Abstract:
This article, through a comparative study, aims at defining and analysing the concept of hope
in the Quran versus psychology. The study defines common and differential grounds in the
area, and suggests a proper approach for establishing and boosting hope in people based on
the Quran’s lessons. One of the noticeable results of this study is that many of the techniques
for creation and improvement of hope are already present in the Quran, and that there are
many shared grounds between findings of civilisations and the Divine teachings. It was found
that both psychology and the Quran both view hope as a rewarded patience along with action
to achieve one’s goal, and both fields concur that knowing one’s goal and obstacles can
preserve hope in man. Some differences were also found. In contrast to psychology, hope in the
Quran is based on the goal behind human creation and in line with its perfection, whose sole
basis would be faith in God. Also, in psychology the techniques proposed for hope improvement
are individual for the most part, whereas the Quran aims at proposing behavioural approaches
in societal scale in addition to individual solutions.
