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Background and Aim : Marital infidelity is a shocking issue for couples and families and a common phenomenon for counselors and therapists. Extra-marital relationships create a lot of havoc for couples. Most people have come to expect monogamy and abstinence from extra-marital relationships. Due to the complex nature of infidelity and its catastrophic effects on the spouses’ relationships, it is necessary that some effective interventions be carried out to help the couples facing this problem. Recent studies indicate that forgiveness is a psychological construct and a therapeutic approach to deal with communication problems and conflicts between the married couples. Couples who forgive each other’s mistakes will experience higher satisfaction and commitment. In addition, forgiving our own and other’s mistakes will reduce stress, blame-casting, hostile behavior, and aggression in interpersonal relations. Hence, people will experience more compatibility and healthier relationships. Emphasizing it as a trait for the believers, Islamic literature refers to forgiveness as a therapy as well. Forgiveness therapy is one of the approaches used in the field of controlling and treating the responses to marital infidelity. In the Holy Quran, forgiveness is considered among the characteristics of the righteous believers, and it is pointed out that those who forgive other people’s mistakes are more pious. Inviting the believers to forgive each other, Allah in Surah Al-Imran (verse 134) warns them against revenge, malice, and enmity towards each other, stating “They contain their anger and forgive the people; Allah Almighty loves the benevolent and righteous people”. In some other verses, by patterning that Allah forgives His servants, the believers are called to go after this method. That is, the Muslims are asked to, just like their Creator, forgive the offenders and their sins. Allah in Surah An-Nur (verse 22) states: “Forgive and overlook, do you not love Allah to forgive you; Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” Considering the need for observance of ethical principles in the Islamic society, particularly about the relationship with other people, which is also emphasized in the Quran, the importance of forgiveness in personal and social life is made clear. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of forgiveness-oriented group counseling based on Islamic perspective to restore the marriage relationship after marital infidelity in married women who referred to counseling centers in Tehran. Materials and Methods : This study is a randomized clinical trial. The statistical population of the study consisted of the women who referred to counseling centers of Tehran in 2015 due to their husbands’ infidelity. Thirty women were randomly assigned (randomly assigned through groups matching based on the originally obtained data) into one intervention group and one control group. Having conducted the pre-test using the forgiveness questionnaires, the intervention group took part in nine weekly sessions of forgiveness therapy based on the Islamic perspective. Then, the post-test was carried out using the same questionnaire for both groups. To collect the data, the forgiveness (amnesty) questionnaire was used. Rye et al. (2001) devised a 15-item forgiveness scale. Higher scores on this scale indicate forgiving the people regarding the annoying issue. The answers were designed on a Likert scale of 5 degrees from “strongly” (1) to “not at all” (5). Rye et al. (2001) compared this scale with Enright forgiveness index. A relatively high correlation was obtained using the matching method. Its Cronbach's alpha was calculated as 0.96 in Zandipour and Yadegari’s research (2009). The reliability of this instrument was calculated in the present study as 0.81 and 0.78 using Cronbach's alpha and split-half methods, respectively. The data were analyzed in SPSS 18 software using such descriptive statistics as mean and standard deviation as well as inferential statistics such as analysis of covariance. Ethical Considerations : After presenting the research objectives, emphasizing the confidentiality of the information and obtaining patients' verbal consent to participate in the study, the questionnaires were distributed among the participants to be completed. Findings : The mean ages of the participants in the intervention and control groups were 33.41 and 35.32, respectively and the mean durations of their marriages were 9.11 and 10.33 years, respectively. The t-test did not show any significant difference in demographic characteristics between the two groups (P>0.05). The pre-test and post-test mean scores for forgiveness in the intervention group were 18.33 and 34.33, respectively. Investigating the assumption of normality of the scores indicated that this assumption was not rejected, and parametric tests can be used (P>0.05). The Levene test for equality of variances was run for forgiveness and it was calculated as 0.76 for the pre-test (P = 0.17>0.05). Given the equality of variances, analysis of covariance showed that forgiveness-oriented group consulting based on Islamic perspective has a significant effect on increasing women's willingness to forgive (P<0.01). Conclusion : The results of the present study revealed that forgiveness-oriented group consulting based on Islamic perspective (Quran and Hadiths) was able to improve the amount of forgiveness in women affected by unfaithful husbands. The findings of the study signified using forgiveness-oriented group counseling based on the Islamic perspective in planning therapeutic interventions. Since the children of families affected by infidelity witness many conflicts and lots of turmoil and suffer from many problematic effects of infidelity, it is recommended that some psychotherapy sessions be held for their children as a priority and the results of the sessions be discussed. It is also recommended that the number of psychotherapy sessions for the affected couples be increased. As a result, a more comprehensive training is offered and repetition and practice will improve the skills and the durability of the changes. Please cite this article as: Kargar Khoram Abadi H, Khodabakhsh MR, Kiani F. Effectiveness of Forgiveness- oriented Group Counseling based on Islamic Perspective to Restore the Marriage Relationship after Marital Infidelity. Med Ethics J 2017; 10(38): 29-36.

Effectiveness of Forgiveness-oriented Group Counseling based on Islamic Perspective to Restore the Marriage Relationship after Marital Infidelity