A Comparative Hermeneutic Study of Al-Ghazali’s Tazkiyat al-Nafs and Bandura’s Self-Regulation Theory: Toward an Integrative Model of Islamic Character Education
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Abstract
The growing complexity of contemporary educational challenges indicates that character education requires not only the transmission of moral values but also the development of internal mechanisms that enable individuals to regulate their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors consistently. However, existing approaches to character education often separate spiritual-moral foundations from psychological mechanisms of self-regulation, creating a conceptual gap between ethical orientation and behavioral regulation. This study aims to critically examine and comparatively interpret Al-Ghazali’s concept of tazkiyat al-nafs and Albert Bandura’s theory of self-regulation in order to formulate an integrative model for Islamic character education. Employing a qualitative library research design through philosophical hermeneutic and comparative analysis, this study examines the primary works of Al-Ghazali and Bandura along with relevant scholarly literature on moral education and self-regulated learning. The findings demonstrate that both perspectives acknowledge human agency and emphasize internal processes of reflection, evaluation, and behavioral transformation. Nevertheless, Al-Ghazali conceptualizes self-regulation within a spiritual-ethical framework based on purification of the soul, muhasabah, mujahadah, and moral orientation toward God, whereas Bandura explains self-regulation through cognitive and social mechanisms involving self-monitoring, self-judgment, self-reaction, and self-efficacy. This study proposes an integrative conceptual model of Islamic character education in which tazkiyat al-nafs provides the spiritual and ethical foundation, while self-regulation mechanisms provide the psychological pathway for translating values into consistent behavior. The proposed framework contributes to the development of contemporary Islamic character education by connecting classical Islamic ethics with modern educational psychology in a reflective, adaptive, and transformative approach.
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