Al-Hayat: Journal of Islamic Education
Vol. 9 No. 3 (2025): Al-Hayat: Journal of Islamic Education

Islamic Spiritual Leadership Model to Enhance Madrasah Quality Culture and Achieve Sustainable Development Goals

Mahmud, Muchammad Eka (Unknown)
Ramli, Akhmad (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
09 Sep 2025

Abstract

This study emphasises the importance of spiritual leadership as a key strategy in supporting the achievement of SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 16 (Resilient Institutions), considering that leadership practices in State Islamic Senior High Schools (MAN) in Java and Kalimantan are still diverse and lack cross-cultural comparative studies. The research objective is to analyse spiritual leadership practices, identify similarities and differences across regions, assess their contribution to a quality culture, and formulate a conceptual model of spiritual leadership based on Islamic values appropriate to the educational context and the SDGs agenda. This research uses a qualitative approach with an interpretative paradigm through a multi-site study in six MANs, with informants from madrasah principals, teachers, and students selected through purposive and snowball sampling. The results show that spiritual leadership is the primary foundation of a quality culture through exemplary behaviour, habituation of worship, strengthening of the vision and mission, and empowerment of teachers and students. Practices in Java are more formal-strategic, while in Kalimantan they tend to be contextual-collective, based on religiosity and local wisdom, despite facing budget constraints, administrative pressures, and socio-cultural diversity. This study developed an Islamic Spiritual Leadership model for the SDGs based on faith, Islam, ihsan, Al-Ghazali's values, and the principles of the caliphate ('adl, rahma, amanah), formulated in four pillars: spiritual transcendence, ethical role model, community empowerment, and contextual adaptation. The study's limitations lie in its regional scope and the predominance of qualitative data. Further research is recommended to use a quantitative or mixed-methods approach to test the model's effectiveness more broadly. The study's primary contribution is presenting a contextual and applicable Islamic perspective in strengthening the quality culture of madrasas while supporting the global agenda of sustainable development.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

ajie

Publisher

Subject

Religion Humanities Education Social Sciences Other

Description

Al-Hayat: Journal of Islamic Education: e-ISSN: 2599-3046 (online) and p-ISSN: 2657-1781 (print), is an international journal published by the LETIGES. The journal focuses its scope on the issues of Islamic education and fully refers to theories, methods, and applications. We invite scientists, ...