Character Building in Islamic Society: A Case Study of Muslim Families in Tulungagung, East Java, Indonesia

Abstract

This study seeks to identify the position, goals, and role of parents in Tulungagung, East Java, Indonesia with regards to character building. It takes the form of descriptive-qualitative research and employs data triangulation during data collection. The data analysis involved organizing data and sorting it into manageable units that could be managed, synthesized, and searched to find out what was important and useful to convey. It was found that parents need the necessary skills to educate their children to have a good personality, with the goal of this character building being to create well-rounded adults who will make good citizens. It was further found that parents play an important role in influencing a child to adopt an Islamic character in life. This study adds to the existing knowledge by showing how the integration of Islamic and global values can, when parents have the necessary skills, build characters for adults who are pious (salihah), good servants of Allah, and responsible for their thought and speech according to Islam while also being honorable, creative, tolerant, hardworking, responsible, trustworthy, respectful of nature, disciplined, brave, efficient, effective, diligent, skillful, helpful, consistent, and affectionate to other human beings, as well as being able to make shared decisions.