Surah Ar-Rahman Recitation and Affective-Cognitive Outcomes in Young Adults, An Experimental Study of Anxiety, Mood, and Selective Memory Consolidation

The study explores the impact of Surah Ar- Rahman on state-trait anxiety, mood, and memory consolidation among moderate religious young adults in comparison to the Jummah Sermon. Employing a pretest-posttest true experimental design, fifty university students (ages 18-25) were randomly assigned to Surah Ar-Rehman and Jummah Sermon groups. The participants underwent pre-testing utilizing the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), followed by immediate recall tasks. Subsequently, they listened to either Surah Ar-Rahman or a Jummah Sermon for ten minutes, leading into a post-testing session that incorporated delayed recall, STAI, and PANAS. The findings showed that within group state-trait anxiety reduced significantly in both groups after the listening session, but no difference was found between groups in state-trait anxiety. Both groups displayed mood improvements; however, in Surah Ar- Rahman group, negative mood reduced significantly. Moreover, Surah Ar-Rahman group had no significant change in overall recall, but showed higher positive word recall, lower threatening word recall, and no change in neutral word recall, whereas the Jummah Sermon group exhibited reduced overall recall and positive word recall with no significant change in threatening or neutral words recall. Between-group findings revealed  no baseline differences, but at post-test the Surah Rahman group demonstrated improvement in overall and positive recall, with no difference in threatening or neutral word recall. The results imply that Surah Ar-Rahman affects state-trait anxiety, mood and memory consolidation in moderately religious young adults positively.