The Experience of Muslim Prayer: A Phenomenological Investigation

Some form of prayer is a central feature of virtually all religious traditions. In Christianity, this practice has been studied periodically by social scientists over decades, although it has received only recent attention in Islam. Among these few prayer studies, none has focused on the awareness o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Williamson, W. Paul (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science Business Media B. V. [2018]
In: Pastoral psychology
Year: 2018, Volume: 67, Issue: 5, Pages: 547-562
RelBib Classification:AE Psychology of religion
AG Religious life; material religion
BJ Islam
Further subjects:B Phenomenology
B Religious Practices
B Islam
B Muslim prayer
B Prayer
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:Some form of prayer is a central feature of virtually all religious traditions. In Christianity, this practice has been studied periodically by social scientists over decades, although it has received only recent attention in Islam. Among these few prayer studies, none has focused on the awareness of experience in Muslim prayer from a first-person perspective, which is the aim of this study. This investigation conducted phenomenological interviews with seven Muslims of five different cultures to obtain detailed descriptions of their prayer experiences. A hermeneutic-thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews found a pattern of four themes that emerged across all protocols to collectively describe the meaning of the experience of prayer for participants: (1) No Connection/Connection; (2) Particular Feelings; (3) Spiritual Change; (4) and Certain Knowledge. These findings are discussed in relation to the existential grounds of Body, Others, and Time, as well as current empirical literature on Muslim prayer.
ISSN:1573-6679
Contains:Enthalten in: Pastoral psychology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11089-018-0831-3