A review of the nature and components of spiritual intelligence, its development strategies and educational effects

The purpose of this research is to examine the experts' point of view about spiritual intelligence and its components. In this article, descriptive-analytical research method is used. Data collection has also been done by scanning and reviewing written sources including books, articles, theses, documents and electronic sources. The results of the research show that the structure of spiritual intelligence is one of the new, attractive and controversial concepts that has been proposed and developed in the light of the interest of researchers, experts and especially psychologists in the field of religion and spirituality. In recent decades, researchers have come to the conclusion that intelligence is not only considered as a cognitive ability, but has expanded to other areas such as emotional intelligence, existential intelligence, spiritual intelligence, etc. What has caused the structure of spirituality to be conceptualized as intelligence is those observations and scientific findings that express the fact that the application of special patterns of thoughts, emotions and behavior in daily life can increase human adaptability and well-being. Spiritual intelligence can be clearly distinguished from other types of intelligence due to some inherent abilities and characteristics, such as the ability to enter transcendental states, the ability to identify immaterial dimensions and create a holistic view of life experiences. Also, the findings showed that in Islamic texts, much attention has been paid to the component of spiritual intelligence, and many of the commands that have been paid attention to in the Islamic religion are for the growth and development of human spiritual intelligence. Spiritual intelligence can be increased with various attention exercises, reshaping emotions and strengthening moral behavior. Since these practices are not exclusive to a particular religion with specific spiritual training, adherence to any chosen spiritual practice will facilitate the growth of spiritual intelligence.