To Heaven or to Hell: Are Muslims' Afterlife Hope and Fear Balanced? A Cross-Cultural Study

Islamic theology emphasizes the importance of achieving balance (equilibrium) between afterlife hope and fear for spiritual health. This study is a preliminary step to measure this phenomenon among young Muslims. The aim of this study is to examine afterlife expectations balance by developing new survey measures of afterlife hope expectations (AHE) and afterlife fear expectations (AFE). After validating the content of both measures, data were collected from Jordanian university students (N = 605) and Malaysian university students (N = 303). Exploratory and confirmatory analyses support the validity of the AHE and AFE. The results from both countries indicate a high level of AHE and a low level of AFE among Muslim youth. Potential implications on spiritual health and recommendations for future research are discussed.