An Inquiry into the Role of Faith and Hope in Life and its Effects on Man's Mental Health

A faithful individual does not consider life to be futile and aimless; he moves ahead towards his goals with motive. There are numerous instructions concerning hope and despair in the Quran and traditions. This article aims to study, according to the Islamic texts, the effects of hope on man's mental health. The research has been done in a descriptive way and the factors which result in hope and boost it in life have been studied in religious texts. The findings of the research showed that factors like peace of mind, positive thinking, increasing compatibility with the environment, decrease of fear and agitation and promotion of the capacity of encountering the events and a few other basic beliefs which give rise to hope are by themselves influenced by belief in God and religious self-belief.