Principals are school leaders who experienced stress while leading their schools towards excellence. However, principals stress experiences are always ignored and least studied. This mixed-methods study investigates primary principals’ stress experiences and their Islamic coping strategies used in incapacitating the stress experiences. A total of 216 Muslim primary principals across different gender, types of schools and years of experiences as school leaders responded to the administrative stress and the Islamic coping strategies items. In addition, seven primary principals were purposefully selected and interviewed in exploring their reasons of using Islamic coping strategies for their relieving process. Results discovered that primary principals experienced fairly stress level and they perceived managing students’ academic achievement was the most stressor followed by managing teachers’ capabilities. Although findings revealed that no significant differences in terms primary principals’ demographics; male primary principals, and experienced between 6 and 10 years and positioned in schools with least students (SLS) category have slightly higher level of stress. In terms of Islamic coping strategies used by primary principals, saying dhua to Allah, performing dhikir and reciting the Yassen are selected coping approaches employed in handling their stress. From interviews, primary principals also revealed that they used Islamic religious approaches as part of meaningful activities not just to overcoming their stress but also as part of religious approaches in remembering Allah, thinking back their past mistakes as part of the Muhasabah process. Therefore, we believed that religious approaches should be taken into consideration in principals’ training as it provides peaceful and treatment in managing principals’ stress issue.

This study investigates deputy headteacher's stress and coping strategies while leading schools in the context of Malaysia. Deputy headteacher stress studies date back as early as 1990s, but less explored in Malaysia. Using sequential mixed methods approach, the study sampled 120 Muslim deputy headteachers and further interviewed another 21 deputies to investigate the Islamic religious-based stress-solving approaches that deputies employed in coping with stress experiences. The findings revealed that deputies' stress was considered as low through their Islamic coping strategies such as frequently pray to Allah, performing dhikr and reciting Yassen while experiencing stress. Implications for policymakers and school heads were also discussed. � Serials Publications.