical College for Women and Hospital, Bangladesh ABSTRACT Death is the end of life. But Muslims believe death is an event between two lives, not an absolute cessation of life. Thus religiosity may influence Muslims differently about death. To explore the impact of religious perception, thus religiosity, a cross-sectional, descriptive, analytic and correlational study was conducted on 10 Muslims. Self-declared healthy Muslims equally from both sexes (N = 10, Age range 20 to 0 years, Minimum education Bachelor) were selected by stratified sampling and randomly under each stratum. Subjects, divided in five levels of religiosity, were assessed and scored for the presence of maladjustment symptoms and stage of adjustment with death. ANOVA and correlation coefficient was applied on the sets of data collected. All statistical tests were done at the level of 9% confidence (P < 0.0). Final results were higher than the table values used for ANOVA and correlation coefficient yielded P values of < 0.0, < 0.01, and < Religiosity as a criterion of Muslims influenced the quality of adjustment with death positively. So we hypothesized that religiosity may help Muslims adjust to death. INTRODUCTION According to Islam, death is an event between the life on earth and the life after death. When we deal with the concept of existence in relation to death in our daily 2008, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc. doi: /OM.7.1.f 113

2 114 / HOSSAIN AND SIDDIQUE life, there are two main types of thought that can come on one s mind one that represents death according to a naturalistic tradition as the absolute end to life and the other comprises of a more theistic perspective describes death as an event before the afterlife. This research was conducted in Bangladesh where the majority of the population practices Islam. So for the practical purpose and to be more precise, the Islamic concept about death was chosen as the theistic concept for this research. In naturalistic, non-theistic perspectives, death is the permanent and irreversible cessation of all vital functions namely the brain function, the respiratory function, and the circulatory or heart function. Thus, for death, end represents something permanent and irreversible, and functioning mainly represents existence. Integrating the above two aspects, death can be very rationally defined as the absolute disappearance of functioning. Islam defines death as a mandatory transitional event in between the life before death and life after death. So the definition of death for a Muslim would be the absolute disappearance of the functions on earth especially for the time period in between the two lives one before death and another after death. As a result it abandons the permanent and irreversible criteria of the end in the scientific concept of death with the help of the concept of the life after death (Hossain, 2007a, 2007c). So an approach that compares the necessary adjustment conditions of different groups of Muslims with different extents of religiosity (i.e., belief in Islam reflected by religious activities) will also reveal the conditions under the influence of this religious concept. As a result comparative adjustment with the universal phenomenon of death among average healthy adult Muslims against their religiosity will be revealed. This will ultimately reflect any support for Muslims from the criteria of religiosity in adjusting with death. METHODS The methodology of this research was mainly arranged for the purpose of qualitative measurement and comparison. Also the targets for measurement like religiosity, adjustment with death are scarcely measured by scientific methods. With all those challenges, this is a phenomenological, descriptive, analytic, and correlational study done on the Muslims of Bangladesh. It needed the average healthy subjects (in this case healthy subject meant those who does not know about any disease of himself/herself that might remind him/her of death especially) who could understand death, religion, psychiatric symptoms, and overall target of the research, at least after explanation. So 10 subjects were selected within the age range of 20 to 0 years and all having education at least up to Bachelor degree. Grouping for religiosity was done with the theme activity indicates the pattern of belief inside oneself (Hossain, 2007d). Here the activity selected for measurement was the Muslim s daily mandatory prayers of five times a day. The first group of the subjects was formal preachers who not only say

3 DEATH AND MUSLIMS / 11 their daily prayers timely, but also preach people and teach the rules of religion to believe and perform. The rest of the groups were consisting of non-preachers but with varying degree of religious activity (five times mandatory prayers). Thus the groups, each containing subjects where there was equal amount of male and female, were: 1) consisting of Muslim preachers who also say their prayers very regularly; 2) consisting of non-preacher Muslims who say their prayers five times a day in due time; 3) consisting of non-preacher Muslims who say their prayers five times a day but not timely; 4) consisting of non-preacher Muslims saying their prayers one to five times a day; and ) consisting of non-preacher Muslims who say their prayers zero to five times a day. So in the language of this research, the groups can be described as the more perfectly a group performs religious activity, the more religious they are. So if we give scores against each group for not being religious, for the convenience of tabulation and calculation, in ordinal manner that should be a Reverse Religiosity Score (RRS) for them. In this research the RRS for groups was fixed as: 1) 1; 2) 2; 3) 3; 4) 4; and ). The Neurotic Symptom Score (NSS) checklist (Hossain, 2007e), which is a checklist containing the name of the symptoms related to maladjustment, was given to all the subjects. After explaining to every one appropriately, the list was check marked by them. Each check marked list yielded one NSS for one subject. The Death Rejection Score (DRS) checklist (Hossain, 2007b) was also given to all of them and they returned it after check marking. Each check marked list yielded one DRS for one subject. Reliability and validity coefficient of the NSS and DRS tests could not be offered within the scope of this study. Among the above scores, two types of scores (NSS and DRS) were used to represent the dependent variables. Means of each type of scores were obtained for each group and tabulated. ANOVA was applied on the sets of data collected. For the purpose of qualitative analysis RRS, the ordinal scores, was used as independent variable and were also used for the calculation of the coefficient of correlation with both the NSS and DRS separately. Correlation coefficient was also calculated between NSS and DRS. All statistical tests were done at the level of 9% confidence (P < 0.0). RESULTS RRS, NSS, and DRS data were collected from the completed checklists. Tables representing the calculations will follow. Means were calculated and tabulated as shown in Table 1. After the Analysis of Variance test of the data obtained from the mean NSS values of different groups of Muslims the results are shown in Table 2. After the Analysis of Variance test of the data obtained from the mean DRS values of different groups of Muslims the results are shown in Table 3.

4 116 / HOSSAIN AND SIDDIQUE Table 1. Summary Table for Mean Scores of Different Groups a Study group Total number RRS Mean NSS Mean DRS a This table demonstrates that with the gradual increase of the RRS the NSS and DRS also gradually increase. The only exception is seen in the row of group B where NSS and DRS value is higher than expected. Table 2. ANOVA Table for Mean NSS Values a Square of variance DF Sum of square Mean sum of square F ratio Between the groups 1= Error 149 4= Total 10 1= a This table demonstrates the calculation of F ratio for the mean NSS values from the five groups of Muslims. The computed F ratio is The above two calculations (Table 2 and Table 3) show that the computed F ratios are greater than the table F ratio. Thus the mean NSS and mean DRS of the five different groups differ significantly. After the calculation the r (correlation coefficient) was 0.92, and thus P value was between 0.0 and After the calculation the r (correlation coefficient) was 0.96, and thus P value was between 0.01 and After the calculation the r (correlation coefficient) was 1.360, and thus P value was <

5 DEATH AND MUSLIMS / 117 Table 3. ANOVA Table for Mean DRS Values a Square of variance DF Sum of square Mean sum of square F ratio Between the groups 1= Error 149 4= Total 10 1= a This table demonstrates the calculation of F ratio for the mean DRS values from the five groups of Muslims. The computed F ratio is Table 4. Table of Data for Coefficient of Correlation between the RRS and Mean NSS Values a Groups RRS Mean NSS a This table demonstrates the different mean NSS values with the corresponding RRS values of the five groups of Muslims. It indicates increase of neurotic symptoms with the decrease of religiosity. Thus all the results presented above are statistically significant. The only unexpected part of the result is the greater presence of the maladjustment symptoms and lesser adjustment with the phenomenon of death in case of than. The rest of the result is consistent with The increase of religiosity is accompanied by the decrease of the presence of the maladjustment symptoms and better adjustment with the phenomenon of death.

6 118 / HOSSAIN AND SIDDIQUE Table. Table of Data for Coefficient of Correlation between the RRS and Mean DRS Values a Groups RRS Mean DRS a This table demonstrates the different mean DRS values with the corresponding RRS values of the five groups of Muslims. It indicates the adjustment with death decreases with decrease in religiosity Table 6. Table of Data for Coefficient of Correlation between the Mean NSS and Mean DRS Values a Groups Mean NSS Mean DRS a This table demonstrates the different mean NSS values with the corresponding mean DRS values of the five groups of Muslims. It indicates increase of neurotic symptoms related to adjustment problems with the increase in death rejecting attitude. CONCLUSION Tables representing the relationship and comparison of the factors: 1) religiosity; 2) adjustment with death; and 3) overall adjustment condition, yielded results that were higher than the table values used for ANOVA and the correlation coefficient yielded P values of < 0.0, < 0.01, and < All these statistically significant results calculated from the collected data ultimately signify the positive

7 DEATH AND MUSLIMS / 119 relationship of religiosity and adjustment with death for Muslims. So it is very apparent from the above results that religiosity can be an important factor for good adjustment with the universal phenomenon of death for Muslims especially, even for those that are not expecting death due to any reason, that is, knows themselves as healthy and not aged enough to expect death in the near future. REFERENCES Hossain, M. S. (2007a, March 6). Concept of death can influence mental health A research finding in Bangladesh. EzineArticles. Retrieved April 13, 2007, from Health---A-Research-Finding-In-Bangladesh&id= Hossain, M. S. (2007b, March 22). Death Rejection Score (DRS) A new qualitative measurement system for adjustment with death. EzineArticles. Retrieved April 13, 2007, from Qualitative-Measurement-System-For-Adjustment-With-Death&id= Hossain, M/ S. (2007c, March 23). Death in Islam A concept contrast to the scientific view for mental health research. EzineArticles. Retrieved April 13, 2007, from View-For-Mental-Health-Research&id=00412 Hossain, M. S. (2007d, March 24). Belief and activity An approach to measure belief qualitatively in religious issues for research. EzineArticles. Retrieved April 13, 2007, from Measure-Belief-Qualitatively-in-Religious-Issues-for-Research&id=01078 Hossain, M. S. (2007e, March 26). Neurotic Symptom Score (NSS) A new scoring system for death related mental health research. EzineArticles. Retrieved April 13, 2007, from Scoring-System-For-Death-Related-Mental-Health-Research&id=0319 Direct reprint requests to: Mohammad Samir Hossain Shimla-House, 1st Floor 60/11 West Mothertek Dhaka-1214, Bangladesh hmanjur@bttb.net.bd