<![CDATA[Contemporary character education in Islamic schools faces a persistent gap between normative ideals and operational practice, where religious routines are frequently treated as monolithic rituals rather than systematically engineered pedagogical mechanisms. Existing studies on religious habituation predominantly remain descriptive, conflate diverse worship activities into a single variable, and rarely articulate the psychological mechanisms underlying value internalization. This study formulates a conceptual model of character value cultivation grounded in daily religious habituation at SMPIT Wasilah Intelegensia, integrating Aristotelian virtue ethics, classical behaviorism, and Bandura's social-cognitive theory to map the differential contributions of three congregational prayers (Dhuha, Dzuhur, Ashar) to three target character domains (obedience, responsibility, honesty). A convergent mixed-methods design with qualitative dominance (qual-quan) was employed over two months, combining semi-structured interviews with key informants, four weeks of participatory observation, and a 24-item four-point Likert questionnaire administered to 40 purposively selected students. Source, method, and theoretical triangulation safeguarded validity, complemented by member checking and audit trail procedures. The model achieved an overall mean of 3.496 (87.40%, Very High category), with remarkably narrow inter-aspect dispersion (0.028 points), indicating complementary rather than competitive contributions: Dhuha–obedience (3.509), Dzuhur–responsibility (3.481), and Ashar–honesty (3.497). Items measuring externally-cued behaviors consistently outscored those requiring autonomous self-regulation, exposing a transitional threshold between behavioral compliance and internalized disposition. Religious habituation operates as a systemic hidden curriculum requiring seven interlocking components, yet its full maturation toward authentic character demands phronesis-oriented reflection and school–family congruence beyond mere ritual repetition.]]>
