Sufistic Habituation and the Formation of Teachers' Spiritual Pedagogy
Abstract
This study investigates how teachers experience Sufistic habituation and how these experiences are transformed into spiritual pedagogy in everyday educational practice. The study addresses a persistent limitation in teacher-development discourse, in which professional quality is frequently framed through pedagogical competence, administrative performance, and measurable outcomes while the inner formation that sustains moral integrity, emotional self-regulation, compassion, and transcendent responsibility receives less empirical attention. A qualitative phenomenological design was employed at Pondok Pesantren Mihrobul Muhibbin, Jakarta, within the Qadiriyah wa Naqsyabandiyah Sufi community. Ten participants were purposively selected, comprising six teachers as primary informants and four supporting informants (two ustaz and two community administrators). Data were generated through 30–45-minute semi-structured in-depth interviews and interpreted through repeated transcript reading, identification of significant statements, clustering of meaning units, cross-participant comparison, and phenomenological synthesis. Five interconnected themes emerged: teaching as a trust (amanah), moral honesty, self-control and ethics of speech, pedagogical compassion, and transcendent accountability. Dhikr, khushushiyah, khalwat, manakib, pilgrimage, khidmah, adab toward the murshid, and self-examination were experienced not merely as rituals but as repeated formative practices that reoriented teachers’ intentions, emotions, language, relationships, and professional responsibility. The study contributes the concept of teachers’ spiritual pedagogy as an interpretive bridge between Sufi formation, prophetic education, and professional identity. Its practical implication is that Islamic teacher development should complement technical training with structured reflective-spiritual formation that strengthens ethical judgment, relational care, and responsible professional conduct.