Despite the centrality of afterlife reward and punishment beliefs in the religious life of Muslims, few empirical studies have sought to understand how such beliefs affect the psychological state and social behavior of Muslims. Past scant related studies have concluded that these beliefs are unhealthy, because they are positively associated with anxiety and death anxiety. This finding contradicts a central notion in Islamic theology, which states that avoiding afterlife punishment and obtaining afterlife reward is the primary motive for Muslim religiosity. The current study attempts to deepen our understanding of how Islamic afterlife reward and punishment beliefs affect the psychological state of Muslims. The study suggests that the influence of Islamic afterlife beliefs on well-being can be better understood from the perspective of meaning management theory as well as through the eudaimonistic tradition of well-being. This study has two goals: To develop the Islamic Afterlife Reward and Punishment Beliefs (IARPB) scale, and to examine the relationship between IARPB and Muslim religiosity, death anxiety, death acceptance and integrity. Data were collected from Jordanian university students (N = 605). Exploratory and confirmatory analyses support the construct validity of the IARPB Scale. IARPB positively predicted Muslim religiosity, death anxiety, death acceptance, and integrity. Results of ad hoc analysis indicated that IARPB suppresses death anxiety and amplifies death acceptance by increasing Muslim religiosity. In general, the results indicate a positive relationship between IARPB and the psychological state of Muslims. The limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The purgatory doctrine, which has played a vital role in Christian culture, states that most believers must experience afterlife punishment in order to be cleansed of their sins before entering Heaven. Traditional Islamic theology rejects the notion of purgatory (Al-Motahher) through the Balance doctrine (Mizan), which states that if the good deeds performed during a Muslim’s life outweigh their bad deeds, the person will enter heaven without suffering or punishment. This study hypothesizes that folk intuitions and cognitive biases (tendency to proportionality) explain, in part, the emergence and spread of the purgatory doctrine in the Islamic world. Drawing on a cognitive science of religion lens, the current study examines this hypothesis in an Islamic cultural context. Quantitative surveys (three studies) conducted in Jordan (n = 605, and n = 239) and Malaysia (n = 303) indicate that the doctrine of purgatory is prevalent (36% in Jordan and 69% in Malaysia) despite its contradiction with the Balance doctrine as defined by Islamic theology. To our knowledge, this is the first study documenting the phenomenon of theological incorrectness in Muslim afterlife beliefs by using empirical research. Implementation of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Islamic theology emphasizes the importance of achieving balance (equilibrium) between afterlife hope and fear for spiritual health. This study is a preliminary step to measure this phenomenon among young Muslims. The aim of this study is to examine afterlife expectations balance by developing new survey measures of afterlife hope expectations (AHE) and afterlife fear expectations (AFE). After validating the content of both measures, data were collected from Jordanian university students (N = 605) and Malaysian university students (N = 303). Exploratory and confirmatory analyses support the validity of the AHE and AFE. The results from both countries indicate a high level of AHE and a low level of AFE among Muslim youth. Potential implications on spiritual health and recommendations for future research are discussed.

The psychological and social effects of the doctrine of purgatory (temporary afterlife punishment) have not received sufficient attention from sociologists. Temporary afterlife punishment (TAP) is any kind of ‘temporary’ torment a person believes they will receive after death as a result of one’s sins, before admission into heaven/paradise. Investigating the effects of TAP beliefs can help to understand their social impact on contemporary Islamic societies. Drawing on related research on the Protestant ethic hypothesis, and self-control theory, the present study theorized the negative psychological and social impact of TAP. We argue that the effect of the Predestination doctrine on pro-sociality is best attributed to the Protestant denial of belief in TAP, and that the positive impact of afterlife punishment beliefs on self-control and prosocial behavior decreases with belief in TAP. To test these hypotheses, we first developed the Temporary Afterlife Punishment Expectations (TAPE) scale and examined the relationship between TAPE and self-control, rule-breaking ability, and integrity (as an indicator of prosocial behavior). Data were collected from Muslim youth in two countries (Jordan N = 605 and Malaysia N = 303). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the Jordanian data support the construct validity of the TAPE scale. In line with our hypotheses, path analysis results supported the negative effects of TAPE on self-control, rule-breaking ability, and integrity. Replicating the study with the Malaysian sample led to similar results. Future research directions are recommended.

Literature from the cognitive and cultural evolutionary sciences of religion indicates that afterlife reward and punishment beliefs increase prosociality. Although Muslims are among the strongest adherents in afterlife reward and punishment belief, there is evidence that there are low levels of prosociality in these societies. This study explores this paradox. Because previous studies have mostly relied on variable-centered approaches to analysis, it is difficult to understand how different afterlife beliefs and expectations together affect Muslims. Using a person-centered approach, the current study employed Latent Profile Analysis to understand how Islamic afterlife reward and punishment beliefs and expectations interact with each other, and what profiles result from this interaction. The study further explored the relationships between the resulting profiles with religiosity, prosociality (integrity, rule breaking ability, self-control), death attitude (death anxiety, and acceptance), and future orientation. The study used data collected from Jordanian (n= 605) university students. The results indicate that profiles with high levels of afterlife reward and punishment beliefs and afterlife hope expectations have a positive association with religiosity, prosociality and death attitude in both samples, while profiles with high levels of afterlife fear expectation, temporary afterlife punishment expectation, and compulsory temporary afterlife punishment belief have a negative association with religiosity, prosociality and death attitude. The profiles that show the best performance constitute only 23 percent of the Jordanian sample. The study results confirm the existence of a unique phenomenon in which supernatural punishment beliefs have a negative effect on prosocial behavior resulting from belief in temporary punishment in the afterlife.