Background and aim: Spiritual health and striving for excellence has gained attention among scholars and health sociologists. Striving for excellence, defined as the human connection with God through trust (tawakkul) and good opinion of God, faith, seeking divine pleasure, pure intention, gratitude, humility, patience, piety, justice, prayer, remembrance of God, repentance, reflection, self-knowledge, and correct belief in the afterlife, along with the concept of a “healthy human” as the core of development, are among the key questions this article aims to address from the perspective of the Quran and Nahj al-Balagha.
Materials and methods: This is a research study, and the discourse on spiritual health and striving for excellence, along with their impact on development, has not yet been fully structured. Accordingly, this study was conducted by directly referring to the literature of the Quran and Nahj al-Balagha, examining the conceptual relationship between spiritual health, striving for excellence, and development, centered on the concept of the “healthy human”.
Findings: There is a significant relationship between development, spirituality, and health. In the Quran and Nahj al-Balagha, spirituality is a crucial dimension of both health and development. Within this framework, development serves as a tool to achieve striving for excellence and the comprehensive perfection of the human being.
Conclusion: Spiritual health, which centers on the spiritual human within the process of social and economic development, plays two key roles: it is either the foundation of development or its ultimate goal. Therefore, if development lacks a goal of “excellence” or a foundation of “spirituality”, any structure built upon it will be unstable. |
