The Role of Religious Identity in Self-Control

In modern psychology, one's ability which controls one's behavior, thoughts, emotions and unpleasant shocks is presented in a frame referred to as self-control. Self-control prepares the ground for achieving the goals which people have set for themselves and which are in congruence with social rules. The aim of this paper is to show how religious injunctions effect self-control among those who maintain religious identity. Religious identity, on the one hand, refers to the common characteristics of the followers of a certain religion; and on the other hand, it takes care of the difference between religious people and irreligious groups. The research method is a descriptive- analytic, and the researcher investigates, classifies and analyzes the Islamic doctrines of self-control and then summarizes the findings as follows: Islam prepares the ground for improving self control among those who maintain religious identity in four ways: having aims and criteria, specifying the meaning of control, establishing the motives of control and supervising behaviors.