Abstract
Within the paradigm of Quranic teachings, the family serves as the focal point for spiritual growth and transcendence. However, existing assessment instruments are predominantly grounded in Western epistemological foundations, rendering them inadequate for evaluating the culture-specific spiritual dynamics inherent in the context of Islamic families. Aiming to bridge this theoretical and instrumental gap, the present study investigated the psychometric properties and validation of the "Quran-based Spirituality in Family Questionnaire" (Quran-SFQ). To this end, employing a cross-sectional survey design, the initial version of the instrument was developed. Following the establishment of face and content validity, the final 54-item version was administered to a sample of 538 parents in the cities of Qom and Mashhad. Findings revealed that a five-factor structure—comprising spiritual beliefs, spiritual practices, spiritual responsibility, spiritual care, and spiritual climate—demonstrated a favorable fit in the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (RMSEA = 0.077, CFI = 0.95). Furthermore, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the total scale (0.95) and its subscales (ranging from 0.74 to 0.90) indicated the high reliability of the instrument. Evidence of convergent and discriminant validity was also corroborated via the inter-factor correlation matrix. The results suggest that this 54-item questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for measuring the multidimensional constructs of spirituality within the Islamic family context and can be effectively utilized in clinical and educational research.

Introduction
The family constitutes the most profound and fundamental arena of human relationships, serving not only as the primary source of basic individual needs but also as a crucial environment for shaping attitudes, forming beliefs, and facilitating personal development. Within the Islamic worldview, the family is regarded as the optimal setting for spiritual growth and the cultivation of moral and religious sensibilities. The spiritual atmosphere of the family helps parents nurture religious feelings and beliefs in their children, enables couples to strengthen marital bonds, and ultimately enhances family functionality and sustainability. Empirical evidence increasingly supports the effectiveness of religious and Islamic interventions in improving family functioning, marital satisfaction, and the quality of spousal communication.
However, a critical examination of existing assessment tools reveals that most available spirituality measures are grounded in Western epistemological frameworks and are incapable of evaluating the culturally specific spiritual dynamics within Muslim families. These secular approaches often fail to comprehend the spiritual dimension and innate human nature (fiṭrah) that constitute the core of human identity in Islamic thought. The lack of epistemological alignment between existing instruments and the lived reality of Muslim families underscores the urgent need for developing culturally grounded, context-sensitive assessment tools that can accurately capture the multifaceted nature of spirituality within Islamic family contexts.
A comprehensive review of spirituality definitions in contemporary psychology reveals that most conceptualizations assume a two-dimensional structure: religious spirituality, which involves concepts of the sacred or ultimate reality within a religious framework, and existential spirituality, which refers to psychological experiences not necessarily connected to a divine reality. Despite general consensus on the importance of spirituality, the primary challenge lies in its conceptualization and measurement. Mainstream psychological definitions often reduce spirituality to a personal, secular experience detached from religious context—an approach fundamentally at odds with the Islamic understanding where spirituality is intrinsically intertwined with faith and cannot be understood merely as an inner feeling without a doctrinal framework.
In Islamic theology, spirituality represents the essential core of religiosity, extending beyond mere adherence to legal prescriptions. It encompasses knowledge of the unseen and a monotheistic understanding of the cosmic order that underlies worship and ethics, with its primary domain located in the inner dimension of human beings. In this framework, faith constitutes the belief foundation and heartfelt affirmation of religious principles, serving as the basis for any spiritual movement. Taqwā represents the behavioral and practical dimension of faith manifested through self-control and observance of divine limits. Mysticism ('irfān) refers to deep, intuitive, and inner experiences on the path to divine proximity. Qur'anic spirituality integrates all three dimensions: originating in faith, manifesting practically in taqwā, and ultimately reaching profound mystical stations. In this approach, spirituality in the family is not merely a collection of rituals but a comprehensive system of beliefs, orientations, and actions that organizes all aspects of family life toward "divine proximity" and "the good life" (ḥayāt ṭayyibah).
Despite the recognized importance of family spirituality, a significant gap exists in the availability of standardized, psychometrically sound instruments grounded in Qur'anic teachings. Most existing scales, such as the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire or God Attachment scales, are developed based on Western secular or Christian ontological foundations that do not fully align with Islamic monotheistic frameworks. Domestically developed instruments in Iran have primarily focused on individual spiritual attitudes rather than assessing the systemic spiritual dynamics of the family as a unified whole. Even internationally, specific patterns for measuring "spirituality in the family" are remarkably scarce, with the notable exception of Mahoney's "relational spirituality" model, which remains largely theoretical without a standardized assessment tool. This methodological gap has forced researchers to either rely on translated instruments lacking cultural validity or use researcher-made tools without coherent Qur'anic theoretical foundations.

Research Methodology
This research employed a mixed-methods design combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The qualitative phase involved developing a theoretical model through thematic analysis of Qur'anic verses and hadith traditions, while the quantitative phase focused on psychometric evaluation of the resulting instrument. The theoretical five-dimensional model of "spirituality in the family" was previously developed through systematic extraction of themes from Qur'anic verses and traditions, drawing upon over 300 verses, 400 hadiths, and 35 authoritative Shi'a and Sunni commentaries (Moslehi et al., 2025).
The statistical population comprised all married parents with children residing in the cities of Qom and Mashhad, with at least middle school education. These cities were purposively selected due to their religious-cultural context, ensuring maximum cultural alignment with the construct under study. Inclusion of families "with children" was based on the theoretical model's inclusion of dimensions such as "spiritual responsibility" and "spiritual care," which are closely tied to intergenerational transmission of values and parental educational roles. Following the initial psychometric evaluation phase involving 100 participants, the final validation sample consisted of 538 parents who completed the 54-item questionnaire.
Content validity was established through expert review by 34 specialists in Islamic sciences and psychology, with Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR) calculated. Face validity was assessed through administration to 20 parents from the target population. Reliability was examined using Cronbach's alpha, item-total correlations, and inter-item correlation matrices. Construct validity was evaluated through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using AMOS software, examining both first-order and second-order factor structures. The final 54-item questionnaire employs a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("very little/not at all") to 4 ("very much/always").

Discussion
Theoretical Foundations and the Five-Dimensional Model of Family Spirituality
The conceptual framework underlying this instrument establishes spirituality in the family as "the presence of a spiritual atmosphere within the family, formed on the basis of members' spiritual beliefs, spiritual activities, and spiritual care, where these activities and responsibilities are undertaken to maintain such an atmosphere, ultimately leading to family functionality and improved family performance" (Moslehi, 2022, p. 15). This construct is not an abstract concept but a dynamic, interconnected system comprising five Qur'anically-grounded components that exist in a longitudinal and developmental relationship with one another.
Spiritual Beliefs (Cognitive Core): This dimension constitutes the foundational substructure of the spiritual family, grounded in a monotheistic worldview. In Qur'anic logic, faith in the Origin and the Return is not merely a heart-felt belief but the driving engine of all family behaviors. Verses such as "those who believe in the unseen" (Qur'an, 2:3) and the emphasis on God's constant presence ("He is with you wherever you are," Qur'an, 57:4) demonstrate that spiritual beliefs determine the overall orientation of the family. This dimension represents the cognitive foundation upon which all other dimensions depend.
Spiritual Activities (Practical Manifestation of Beliefs): Beliefs require righteous action for their concretization. This component includes devotional rituals (such as family congregational prayer) and value-based interactions (such as maintaining family ties and charity). The Qur'an consistently pairs faith with righteous action and emphasizes the role of rituals in strengthening the family, as in the command "enjoin prayer upon your family" (Qur'an, 20:132). This dimension translates internal convictions into observable behaviors that shape family life.
Spiritual Responsibility (Legal-Structural Framework): In the Qur'anic family system, each member bears responsibility for the spiritual growth and otherworldly salvation of others. This dimension is grounded in the concepts of qiwāmah (guardianship) and mutual responsibility. The verse "protect yourselves and your families from a Fire" (Qur'an, 66:6) explicitly demonstrates that family leadership extends beyond material provision to include spiritual guidance and protection of members. This dimension establishes the normative expectations and obligations that structure family relationships.
Spiritual Care (Emotional-Ethical Structure): This dimension represents the gentle, compassionate spirit governing family relationships, operating beyond rigid legal obligations. Concepts such as affection and mercy (Qur'an, 30:21), companionship with kindness (Qur'an, 4:19), forgiveness, and self-sacrifice constitute this component. Spiritual care protects the family environment from moral and psychological harms, creating a space where members feel emotionally secure and supported.
Spiritual Atmosphere (Systemic Outcome): This dimension represents the ultimate output of the interaction among the previous four components. The spiritual atmosphere is the tranquility and peace that God sends down upon believing families, forming a home where God's remembrance is elevated. This environment provides a safe and nurturing context for all members, serving as the systemic outcome of the integrated functioning of beliefs, activities, responsibility, and care.
Psychometric Properties and Construct Validation
Confirmatory factor analysis provided strong support for the five-factor structure of the Quran-SFQ. The goodness-of-fit indices for both first-order and second-order models demonstrated excellent fit, with all comparative fit indices (CFI, IFI) above 0.90, RMSEA values below 0.08, and relative chi-square values below 5. All 54 items showed significant factor loadings (t > 1.96) on their respective factors, with 14 items loading on Spiritual Beliefs, 15 on Spiritual Activities, 7 on Spiritual Responsibility, 10 on Spiritual Care, and 8 on Spiritual Atmosphere. Second-order factor analysis confirmed that all five dimensions load significantly onto the overarching construct of "spirituality in the family," with factor loadings exceeding 0.40.
Reliability analysis yielded robust coefficients, with Cronbach's alpha for the total scale at 0.95 and subscale alphas ranging from 0.74 to 0.90. All 54 items demonstrated corrected item-total correlations above 0.3, ranging from 0.45 to 0.78, indicating strong internal consistency. The inter-item correlation matrix was examined to prevent artificial inflation of alpha coefficients, and items with excessive overlap (correlations above 0.80) were eliminated during refinement. Pearson correlation coefficients between subscales (ranging from 0.49 to 0.67) and between subscales and total score (ranging from 0.73 to 0.91) confirmed adequate convergent and discriminant validity, indicating that while components are meaningfully related, each captures a distinct aspect of the multidimensional construct.
Theoretical and Practical Implications
The validation of this five-dimensional model carries significant theoretical implications for the study of spirituality, particularly within Islamic contexts. First, the identification of Spiritual Beliefs as the central cognitive nucleus aligns with contemporary psychological approaches that conceptualize spirituality as a complex, multidimensional construct. However, the critical distinction lies in the nature of these beliefs—while Western instruments often reduce spirituality to personal experience or individual feelings of sacredness, the Qur'anic model situates beliefs as the foundation of a "monotheistic worldview" that shapes the entire family system. This finding resonates with research demonstrating that religiousness, mediated through constructs such as meaning in life and self-efficacy, exerts profound influence on psychological well-being.
Second, the identification of Spiritual Activities as a distinct and essential component reveals a clear departure from Western secular spirituality models that sometimes reduce spirituality to an inner feeling without behavioral manifestation. This finding aligns with research emphasizing the role of religious rituals in family resilience and confirms that shared spiritual activities function as the "glue" connecting family members during life's storms, translating heartfelt faith into concrete behavior.
Third, and perhaps most significantly, the emergence of Spiritual Responsibility and Spiritual Care as distinct dimensions represents a novel theoretical contribution. While Western instruments (such as the Spiritual Well-Being Scale) predominantly conceptualize spirituality as a factor promoting "individual peace," this research demonstrates that in Qur'anic logic, spirituality serves as a foundation for mutual commitment and obligation. These two dimensions reveal that in the Qur'anic family, members are responsible for each other's spiritual growth and serve as guardians and protectors of one another. This finding translates the Qur'anic concepts of qiwāmah and mawaddah into psychological language, demonstrating that the spiritual family is a system in which members hold themselves accountable for each other's growth and well-being.
Finally, the Spiritual Atmosphere dimension, as the systemic outcome of the preceding four components, represents the overall climate of the family, closely related to the Qur'anic concept of sakīnah (tranquility). This space provides a secure environment for member growth and resilience. This finding is consistent with research demonstrating that spiritual fortitude and spiritual appraisals of life events play a unique role in reducing stress and maintaining psychological cohesion. Collectively, the Quran-SFQ, unlike Western instruments that focus primarily on individual experience, measures spirituality as a systemic and relational phenomenon within the family, demonstrating that spirituality in the Islamic family represents an integrated combination of heartfelt faith, practical commitment, legal responsibility, and ethical care.
Practical Applications
From an applied perspective, the Quran-SFQ offers significant potential in clinical, research, and educational domains. In clinical and family counseling contexts, therapists can utilize this instrument to map the spiritual profile of families, identifying precisely the strengths and weaknesses across the five dimensions to design more targeted interventions. For example, a family scoring high on beliefs but low on care may require intervention in ethical communication skills to bridge the gap between cognition and behavior. In research settings, the instrument provides a robust foundation for investigating the relationship between family-centered spirituality and key variables such as marital satisfaction, parenting styles, and mental health within Islamic cultural contexts with greater precision than generic instruments. Furthermore, in policy and education, cultural institutions can draw upon the underlying model to develop comprehensive training programs that move beyond mere instruction in individual beliefs toward strengthening the spiritual atmosphere and institutionalizing mutual responsibility within the family context.

Conclusion
The present research successfully addresses the existing gap in measuring family-centered spirituality by developing and validating a standardized instrument grounded in Qur'anic teachings. The Quran-SFQ demonstrates strong psychometric properties, confirming the five-dimensional theoretical model of spiritual beliefs, spiritual activities, spiritual responsibility, spiritual care, and spiritual atmosphere. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that the data fit the proposed model well, with all indices falling within acceptable ranges. Reliability analysis showed excellent internal consistency for both the total scale and subscales, while correlation matrices provided evidence for convergent and discriminant validity.
The theoretical novelty of this research lies in demonstrating that in Qur'anic logic, spirituality is not merely an individual feeling or personal experience but a systemic, relational phenomenon that integrates faith, practice, responsibility, care, and atmosphere. The identification of spiritual responsibility and spiritual care as distinct dimensions represents a significant departure from Western models that typically focus on individual experience, revealing that Islamic spirituality inherently involves mutual commitment, obligation, and protection within the family system. This finding underscores the necessity of moving beyond universalizing models toward culturally sensitive approaches in family studies.
Despite its contributions, the study faced limitations, including sample concentration in religious cities leading to reduced score variance, cross-sectional design preventing analysis of developmental trajectories, and incomplete item-level analysis due to space constraints. Future research should pursue normative studies across diverse cultural contexts, longitudinal investigations to understand the evolution of family spirituality over time, and evaluation of the relationship between the five-dimensional model and key variables such as mental health, life satisfaction, resilience, and parenting styles. Additionally, designing and testing educational packages based on this model for couples and parents represents an important applied direction.
In conclusion, the Quran-SFQ, with its robust psychometric properties, offers an efficient, culturally grounded, and Islamic-context-appropriate instrument that can be utilized by researchers and practitioners for accurate assessment of the multiple dimensions of spirituality within the family system, contributing to both theoretical advancement and practical intervention in the service of family flourishing.