<![CDATA[This study examines the dialectic between educational internalization and educational instrumentalization within a worldly-pragmatic culture and its implications for the prayer awareness crisis among Generation Z. The background of this study is the growing tendency of modern education to emphasize academic achievement, technical competence, employability, and measurable outcomes, while the internalization of moral and spiritual values receives less attention. In the context of Islamic education, this condition creates a gap between religious knowledge and religious practice, particularly in the awareness of performing prayer. This study uses a qualitative approach with a descriptive-analytical design. Data were obtained through observation, interviews, and documentation, then analyzed through data condensation, thematic categorization, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The findings show that educational internalization contributes to spiritual awareness through cognitive spiritual understanding, affective appreciation, religious habituation, teacher role modeling, religious school culture, and contextual engagement with Generation Z’s digital life. However, educational instrumentalization appears in the form of output-oriented education, employability-centered learning, ritual formalism, pragmatic achievement orientation, and the marginalization of moral-spiritual formation. The dialectic between these two tendencies affects Generation Z’s religiosity by producing a gap between knowledge and practice, weakening khushu’, delaying prayer, and reducing prayer to a formal obligation. This study proposes an integrative model of Islamic education that balances modern competence with spiritual consciousness through reflective pedagogy, meaningful habituation, teacher exemplarity, religious culture, critical digital literacy, family involvement, and prayer awareness as the core indicator of spiritual formation.]]>
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