Exploring the learning and internalization of prayer among secondary school students / Siti Norazian Razali

Islamic Education subject is compulsory for every Muslim student in Malaysia since Islam is the official religion in the country and majority of the citizens are Malay and Muslims. The curriculum for the Islamic Studies subject include learning to pray since performing the five-times prayers in a day is one of five pillars of Islam. Many studies have shown that most of the students were unable to internalize the concept of prayer spiritually in their life. This is due to lack of knowledge, understanding and internalizing of prayer as the core ‘ibadah’ in their life. Accordingly, this study attempts to explore in depth the process of internalization of prayer and how learning prayer takes place internally. This study was designed to be a qualitative method of inquiry that utilizes in-depth interview. This study highlighted more on the emic perspective of students’ understanding on the process of internalization of prayer and explore students’ feeling, emotion and the way they learn or experience prayer.