Beyond Doctrinal Transmission through Muslim Converts’ Lived Experience for Transformative Spiritual Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21154/cendekia.v24i2.14766Keywords:
muslim converts, lived experience, spiritual education, religious meaning-making, lived pietyAbstract
Islamic education for adult converts often emphasizes the accurate transmission of religious doctrine, while giving limited attention to how converts’ lived experiences shape their spiritual development. This study explores how Muslim converts in Malang Raya, Indonesia, turn lived post-conversion experiences into religious meaning and embodied piety, and what pedagogical implications follow. It reports an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of interviews with ten converts and one convert mentor, supported by participant observation and documents collected from February to June 2026. Five themes emerged: becoming Muslim as a process that begins before and continues after the shahada; lived encounters with Muslim practice that often, though not always, preceded theological explanation; reflective meaning-making through which Islam became an existential orientation; embodied piety, moral change, and identity negotiation within families; and relational safety within pedagogical accompaniment. The themes are synthesized in an experience-to-piety framework of four recursive movements sustained by accompaniment, from which four pedagogical propositions are derived for further testing. The article argues that Islamic spiritual education becomes more formative when authoritative knowledge is connected to learners’ biography, relational safety, reflective practice, and moral action. The findings are limited by a small sample drawn from a single region and institutional network, retrospective accounts, and a single-mentor perspective.
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