Ravanshenasi & Din

Today, studying the effects of piety on mental health is a practical and interesting topic for both scholars and ordinary people. Although different parameters of piety are closely interrelated, they can be classified under two main categories, i.e. "beliefs and "actions", and studied separately. Here, we just study the role of religious actions on mental health. In the first place, the religious actions themselves can be classified as either ritual or moral. A ritual action is usually performed in connection with God (or His saints), but a moral action is performed to establish connections with others. In this article, we study the role of ritual action in mental health, and in the next issue of the journal, we will explore the role of moral behavior in this connection. Ritual actions consist of various types such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, ritual seclusion or I' tekaf, and invocation. These common effects as well as specific ones, among which we have chosen the following ones to deal with, are as follows: mental peace, heightening the mental capacity, satisfying the need for worship, personal consistency, inner purification, obtaining moral virtues, strengthening of personal will, preparing the ground for returning to oneself, social support and gaining religious and mystical experiences.