<![CDATA[Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) have long played a strategic role in shaping students’ moral and spiritual character in Indonesia. However, modernization, digitalization, and globalization have posed significant challenges, including moral degradation, weakening of scholarly ethics, and identity fragmentation among santri. This article aims to analyze the relevance of pesantren traditional values in the thoughts of Zamakhsyari Dhofier and KH. Imam Zarkasyi as a conceptual foundation for santri character formation in the modern era. This study employs a qualitative library research approach using content analysis and philosophical-hermeneutic interpretation of the primary works of both figures and relevant contemporary literature. The findings reveal that Dhofier conceptualizes pesantren as a value system and worldview emphasizing sincerity, simplicity, moral obedience, and the kyai santri relationship as the core medium of character transmission. Meanwhile, Imam Zarkasyi introduces an integral education model that reconstructs pesantren traditions by integrating religious knowledge, general sciences, and systematic character education. The synthesis of these perspectives demonstrates that pesantren values are not static but adaptive and remain relevant in shaping santri with strong religiosity, critical awareness, and global competitiveness. This article contributes to strengthening a tradition-based yet contextual paradigm of character education in pesantren.]]>
