•  
  •  
 

Abstract

The fear of divine punishment has been identified as a religiosity marker among Muslims. Nonetheless, scholars hold varying perspectives on this emotion. While some consider it a pathological emotion, others view it as a religious emotion. To further investigate this issue, a study was conducted involving 392 non-clinical devout Muslims in Indonesia, using a measurement tool to assess excessive fear of divine punishment. The findings revealed that devout Muslims scored high on the measurement, implying that the fear of divine punishment is not an excessive or pathological emotion but rather a religious one. Although it indicates Muslim religiosity, the emotion is averse to subjective well-being. This indicates that the role of religion in subjective well-being is complex.

Bahasa Abstract

Rasa takut pada hukuman ilahi telah diidentifikasikan sebagai salah satu penanda religiusitas pada Muslim. Namun demikian, para peneliti memiliki beragam perspektif terkait emosi ini. Saat sebagian menganggap emosi ini sebagai emosi patologis, yang lain melihatnya sebagai emosi religius. Untuk mengkaji masalah tersebut, penelitian ini dilakukan di Indonesia dengan melibatkan 392 Muslim yang taat serta tidak memiliki masalah klinis menggunakan instrumen yang digunakan untuk menilai rasa takut yang berlebihan terhadap hukuman ilahi. Temuan penelitian mengungkapkan bahwa Muslim yang taat justru menunjukkan skor yang tinggi pada instrumen tersebut, yang menunjukkan bahwa rasa takut pada hukuman ilahi bukanlah emosi patologis yang berlebihan, melainkan emosi religius. Walaupun mengindikasikan emosi religius, emosi tersebut menurunkan kesejahteraan subjektif. Hal ini mengindikasikan kompleksitas peran agama pada kesejahteraan subjektif.

References

Abramowitz, J. S., Huppert, J. D., Cohen, A. B., Tolin, D. F., & Cahill, S. P. (2002). Religious obsessions and compulsions in a non-clinical sample: the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40(7), 825–838. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7967(01)00070-5

Abubakar, A., Syariah, F., Hukum Uin, D., Banda, A.-R., Syeikh, A. J., Rauf, A., Darussalam, K., & Aceh, B. (2015). Rekonstruksi posisi pertobatan dalam hukum pidana Islam. Madania, 19(1). 93–106. https://ejournal.uinfasbengkulu.ac.id/index.php/madania/article/view/27

Akhtar, H., & Azwar, S. (2018). Development and validation of a short scale for measuring big five personality traits : the IPIP-BFM-25 Indonesia development and validation of a short scale for measuring big five personality traits : The IPIP-BFM-25 Indonesia. Journal of Innovation in Psychology, Education and Didactics, 22(2), 167–174. https://www.academia.edu/15033071/The_Relationship_between_Scrupulosity_Obsessive_Compulsive_Disorder_and_Its_Related_Cognitive_Styles 

Allen, G. E. K., & Wang, K. T. (2014). Examining religious commitment , perfectionism , scrupulosity , and well-being among LDS individuals. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 257–264. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035197

Allen, K., & Wang, K. T. (2015). Examining legalism , scrupulosity , family perfectionism , and psychological adjustment among LDS individuals. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2015.1021312

Allik, J., & McCrae, R. R. (2004). Toward a geography of personality traits: Patterns of profiles across 36 cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35(1), 13–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022103260382

Arifinsyah, Fitriani, & Fauzi, I. I. (2022). Taubat dalam pandangan Islam dan Kristen. Studia Sosial Religia, 5(1), 37–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.51900/ssr.v5i1.12173

Bahmani, F., Amini, M., Tabei, S. Z., & Abbasi, M. B. (2018). The concepts of hope and fear in the islamic thought: Implications for spiritual health. Journal of Religion and Health, 57(1), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-016-0336-2

Brown, P. H., & Tierney, B. (2009). Religion and subjective well-being among the elderly in China. Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(2), 310–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2008.07.014

Clobert, M. (2021). East versus West : Psychology of religion in East Asian cultures. Current Opinion in Psychology, 40, 61–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.08.021

Cohen, A., Wu, M. S., & Miller, J. (2016). Religion and culture : Individualism and collectivism in the east and west. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 47(9), 1236–1249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022116667895

Coward, H. (2003). Sin and Salvation in the World Religions: a Short Introduction. Oneworld Publications.

Cranney, S., Leman, J., Fergus, T. A., & Rowatt, W. C. (2018). Hell anxiety as non-pathological fear. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 21(9–10), 867–883. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2018.1443436

Das, K. V., Jones-Harrell, C., Fan, Y., Ramaswami, A., Orlove, B., & Botchwey, N. (2020). Understanding subjective well-being: Perspectives from psychology and public health. Public Health Reviews, 41(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40985-020-00142-5

Diener, E. (2006). Understanding Scores on the Satisfaction with Life Scale. https://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/eddiener/uploads/support/file/10/Understanding_SWLS_Scores.pdf

Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Biswas-Diener, R., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D., & Oishi, S. (2009). New Measures of Well-Being. In E. Diener (Ed.), Assessing well-being (pp. 247–266). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2354-4

El Hafiz, S., Meriem, K., Brahmana, B., & Amir, Y. (2025). Pendekatan Collaborative/Iterative dalam Proses Penerjemahan Skala Scrupulosity. Jurnal Ilmu Perilaku, 9(1), 20–33. https://doi.org/10.25077/jip.9.1.20-33.2025

Erik S. O. (2005). Fear of god (taqwa) in the quran: Some notes on semantic shift and thematic context. Islamic Studies in Contemporary World, Iranian Society for Quranic Studies & Islamic Culture, 1(2), 482–512. https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgi007

Fischer, A. H., Rodriguez Mosquera, P. M., Van Vianen, A. E. M., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2004). Gender and culture differences in emotion. Emotion, 4(1), 87–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.4.1.87

Ge, E., Chen, Y., Wu, J., & Mace, R. (2019). Large-scale cooperation driven by reputation, not fear of divine punishment. Royal Society Open Science, 6(8). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190991

Gebauer, J. E., Bleidorn, W., Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., Lamb, M. E., & Potter, J. (2014). Cross-cultural variations in Big Five relationships with religiosity: A sociocultural motives perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(6), 1064. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037683

Helliwell, J. F., Aknin, L. B., Shiplett, H., Huang, H., & Shun Wang. (2018). Social capital and prosocial behavior as sources of well-being. In Handbook of well-being. DEF Publisher. https://www.nber.org/papers/w23761.pdf

Hofstede, G., & McCrae, R. R. (2004). Personality and culture revisited : Linking traits. Cross-Cultural Research, 38(1), 52–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397103259443

Inozu, M., & Clark, D. A. (2012). Scrupulosity in Islam : A comparison of highly religious Turkish and Canadian samples. Behavior Therapy, 43(1), 190–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2011.06.002

Jahandideh, B., Golmohammadi, A., Meng, F., & Gorman, K. D. O. (2014). Cross-cultural comparison of Chinese and Arab consumer complaint behavior in the hotel context. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 41, 67–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2014.04.011

Johnson, D. (2005). God’s Punishment and Public Goods: ATest of the Supernatural Punishment Hypothesis in 186 World Cultures. Human Nature, 16(4), 410–449. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-005-1017-0

Kanjwal, H. (2010). Response to Fear in the Muslim Tradition. Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, (5), 71–81. https://www.academia.edu/37281261/Response_to_Fear_in_the_Muslim_Tradition

Kaviani, S., Eskandari, H., & Soghra Ebrahimi, G. (2015). The Relationship between Scrupulosity, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Its Related Cognitive Styles. Practice in Clinical Psychology, 3(1), 47–60. https://www.academia.edu/15033071/The_Relationship_between_Scrupulosity_Obsessive_Compulsive_Disorder_and_Its_Related_Cognitive_Styles

Kerby, T. (2021). Variety of perceptions of god among latter-day saints. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 54(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.5406/dialjmormthou.54.1.0029

Mahintorabi, S., Jones, M. K., Harris, L. M., & Zahiroddin, A. (2015). Religious observance and obsessive compulsive washing among Iranian women. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 7, 35–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2015.10.001

Mochon, D., Norton, M. I., & Ariely, D. (2011). Who benefits from religion ? Social Indicators Research, 101(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/sl

Mustafa, N. R. P., Maisyarah, N., Maulidina, A., Aditya, M. R., & Shadiqi, M. A. (2025). Delusion or faith? Exploring religious delusions in individuals with schizophrenia within the Banjar culture. Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia, 29(1), 52–61. https://doi.org/10.7454/hubsasia.v29.i1.1581

Novanto, Y., Handoyo, S., & Setiawan, J. L. (2020). Demographic factors and life satisfaction of Indonesian Christian private universities lecturers: A descriptive preliminary study. International Conference on Psychology in Health, Educational, Social, and Organizational Settings, 187–198. https://doi.org/10.5220/0008587101870198

Olatunji, B. O., Abramowitz, J. S., Williams, N. L., Connolly, K. M., & Lohr, J. M. (2007). Scrupulosity and obsessive-compulsive symptoms: Confirmatory factor analysis and validity of the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 21(6), 771–787. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.12.002

Pargament, K. I., & Lomax, J. W. (2013). Understanding and addressing religion among people with mental illness. World Psychiatry, 12(1), 26–32. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20005

Pew Research Center. (2007). 47-Nation Pew Global Attitudes Survey. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2007/10/04/chapter-3-views-of-religion-and-morality/

Pew Research Center. (2010). Muslim Population of Indonesia. https://www.pewforum.org/2010/11/04/muslim-population-of-indonesia/

Pew Research Center. (2012). The Global Religious Landscape. https://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/

Pirutinsky, S., & Rosmarin, D. H. (2018). The PIOS among the pious: validity of the Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity among Orthodox Jews. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 21(2), 180–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2017.1381949

Ram, U. (2016). 3. Hebrew Culture in Israel: Between Europe, the Middle East, and America. In E. Ben-Rafael, J. Schoeps, Y. Sternberg, & O. Glöckner (Eds.), Handbook of Israel: Major Debates (pp. 60–75). Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110351637-006

Rawls, J. (2009). A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning Of Sin and Faith: with “On my religion” (T. Nagel, Ed.). Harvard University Press.

Rosmarin, D. H., Pirutinsky, S., & Siev, J. (2010). Recognition of Scrupulosity and Non-Religious OCD by Orthodox and Non-Orthodox Jews. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 29(8), 930–944. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2010.29.8.930

Saleam, J., Moustafa, A. A., & Carney, J. (2016). The influence of divine rewards and punishments on religious prosociality. Frontiers in Psychology, 7(August), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01149

Shariff, A. F., & Aknin, L. B. (2014). The Emotional Toll of Hell : Cross-National and Experimental Evidence for the Negative Well-Being Effects of Hell Beliefs. PLoS One, 9(1), e85251. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085251

Shariff, A. F., & Norenzayan, A. (2011). Mean gods make good people : Different views of god predict cheating behavior. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 21, 85–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2011.556990

Siev, J., Abramovitch, A., Ogen, G., Burstein, A., Halaj, A., & Huppert, J. D. (2017). Religion, moral thought–action fusion, and obsessive–compulsive features in Israeli Muslims and Jews. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 20(7), 696–707. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2017.1323855

Souiden, N., & Rani, M. (2015). Consumer attitudes and purchase intentions toward Islamic banks: The influence of religiosity. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 33(2), 143–161. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBM-10-2013-0115

Stavrova, O., Fetchenhauer, D., & Schlösser, T. (2013). Why are religious people happy ? The effect of the social norm of religiosity across countries. Social Science Research, 42(1), 90–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.07.002

Terkait, T. Al. (2018). Civil vs. Religious Dilemmas in Pluralistic Society: Examples of Gender Politics from Kuwait.

Tov, W., & Diener, E. (2009). The Well-Being of Nations: Linking Together Trust, Cooperation, and Democracy. In J. L. Sullivan, B.A., Snyder, M., and Sullivan (Ed.), Cooperation: The political psychology ofeffective human interaction (pp. 323–342). Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2350-6_7

Triandis, H. C., Bontempo, R., Villareal, M. J., Asai, M., & Lucca, N. (1988). Individualism and collectivism : Cross-cultural perspectives on self-ingroup relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(2), 323–338. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.2.323

Wang, K. T., Allen, G. E. K., Stokes, H. I., & Suh, H. N. (2018). Perceived perfectionism from god scale : Development and initial evidence. Journal of Religion and Health, 57(6), 2207-2223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-017-0405-1

Weinstein, N., & Ryan, R. M. (2010). When Helping Helps : Autonomous motivation for prosocial behavior and its influence on well-being for the helper and recipient. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(2), 222–244. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016984

Willard, A. K., Baimel, A., Turpin, H., Jong, J., & Whitehouse, H. (2020). Rewarding the good and punishing the bad: The role of karma and afterlife beliefs in shaping moral norms. Evolution and Human Behavior, 41(5), 385–396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.07.001

Yilmaz, O., & Bahçekapili, H. G. (2016). Evolution and human behavior supernatural and secular monitors promote human cooperation only if they remind of punishment. Evolution and Human Behavior, 37(1), 79–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.09.005

Zulfikar, E. (2019). Takut kepada Allah dalam al-qur’an: Analisis tafsir sufistik ayat-ayat khasyyatullah. Hermeneutik: Jurnal Ilmu Al Qur’an Dan Tafsir, 13(1), 142–161.https://doi.org/10.21043/hermeneutik.v13i1.5561

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.