PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN ISLAMIC PRAYER – SALAH IN YOUTH

Abstract

UDK 28-534.3

The aim of this article is to analyse psychological aspects of religious experience of Islamic prayer – salah (prayer) in youth, that is the young peoples’ perception of salah and their experience thereof. The research was conducted on a sample of 9 respondents (7 female and 2 male) whose age on the average was 21 years. For evaluating religious experience of youth in salah we used qualitative method of research and the semi-structured interview technique. The results of qualitative analysis show that religious experience of young people in salah could be described
through following topics: positive perception of salah;
the positive emotions in salah ( the sense of inner content and bliss, pleasant feeling towards God and the sense of gaining acceptance and support of God); sustaining pleasant disposition and the positive self-perception after the salah; the pleasant feelings are most intense during the morning and the evening prayer; the need to address God in mothers’ tongue after the formal prayer; the sense of negative feelings and the negative self-perception at the occasion of omitting the prayer and at the occasion of having disrupting thoughts during the prayer.