Integrating Reason, Revelation, and Tazkiyah al-Nafs in Indonesian Salafiyyah Pesantren: A Hermeneutic Study of al-Ghazali’s Ayyuhā al-Walad

Abstrak

This article explores Imam al-Ghazali’s educational thought and its relevance to the Salafiyyah pesantren tradition in Indonesia within contemporary socio-cultural and intellectual contexts. Responding to challenges such as moral decline, epistemological fragmentation, and the dominance of instrumental educational paradigms, the study positions al-Ghazali as a key figure offering a holistic and transformative model of Islamic education. The research aims to examine al-Ghazali’s educational principles as articulated in Ayyuhā al-Walad and to analyze their actualization in Indonesian Salafiyyah Islamic boarding schools. Employing a qualitative library-based approach, this study utilizes hermeneutic analysis grounded in Paul Ricoeur’s interpretive framework. Ayyuhā al-Walad serves as the primary source, supported by contemporary literature on Islamic educational philosophy, pesantren studies, and al-Ghazali’s intellectual legacy. The analysis highlights three core pillars of al-Ghazali’s educational paradigm: the integration of reason and revelation as epistemological foundations, tazkiyah al-nafs (purification of the soul) as the ultimate educational objective, and the integration of moral, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions within the learning process. The findings demonstrate that Salafiyyah pesantren embody al-Ghazali’s educational ideals through practices such as taḥfīẓ, adab-centered pedagogy, the transmission of scholarly sanad, and spiritually grounded learning environments. Philosophically, al-Ghazali’s thought reflects a synthesis of idealism, essentialism, and perennialism. This study concludes that Salafiyyah pesantren function as dynamic institutions capable of recontextualizing classical Islamic educational values to address contemporary educational challenges in Indonesia.