This study aims to examine how akhlaq toward Allah is represented through Syifa in Habiburrahman El Shirazy’s novel Suluh Rindu and to identify its pedagogical implications for Islamic Religious Education. It employed a qualitative textual design using directed qualitative content analysis. The 2022 edition of the novel constituted the primary source, while books, peer-reviewed articles, and previous studies on Islamic morality, literary analysis, and Islamic education served as secondary sources. Meaning units comprising Syifa’s speech, actions, attitudes, spiritual responses, and narratorial descriptions were identified through repeated close reading, documented with their narrative contexts, and deductively coded using six categories derived from Sesady’s framework. Manifest and latent meanings were compared within and across categories, while ambiguous and negative cases were retained to prevent confirmatory interpretation. The findings reveal representations of taqwa, love and rida, khauf and raja’, tawakkul, shukr, and tawbah, although their evidentiary strength varies. Taqwa, love of Allah, khauf and raja’, tawakkul, and shukr are relatively well supported by recurring actions and contextualised spiritual responses. Conversely, rida and tawbah remain tentative because admiration of divine creation does not necessarily demonstrate acceptance of divine decree, and istighfar alone does not establish complete repentance. The study’s originality lies in distinguishing religious vocabulary from moral-spiritual disposition through a context-sensitive analysis of speaker, motivation, narrative situation, and behavioural consequences. It contributes theoretically by refining the classification of akhlaq in literary texts and pedagogically by identifying Suluh Rindu as potential supplementary material for reflective discussion, moral reasoning, and contextual learning in Islamic Religious Education. Nevertheless, its educational effectiveness requires validation through teacher review and classroom-based research involving substantially larger and more varied student groups.
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