An exploratory study on the educational process of individuals who committed sin

Abstract

Sin may seem like a stifling religious relic that has no place in contemporary psychology. However, viewing sin from within the Muslim faith and in tandem with the doctrine of its educational process of sinning can help us understand why sin is such an important concept. This qualitative study explores the educational process of the so-called ‘sinner’. To give direction to the study, a conceptual framework was developed. By using a purposive sampling technique, a total of six informants were selected to participate in the study. A total of 41 semi-structured interview questions reflecting the four research questions were formulated as a guide for the face-to-face in-depth interviews to be conducted with the six informants. The interviews were conducted after acquiring informed consent from the interviewees. Two inter-raters were sought to identify the inter-rater reliability of the generated themes and subthemes at a 90.3% level of agreement. This was done in conjunction with member-checks by experts, as well as a pilot study, to ensure the credibility of the data. A thematic analysis was used as an analytic technique to process the data, and interpret the data obtained from all informants. The findings in this study suggest that the motivator for sinful behaviour is due to a lack of knowledge on the nature of sin. The informants conceptualise the nature of sin by its psychological effects, social distress, peer pressure, spiritual distress, guilt, dysfunctional relationships, and addiction. This allows the research to emphasise the importance of understanding the psychology of sin and to postulate a coping method for sinful behaviour. The findings further require the provision of a typology to understand what makes an action sinful, as well as its consequences, using a tool based on the framework of maqasid al-shariah.