A Proposed Model for Religious Education Based on Aesthetic Pleasure Components: A Case Study of Wisdom–Mystical Literature

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Tarbiat Modares University (TMU)

2 Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction



This study addresses the gap between theories of religious aesthetics and their practical application in religious education. Four major Persian mystical texts—Ḥadīqat al-Ḥaqīqa, Kashf al-Maḥjūb, Moṣībat-nāmeh, and the Mathnawī—were selected as representative didactic religious texts to demonstrate how aesthetic experience can be mobilized in the service of religious education.



Method



The study employed a qualitative design using a thematic analysis approach. Themes were extracted through a hybrid inductive–deductive process. To ensure transparency and replicability, the analytical procedure was implemented through Python-based coding, including text preprocessing, identification of dominant themes, frequency calculation, and network-based co-occurrence analysis.



Findings



A total of 25 sub-themes were identified. The cognitive/exploratory dimension accounted for the largest share (41.9%), followed by the contextual/audience-dependent dimension (31.5%), the formal/expressive dimension (14.4%), and the emotional/affective dimension (10%); ambiguous cases constituted only 2.2%.

Co-occurrence analysis revealed that religious understanding is most effective when accompanied by affective arousal (cognitive × emotional = 14). Formal innovations were shown to play a key role in intensifying affect (formal × emotional = 13), while modes of expression exert a direct influence on contextual interpretation (contextual × formal = 10; cognitive × contextual = 8).

Based on these relationships, a five-stage instructional model for religious education is proposed: (1) an initial brief affective stimulus, (2) formulation of an exploratory problem, (3) guided engagement with multi-contextual understanding, (4) meaningful formal re-creation accompanied by concise analytical explanation, and (5) closure with an open-ended problem to sustain conceptual inquiry. Within this model, aesthetic pleasure is not treated as an end in itself but as a mediating mechanism for deepening religious understanding and inference.

Keywords

Journal of Islamic Education

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 05 February 2026

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