The life of PII: Developing a positive islamic identity

Abstract

Identity development has been studied from a variety of perspectives within social and developmental psychology, with positive psychology most recently adding to this literature. Finding and moving forward with a unified sense of self has been the primary focus. This search embodies the different social contexts to which we belong-in other words, our group affiliations. Although religion is one factor that provides a sense of belonging and purpose to many people, the development of a religious identity has not been explored as much as other social identities. In this chapter, we begin by providing an overview of Islam and wellbeing, including a mapping of the VIA Classification of Strengths and Virtues to verses from the Quran that form the basis of a framework of Islamic virtues. We review frameworks of identity development, including stages of the development of faith. We also look at the link between religious identity and wellbeing and provide a proposed model of religious identity development for what we term, a "Positive Islamic Identity".