Abstract
Background. In the Qur’an, the heart represents one of the most fundamental concepts associated with the inner dimension of the human being and with spiritual health. Recent studies indicate that the Qur’anic notion of the heart is not limited to a physical organ but functions as the locus of perception, faith, intuition, and spiritual or emotional states. Adopting a data-mining approach, this study investigates the term qalb and its various associated states in the Qur’an, aiming to clarify how heart-related concepts relate to dimensions of spiritual health in Meccan and Medinan surahs.
Methods. Using quantitative data-mining techniques, all lexical roots related to the heart and twenty-seven heart-related states were extracted from the Qur’anic text. The data were collected through the morphological analysis available on the Noor website and were fully transferred into Excel. Frequencies, occurrence rates, and distribution patterns of these roots were then analyzed across Meccan and Medinan surahs. To model the effects of surah type and surah length, negative binomial and Poisson regression models were applied, and the optimal model was selected based on AIC and BIC criteria.
Results. The root qalb appeared 168 times, while the roots s-l-m (140 occurrences) and sh-d-d (102 occurrences) had the highest frequencies among heart-related states. In total, 91 surahs contained heart-related concepts, including 67 Meccan and 24 Medinan surahs. After adjusting for surah length, the Meccan surah al-Sharḥ exhibited the highest proportional occurrence of heart-related terms. The findings indicated that although the ratio of positive to negative heart states did not differ significantly between Meccan and Medinan surahs, the occurrence of heart-related concepts was 64% higher in Medinan surahs. Additionally, an average of three heart-related words appeared per 1,000 Qur’anic words (P < 0.001).
Conclusion. The data-driven analysis shows that heart-related concepts in the Qur’an reflect both the inner spiritual condition of the human being and the social context of revelation. The increased frequency of these concepts in Medinan surahs likely corresponds to the expanding ethical, educational, and social concerns of the emerging Muslim community. Nonetheless, the overall predominance of positive heart states remains consistent across both periods. Practical Implications. This study indicates that data-mining models enable systematic analysis of Qur’anic concepts, provide a more precise understanding of the relationship between heart-related concepts and spiritual health, and offer a foundation for developing spirituality-based therapeutic programs grounded in Qur’anic data.