Religiosity of Islam Scale (RIS)

Abstract

The Religiosity of Islam Scale (RIS), developed by Jana-Masri and Priester in 2007, is a comprehensive psychological instrument designed to quantify adherence to and belief in the tenets of Islam. This scale is distinct because its items are primarily Qur’an-based, ensuring its relevance and validity across diverse Muslim populations by focusing on foundational theological and practical requirements. The RIS measures religiosity across two primary dimensions: Islamic Beliefs and Islamic Behavioral Practices. It is intended for use in research settings studying the psychological and social impacts of religious adherence among Muslim individuals.

Keywords

Religiosity, Islam, Islamic Beliefs, Behavioral Practices, Muslim psychology, Qur’an, Islamic scale, psychological assessment, religious adherence, Muslim mental health.

Authors

Jana-Masri, A., Priester, P.E.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the RIS is to provide a standardized, empirically validated measure of religiosity specifically tailored for Muslim populations. Prior instruments often lacked cultural or theological specificity, relying on general measures that might not accurately capture the breadth and depth of Islamic adherence. The RIS addresses this gap by creating 19 items rooted directly in the teachings of the Qur’an and authentic Islamic tradition, ensuring high content validity.

Furthermore, the scale was developed to clearly differentiate between internal cognitive adherence (beliefs) and overt manifestation (practices). This distinction allows researchers to explore how different facets of Islamic religiosity influence variables such as mental health, social behavior, and cultural adaptation in diverse settings, particularly those involving Muslim minorities in Western contexts.

Construct

The RIS measures the psychological construct of Islamic Religiosity, which is conceptualized as a multidimensional structure encompassing both internal theological conviction and external ritualistic or ethical behavior. Factor analysis confirmed the scale is empirically divided into two distinct subscales:

• Islamic Beliefs: This dimension assesses cognitive acceptance of core Islamic theological tenets, such as the finality of Islam as a religion, the existence of angels and Jinn, the divinity of the Qur’an, and the obligation of seeking religious knowledge.
• Islamic Behavioral Practices: This dimension assesses the frequency and adherence to practical duties and avoidance of prohibitions prescribed in Islam, covering areas like prayer (Salat), charity (Zakah), reading the Qur’an, observance of modesty (e.g., Hijab), and avoidance of prohibited activities such as alcohol consumption or gambling.

Validity

Jana-Masri and Priester (2007) established the validity of the RIS primarily through ensuring strong content validity. Items were derived directly from foundational Islamic texts, including the Qur’an and Sunnah, ensuring that the scale measures concepts recognized as central to the faith by Muslim scholars and adherents.

The scale’s successful differentiation into two distinct factors—Beliefs and Practices—provides initial evidence for its construct validity, supporting the theoretical model that religious devotion manifests through separable cognitive and behavioral components. The subsequent application of the RIS in diverse academic studies further attests to its utility and external validity when examining psychological phenomena related to religious identity.

Reliability

The internal consistency reliability of the RIS was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for its two subscales. The results demonstrated acceptable to good reliability based on standard psychometric criteria for newly developed scales:

• The Islamic Behavioral Practices subscale, which measures concrete actions and prohibitions, achieved a strong internal consistency coefficient of alpha = 0.81.
• The Islamic Beliefs subscale, which measures theological conviction, achieved an acceptable internal consistency coefficient of alpha = 0.66.

These values indicate that the items within each subscale are measuring a consistent underlying dimension of religiosity, allowing for reliable use in research settings.

Factor Analysis

The development process for the RIS included statistical procedures, likely Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), performed on the 19 items to determine the underlying dimensional structure. This analysis was crucial and resulted in the confirmation of a robust two-factor model, corresponding precisely to the theoretically hypothesized dimensions: Islamic Beliefs and Islamic Behavioral Practices.

The clear separation of items into these two factors validates the instrument’s design as a multidimensional measure of religiosity. This outcome is significant because it permits researchers to analyze the unique contributions of internal faith versus external practice when correlating religious adherence with other psychological outcomes.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Psychometric scale

Format: 19 items administered via two distinct Likert-type scales.

Language Available: English (Original development language).

Population Group: Muslim individuals.

Age Group: Adults (implied by content related to marriage, financial duties, and social behaviors).

Population Details: The scale has been validated and utilized among Muslim populations, including those residing in Western contexts (e.g., Canadian and American Muslims), demonstrating its cross-cultural utility within the Muslim diaspora.

Test Methodology: The scale uses distinct scoring methodologies for its two subscales based on the type of response required:

• Items measuring Behavioral Practices (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 15, 17, and 19) are scored on a 5-point frequency scale: 1=Always, 2=Usually, 3=Sometimes, 4=Rarely, 5=Never.
• Items measuring Islamic Beliefs (4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, and 18) are scored on a 7-point agreement scale: 1=Strongly agree, 2=Mostly agree, 3=Somewhat agree, 4=Neither agree nor disagree, 5=Somewhat disagree, 6=Mostly disagree, 7=Strongly disagree.
• Items marked with an asterisk (*6, *8, *10, *14, *17) are reverse-scored to control for potential response set biases.

Keywords

Muslim identity, psychological scale, religious practice, Islamic psychology, spirituality, Zakah, Hijab, behavioral assessment, theological beliefs, psychometrics.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2007

Permissions and Fee: Information regarding specific usage fees or formal copyright permissions is not detailed in the source. As the instrument was published in an academic journal, it is generally accessible for non-commercial academic research. Researchers are advised to contact the original authors or the publishing journal, Journal of Muslim Mental Health, for formal usage permissions.

The scale instrument and related research can be accessed online via the following sources:

• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/244889199
• A detailed thesis utilizing the scale can be found here (Note: This link leads to a PDF content view): http://scholar.uwindsor.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6050&context=etd

Reference’s

• Ali-Faisal, Sobia F., (2014). “Crossing sexual barriers: The influence of background factors and personal attitudes on sexual guilt and sexual anxiety among Canadian and American Muslim women and men”. Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 5051.
• Jana-Masri, A., & Priester, P.E., (2007). The development and validation of a Qur’an-based instrument to assess Islamic religiosity: The Religiosity of Islam Scale. Journal of Muslim Mental Health, 2, 177-188.

Items of the Religiosity of Islam Scale (RIS)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. I wear the hijab as a woman (for women). My wife does/would wear the hijab (for men)
2. I go to the mosque on Friday
3. I give Zakah
4. I believe that the final and complete religion is Islam
5. I pray five times a day
6. *I believe that a woman can wear perfume when she goes out
7. I read the Qur’an more than two times a week
8. *I believe that men can shake hands with women
9. I believe Jinn exist
10. *I gamble
11. I believe that the Qur’an is the final word of Allah
12. I seek knowledge because it is a Muslim religious duty
13. I believe Allah cr‎eated angels from light in order that they worship Him‚ obey Him and carry out His commands
14. *I drink alcohol
15. When I go to social gathering‚ I sit with my own gender separate from the other gender
16. I believe that a man can marry up to four wives
17. *I smoke cigarettes
18. I believe that Hajj is obligatory only once during the lifetime of a Muslim.
19. I perform ablution (wash face‚ hands‚ arms‚ head and feet with water) before I pray.

*Reverse scored items