MUSTAFA TEKKE

Personality and religion relationship has long been studied by Western and Muslim researchers in order to find any association between religious factors and a person's behavior and thought. The present study sought to expand research by investigating the differences in the latent factors, namely Tawhid (Belief in God), Nubuwwa (Awareness of Prophetic Teaching), Self-striving, and Self-regard, in a newly developed scale of Integrative Islamic Personality Inventory (IIPI). The sample of this study was a group of undergraduate students (n= 1235) in ten universities in Turkey. Data were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. The main goal of this study was to investigate the statistical properties of this scale and examine if it could be applied across university students. It is apparent that Belief in God and Awareness of Prophetic Teaching, Self-regard and Self-striving represent psychological and social implications for individuals. Thus, the model of this research makes an important contribution to understanding and predicting how Muslims think, act, and experience Islam.

Secularism as central to society and human life may bring undesired negative consequences in Muslim societies. Increasing social problems among juveniles in Turkey raised questions regarding the right personality development and education of young people. In extending further analysis, we conducted semi-structured interview with experts to assess the level of Turkish personality and impact of Said Nursi, who is a very influential Islamic scholar in Turkish society and to the Islamic movement in general. This study implies that education integrated with Islamic belief and practice will be more influential to educate Turkish Muslims, rather than secular based teaching. This result will be a guideline for educationists and counselors. In future study, developing a personality scale integrated with belief and practice will be beneficial to Muslim communities.

This study examines the psychometric properties of a revised form
of the Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude towards Islam comprising only
positive valence items. Data provided by 189 Sunni students in
Malaysia (41 males and 148 females) support the internal
consistency reliability and construct validity of this instrument and
commend it for application in further studies.

Personality in Islam is understood as an all encompassing way of life, resulting in an approach that is able to connect every aspect of behavior, attitude, and feeling for Muslims. The existing gap in instrumentation capable of capturing the major elements of the Islamic personality can only be filled by beginning with an organic definition and concept for personality from the Islamic perspective. This study presents reconceptualization of personality in religion as an Integrative Islamic Personality Model (IIPM) developed by using the ideas of Carl Rogers and Said Nursi. This model comprised of four constructs; Belief in God, Awareness of Prophetic Teaching, Self-striving and Self-regard. This personality measurement within Islamic and Western perspectives is greatly considered to be beneficial to educators and counselors in order to measure relevant personality of an individual. Bütünleştirici İslami Kişilik Modelinin Geliştirilmesi Öz İslamda kişilik Müslümanların davranış, tutum ve duygularını her açıdan bağlayıcı bir yaklaşıma sebeb olarak hayatın tümünü kapsayacak şekilde anlaşılır. Islami kişiliğin ana değerlerini kapsayabilecek ölçek için var olan boşluk sadece İslami perspektife bağlı ve kişiliğin orjinal kavramı ile başlanarak dolduralabilinir. Bu çalışma Carl Rogers ve Said Nursi'nin fikirlerinden yararlanarak geliştirilen Integrative Islamic Personality Model (IIPM) adında dindeki kişiliğin yeniden kavramlaştırma çalışmasını sunar. Bu model dört bölümden oluşur; Belief in God, Awareness of Prophetic Teaching, Self-striving, ve Self-regard. Islam ve Batı perspektifini içeren bu kişilik modeli bireyin belirtilen kişilik ölçümü için eğitimcilere ve rehbercilere büyük oranda fayda sağlayacağı düşünülmektedir.

This study explored some self domains and reviewed them through Islamic perspective, more particularly self-knowledge and faith. It provided an extensive literature on particular concepts of self-striving, self-regard, and self-neglect. To briefly point out, the self has many origins, however deeply noted as such heart, spirit, and psyche in Islam. From these, this study looked at the two known self domains: self-striving, and self-regard. Apart from these concepts, researchers differently chose self-neglect. With this, the study indicated the self-neglect is an important concept as defensive behavior and these all self concepts might be useful as a central of human nature for future experimental development.

Religious Reflection Scales yield cross-cultural data suggesting that religious traditions have potentials to integrate intellect with faith. This investigation extended analysis of that possibility to Sunni Muslim university students in Malaysia (N = 211) and also examined the hypothesis that Islamic commitments to knowledge (Ilm) promote religious openness. Faith and Intellect Oriented Religious Reflection correlated positively and predicted openness. The Truth of Texts and Teachings factor from the Religious Schema Scales essentially assesses a form of fundamentalism and displayed direct linkages with religious openness as well. Ilm factors from the Ummatic Personality Inventory correlated positively with religious openness and mediated associations of Islamic Religious Reflection with other constructs. Quest as a presumed index of religious openness proved to be incompatible with sincere Muslim commitments. These findings supplemented previous Muslim, Christian, and Hindu data in confirming the potential openness of religious traditions.