Introduction

Islamic boarding school (pesantren) have long occupied a distinctive position within the Indonesian Islamic educational landscape by integrating religious instruction, moral formation, spiritual habituation, and communal living into a holistic educational system. Unlike many formal educational institutions that primarily emphasize cognitive achievement, pesantren education seeks to cultivate religious character by internalizing and consistently practicing Islamic values in everyday life. Consequently, the success of pesantren education is not merely reflected in students’ mastery of religious texts or jurisprudential knowledge, but also in their ability to maintain istiqamah, namely, sustained commitment to worship practices across different social contexts. Within this framework, fiqh al-ibadah is a central component of the curriculum because it provides students with normative guidance on the procedures, obligations, and ethical dimensions of worship. Nevertheless, the possession of religious knowledge does not automatically guarantee the consistent implementation of worship practices. Various studies indicate that some santri experience a decline in worship discipline when they return from the highly structured pesantren environment to family or community settings characterized by lower levels of supervision and religious regulation (Kusuma et al., 2021; Miftahuddin et al., 2024; Naqiba & Taqiyyuddin, 2025; Riduansyah et al., 2026).

This phenomenon reflects what educational psychology commonly describes as the knowing–doing gap, namely the discrepancy between what individuals know and what they consistently practice. In the context of Islamic education, the knowing–doing gap arises when santri demonstrate adequate understanding of fiqh al-ibadah but fail to maintain consistent worship practices across different environments. Such a condition suggests that religious learning outcomes cannot be assessed solely through cognitive achievement because understanding religious obligations does not necessarily translate into enduring religious behavior. Previous studies on pesantren education have shown that institutional discipline, daily worship routines, and teacher supervision contribute significantly to shaping students’ religious behavior. At the same time, they remain within the boarding school environment. However, behavioral consistency often becomes vulnerable when external control mechanisms are reduced, suggesting that religious compliance and religious internalization represent distinct educational outcomes (Kusuma et al., 2021; Riduansyah et al., 2026; Miftahuddin et al., 2024).

The persistence of this gap raises important questions about the psychological mechanisms that enable some santri to maintain consistent worship while others experience behavioral decline. Traditional educational approaches frequently assume that increasing religious instruction, strengthening disciplinary regulations, or intensifying supervision will automatically improve religious commitment. Although these strategies may generate short-term compliance, they do not necessarily foster long-term religious consistency. Contemporary educational research increasingly emphasizes that sustainable behavior depends not only on knowledge acquisition but also on value internalization, self-regulation, personal meaning, and motivational quality. Therefore, the challenge facing Islamic education is not simply how to teach fiqh al-ibadah effectively but how to transform religious understanding into self-sustaining worship behavior that remains stable across changing social environments.

One theoretical perspective that offers significant explanatory power for understanding this phenomenon is Attribution Theory. Attribution Theory explains how individuals interpret the causes of their behavior and how these interpretations influence future actions, motivation, and persistence (Weiner, 1972). Individuals may attribute their behavior to internal factors such as personal conviction, responsibility, effort, and commitment, or to external factors such as rules, rewards, social pressure, and supervision. These attributional orientations are particularly relevant within pesantren education because worship practices may be performed for fundamentally different reasons despite appearing behaviorally similar. Some santri may perform worship because of deep spiritual awareness and personal responsibility toward Allah, whereas others may do so primarily because of institutional regulations, teacher monitoring, or peer expectations. Consequently, the sustainability of worship practices depends not only on whether worship is performed but also on how students understand and explain the reasons behind their religious behavior.

The relevance of Attribution Theory becomes even more apparent when considered alongside Self-Determination Theory, which distinguishes between autonomous and controlled forms of motivation. According to Self-Determination Theory, behaviors driven by intrinsic values and personal commitment tend to be more sustainable than behaviors regulated by external pressures (Ryan & Deci, 2000). In religious contexts, autonomous religiosity develops when worship is perceived as personally meaningful and integrated into one’s identity, whereas controlled religiosity emerges when religious behavior is motivated by external expectations, fear of sanctions, or social approval (Brambilla et al., 2015; Hardy et al., 2022). This distinction is highly relevant for understanding worship consistency among santri because educational environments may produce similar behavioral outcomes while fostering very different motivational foundations. Research in Islamic education further suggests that reflective learning experiences, affective evaluation, spiritual mentoring, and meaningful engagement with religious teachings play important roles in transforming externally regulated behavior into internally motivated religious commitment (Ar Rifni et al., 2026; Alberto & Purnomo, 2022; Nisa et al., 2024).

Recent scholarship on Islamic education increasingly emphasizes the importance of value internalization as a bridge between religious understanding and religious practice. Rather than limiting fiqh instruction to the transmission of legal rulings and procedural knowledge, contemporary Islamic educational discourse advocates approaches that facilitate a deeper appreciation of the spiritual wisdom, ethical values, and transformative purposes underlying worship. Studies have shown that role modeling, continuous habituation, reflective learning, and integrated character education contribute significantly to strengthening students’ self-regulation and personal responsibility (Muttaqin et al., 2023; Hidayat & Hidayat, 2024; Ilyasin & Muadin, 2024; Sopandi et al., 2025). Likewise, value internalization processes enable religious teachings to become personally meaningful, thereby increasing the likelihood that worship practices will be maintained even in the absence of external supervision (Kibtiyah, 2026; Rozikin & Astutik, 2021; Saparwadi, 2023; Prihatin et al., 2023; Yulistiawati et al., 2025). These findings suggest that the sustainability of worship practices depends not only on religious knowledge itself but also on the successful transformation of knowledge into internalized beliefs, motivations, and behavioral commitments.

Despite growing interest in pesantren-based character education, several important gaps remain in the existing literature. First, most studies examine religious understanding, character education, motivation, or pesantren culture as separate variables without adequately explaining how they interact to influence worship consistency across different environments. Second, previous studies predominantly focus on religious behavior within pesantren settings and provide limited attention to behavioral transitions that occur when santri move between pesantren and family environments. Third, although Attribution Theory has been widely applied in educational psychology and the psychology of religion (Spilka et al., 1985), its application to worship behavior among santri remains limited. Fourth, existing studies on fiqh al-ibadah primarily emphasize cognitive mastery and procedural correctness while paying insufficient attention to the attributional and motivational mechanisms through which religious knowledge becomes sustained religious practice.

Addressing these gaps, the present study aims to examine the theoretical relationship between fiqh al-ibadah understanding, religious motivation, attributional orientation, and worship consistency among santri through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Specifically, this study seeks to explain how the knowing–doing gap emerges in worship practices and how internal attribution, value internalization, and intrinsic religious motivation may function as mechanisms for bridging the gap between religious knowledge and consistent religious behavior. By synthesizing contemporary literature on Islamic education, religious motivation, character formation, and worship behavior, this review develops an integrated conceptual framework that combines Attribution Theory and Self-Determination Theory to explain the sustainability of worship practices across pesantren and family environments.

The novelty of this study lies in its effort to bridge Islamic intellectual traditions and contemporary educational psychology through an attribution-based perspective on worship consistency. Unlike previous studies that examine fiqh learning, religious motivation, or character education independently, this article proposes an integrated framework explaining how understanding fiqh al-ibadah is transformed into consistent worship behavior through processes of value internalization, internal attribution, and intrinsic religious motivation. Theoretically, the study extends the application of Attribution Theory within Islamic educational settings and enriches discussions on Islamic educational psychology. In practice, it has implications for pesantren educators, curriculum developers, and parents in designing educational strategies that cultivate autonomous religious commitment rather than mere behavioral compliance. In doing so, the study contributes to broader discussions concerning the role of Islamic education in fostering spiritually resilient, morally grounded, and self-regulated individuals capable of maintaining istiqamah across diverse social contexts.

Method

This study employed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to examine how understanding of fiqh al-ibadah, religious motivation, and attributional orientation contribute to the consistency of worship practices among santri across different social environments. The use of SLR was considered appropriate because the phenomenon investigated in this study—the knowing–doing gap in santri worship practices—has been discussed across various strands of literature, including Islamic education, pesantren studies, educational psychology, religiosity, character education, and motivational theory. Although previous studies have provided valuable insights into religious learning, worship behavior, and character formation, the findings remain fragmented and have not yet been integrated into a comprehensive explanatory framework. Therefore, a systematic review was undertaken to synthesize existing evidence and to develop a deeper theoretical understanding of how religious knowledge is transformed into sustainable worship behavior. In line with recommendations for evidence-based literature synthesis, the review sought to identify recurring patterns, conceptual relationships, and theoretical explanations emerging from contemporary scholarship (Snyder, 2019; Xiao & Watson, 2019).

To ensure methodological rigor and reporting transparency, this review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework (Page et al., 2021). The PRISMA procedure was adopted because it provides a systematic and transparent process for identifying, screening, assessing eligibility, and selecting relevant studies while minimizing potential selection bias. In the present study, the initial search across Scopus, Google Scholar, and SINTA identified 247 records. After 39 duplicate records were removed, 208 records remained for title, abstract, and keyword screening. From these, 154 records were excluded because they were not directly aligned with the study's focus, particularly regarding fiqh al-ibadah understanding, religious motivation, attributional processes, worship behavior, or santri education. Consequently, 54 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility. At this stage, 39 full-text articles were excluded because they focused on non-Islamic educational contexts, adult religious communities outside educational settings, early childhood education, or did not provide sufficient methodological clarity and conceptual relevance to the relationship between religious understanding, motivation, and worship consistency. Finally, 27 studies met all inclusion criteria and were selected for the final qualitative thematic synthesis.

The PRISMA flow diagram illustrates the following selection sequence: records identified through database searching (n = 247), records after duplicates removed (n = 208), records screened (n = 208), records excluded after title, abstract, and keyword screening (n = 154), full-text articles assessed for eligibility (n = 54), full-text articles excluded (n = 27), and studies included in qualitative synthesis (n = 15). Thus, the article selection process follows the sequence 247 → 208 → 54 → 27, ensuring consistency between the methodological narrative and the visual representation of the PRISMA flow.

The literature search was conducted systematically through three academic databases: Scopus, Google Scholar, and the Science and Technology Index (SINTA). These databases were selected because they provide extensive coverage of both international and Indonesian scholarship related to Islamic education, religiosity, worship behavior, motivation, and character development. To capture recent developments in the field, the search was limited to peer-reviewed publications published between 2020 and 2026. The search strategy employed combinations of keywords and Boolean operators derived from the principal constructs of the study, including “fiqh al-ibadah,” “fiqh understanding,” “religious motivation,” “worship consistency,” “religious behavior,” “santri,” “pesantren,” “Islamic boarding school,” “attribution theory,” “self-determination theory,” “value internalization,” “religiosity,” “character education,” and “behavioral consistency.” These keywords were combined and adapted according to the indexing characteristics of each database to maximize retrieval accuracy and coverage of relevant literature (Booth et al., 2016).

Following the identification stage, all retrieved records underwent a multi-stage screening procedure. Duplicate articles were removed prior to the screening process. Subsequently, titles, abstracts, and keywords were reviewed to assess their relevance to the study's objectives. Articles that met the preliminary screening requirements were subjected to full-text evaluation. Studies were included if they satisfied the following criteria: (1) published in peer-reviewed journals indexed in Scopus or accredited by SINTA; (2) focused on Islamic education, pesantren studies, religious motivation, religiosity, worship behavior, character formation, or value internalization among adolescents and santri; (3) employed empirical, conceptual, theoretical, or review-based approaches with clearly described procedures; and (4) provided findings relevant to the relationship among religious understanding, motivational processes, attributional mechanisms, and worship consistency. Conversely, studies were excluded if they focused primarily on early childhood education, adult religious communities outside educational contexts, non-Islamic educational settings, or lacked sufficient methodological transparency.

To enhance the reliability of the review, a quality appraisal procedure was conducted before the final synthesis stage. Each article was evaluated according to four criteria: conceptual relevance to the research objectives, methodological clarity, analytical rigor, and contribution to understanding the relationship between religious understanding and worship behavior. This procedure followed recommendations commonly employed in systematic reviews within educational and social science research (Kitchenham & Charters, 2007; Tranfield et al., 2003). Studies demonstrating strong methodological transparency and direct relevance to understanding fiqh al-ibadah, religious motivation, worship consistency, and value internalization received priority during the synthesis process.

Data extraction was subsequently carried out using a structured review matrix. Information concerning authorship, year of publication, research context, methodological approach, participant characteristics, theoretical orientation, variables examined, and principal findings was systematically recorded. This procedure enabled comparisons across studies and facilitated the identification of recurring conceptual patterns in religious understanding, motivation, attribution, and behavioral consistency. The extracted data were then organized into analytical categories aligned with the central objective of explaining the emergence and persistence of the knowing–doing gap in santri worship practices.

The data were analyzed using qualitative content synthesis combined with thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Initially, findings from each selected study were subjected to open coding to identify recurring concepts associated with fiqh al-ibadah understanding, religious motivation, worship behavior, environmental influences, and value internalization. Similar concepts were subsequently grouped into broader themes through iterative comparison and thematic clustering. This process generated several dominant themes, including the knowing–doing gap in religious behavior, intrinsic and extrinsic religious motivation, internal and external attribution, value internalization, pesantren culture, and worship consistency across different social contexts.

The interpretation of these themes was guided primarily by Attribution Theory (Weiner, 1972), which served as the study's principal analytical framework. Attribution Theory was selected because it provides a powerful explanation of how individuals interpret the causes of their behavior and how those interpretations influence future motivation, persistence, and self-regulation. Within the context of santri worship practices, the analysis focused on whether religious behavior was primarily associated with internal attributions, such as faith, spiritual awareness, personal responsibility, and religious commitment, or external attributions, such as institutional regulations, teacher supervision, peer influence, and social pressure. To strengthen the analysis's explanatory power, Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000) was employed as a complementary framework to distinguish between autonomous and controlled forms of religious motivation. The integration of these perspectives enabled a more comprehensive understanding of how worship practices evolve from externally regulated compliance into internally sustained religious commitment.

Finally, the synthesized findings were integrated into an attribution-based conceptual framework that explains the relationships among fiqh al-ibadah understanding, value internalization, religious motivation, and worship consistency. The framework proposes that understanding fiqh al-ibadah serves as the cognitive foundation of religious behavior. At the same time, value internalization serves as the transformative mechanism through which religious knowledge becomes personally meaningful. Internal attribution and intrinsic religious motivation subsequently emerge as key determinants of behavioral persistence, enabling santri to maintain istiqamah in worship practices across both pesantren and family environments. Through this integrative approach, the review provides a theoretically grounded explanation of the knowing–doing gap. It offers a conceptual basis for strengthening character formation and habituation in worship within contemporary Islamic educational institutions.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Results And Discussion

Results

Characteristics of Selected Studies

The systematic literature review yielded 27 core studies that met the inclusion criteria established in the PRISMA-based selection process. These studies were published between 2020 and 2026. They were selected because of their direct relevance to fiqh al-ibadah understanding, religious motivation, value internalization, pesantren culture, character education, and worship-related behavioral consistency among santri and Muslim students. The selected literature comprises qualitative, quantitative, conceptual, and mixed-methods studies, as well as case studies and literature reviews. This diversity of methods provides a broad foundation for understanding the knowing–doing gap in santri worship practices from educational, psychological, and institutional perspectives.

The reviewed studies collectively show that pesantren education is effective in creating disciplined religious environments through structured routines, teacher supervision, communal worship, role modeling, and moral habituation. However, they also indicate that religious behavior formed under strong institutional control does not always become sustainable when santri move into less regulated environments, particularly family and community contexts. This finding is central to the present study because it confirms that worship consistency cannot be explained solely by religious knowledge or institutional discipline. Instead, it requires analysis of internal attribution, intrinsic religious motivation, and value internalization.

Thematic Synthesis of the Reviewed Literature

The thematic synthesis identified six major themes: the knowing–doing gap, religious motivation, attribution and behavioral persistence, value internalization, pesantren culture and character formation, and worship consistency across environments. These themes demonstrate that the central issue in santri worship practices is not simply whether students understand religious obligations, but whether their understanding becomes internalized as personal conviction and translated into stable religious behavior.

Discussion of Themes

The Knowing-Doing Gap in Religious Behavior

The first dominant finding concerns the persistence of the knowing–doing gap in religious behavior among santri. The reviewed studies show that students may possess adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings, including fiqh al-ibadah, yet may fail to maintain consistent worship practices when they move across different social environments (Lahmar, 2020; Mujahid, 2021). This pattern is particularly visible in the transition from pesantren to family settings. Within pesantren, worship behavior is supported by structured routines, communal discipline, teacher supervision, and institutional regulations. However, once santri return home, these external structures may no longer operate with the same intensity (Rofiqi et al., 2026; Supriyandi et al., 2025). As a result, worship practices that were previously maintained through institutional discipline may decline.

This finding confirms that religious knowledge and religious practice are related but not identical. Fiqh al-ibadah provides the cognitive and normative basis for worship, but it does not automatically produce stable religious behavior. In line with the logic of the knowing–doing gap, the problem is not merely that students lack knowledge, but that knowledge is not always transformed into action. Therefore, the educational challenge in pesantren is not only to teach correct worship procedures but also to cultivate the internal conditions that enable santri to sustain worship independently. This interpretation strengthens the argument that Islamic education should evaluate success not only through cognitive achievement but also through behavioral continuity, self-regulation, and cross-context consistency.

Religious Motivation and Behavioral Persistence

The second theme highlights the role of religious motivation in sustaining worship practices. The reviewed studies indicate that santri who perform worship out of personal conviction, spiritual awareness, and a sense of responsibility toward Allah are more likely to maintain religious practices than those whose behavior is primarily driven by institutional expectations or social pressure (Hidayah et al., 2021; Mashuri et al., 2024). This finding is consistent with Self-Determination Theory, which distinguishes between autonomous and controlled motivation (Howard et al., 2020; Ryan & Deci, 2020). Autonomous motivation tends to produce more stable behavior because individuals perceive the action as personally meaningful, whereas controlled motivation often weakens when external pressure is removed.

In this context, worship consistency depends on the motivational quality underlying religious behavior (Ishaq & Dayati, 2024; Rostiani et al., 2021). Two santri may perform the same act of worship while living in a pesantren, but the psychological reasons behind their actions may differ. One may pray because worship has become part of personal identity and spiritual commitment, while another may pray because of fear of punishment or teacher supervision. Although both forms of behavior appear similar, their long-term sustainability differs significantly. This explains why pesantren education should not rely exclusively on discipline and habituation, but should also develop reflective learning, spiritual mentoring, affective evaluation, and meaningful engagement with worship values.

Attribution Processes and Worship Consistency

Attribution Theory provides a central explanation for why some santri remain consistent in worship while others experience decline (Sayuti et al., 2026; Walter & Altorfer, 2022). The synthesis shows that worship behavior is more sustainable when santri attribute it to internal causes such as faith, personal responsibility, spiritual awareness, and commitment to Allah. Conversely, worship behavior becomes more fragile when it is attributed mainly to external causes such as pesantren rules, teacher monitoring, peer pressure, or disciplinary sanctions (Ishaq & Dayati, 2024; Maulina et al., 2026).

This distinction is essential for understanding the knowing–doing gap. When worship is externally imposed, santri may comply with religious routines while under supervision, but they may struggle to sustain them when supervision ends (Saleh, 2024; Zahrah et al., 2025). In contrast, internal attribution transforms worship from an externally imposed obligation into an internally owned commitment (Lahmar, 2024; Sayfo, 2026). Therefore, the sustainability of worship practices depends not merely on repeated performance but on the meaning santri assign to that performance. This finding extends Attribution Theory into the field of Islamic educational psychology by showing that causal interpretation plays a significant role in the persistence of religious behavior.

Value Internalization as the Bridge between Knowledge and Action

The fourth theme shows that value internalization functions as the main bridge between fiqh understanding and consistent worship behavior. The reviewed literature consistently indicates that sustainable character formation occurs when religious values become embedded within students’ personal belief systems (Komalasari & Yakubu, 2023; Osman, 2026). In this process, worship is no longer perceived merely as a school routine or institutional obligation, but as a meaningful expression of faith and identity (Mujahid, 2021; Yusuf et al., 2023).

Value internalization occurs through repeated practice, reflective learning, spiritual mentoring, and exemplary role modeling. Studies by Kibtiyah (2025), Hidayat and Hidayat (2024), and Ilyasin and Muadin (2024) emphasize that religious values become more stable when they are experienced affectively and spiritually, not merely understood cognitively. This finding is important because it clarifies the mechanism by which fiqh al-ibadah can influence consistency in worship. Fiqh learning provides knowledge of what should be done, but internalization explains why santri continue doing it even when external control is absent. Thus, internalization is the transformative process that turns religious knowledge into religious commitment.

The Role of Pesantren Culture in Character Formation

The fifth theme concerns the role of pesantren culture in shaping religious character. Pesantren provide a distinctive educational ecosystem in which worship practices are continuously reinforced through daily routines, communal prayer, teacher exemplification, peer interaction, discipline, and moral habituation (Mujahid, 2021; Nasution & Nafi, 2026). This hidden curriculum contributes significantly to the formation of religious habits. Studies by Rozikin and Astutik (2021), and Sopandi et al. (2025) show that character formation in pesantren is not limited to classroom instruction but is embedded in the totality of institutional life.

However, the synthesis also indicates that pesantren culture has a dual function. On one hand, it creates a powerful environment for habituating religious behavior. On the other hand, if the educational process depends too heavily on external regulation, it may produce compliance rather than internal commitment. Therefore, pesantren culture should not only regulate behavior but also cultivate reflective awareness, personal meaning, and internal attribution. The ultimate goal of pesantren education is not merely to produce obedient santri within the institution but to form individuals who remain istiqamah beyond the pesantren environment.

Worship Consistency Across Environments

The final theme concerns the consistency of worship across environments. The reviewed studies suggest that the true test of pesantren character education lies not only in students’ religious behavior while residing in pesantren, but also in their ability to maintain worship practices after returning to family and community settings (Mashuri et al., 2024; Ok et al., 2026; Rusmana et al., 2024). This cross-context consistency is central to the title and purpose of the present study because it directly reflects the success or failure of bridging the knowing–doing gap.

The transition from pesantren to home shifts from externally structured discipline to more autonomous religious responsibility. In this transition, santri who have internalized worship values and developed intrinsic religious motivation are more likely to maintain consistent worship practices. Conversely, those whose behavior depends primarily on external control may experience decline. Therefore, pesantren and families should be viewed as connected educational environments. Collaboration between pesantren educators and parents is necessary to ensure the continuity of religious reinforcement, the habituation of worship, and spiritual guidance beyond institutional boundaries.

Table 3. Research Gaps Identified from the Literature

Table 3. Research Gaps Identified from the Literature

The synthesis of the reviewed literature indicates that worship consistency among santri cannot be explained solely by fiqh al-ibadah. Religious knowledge serves as the cognitive foundation of worship, but its influence on behavior depends on whether it is internalized and supported by intrinsic motivation. The reviewed studies suggest that value internalization transforms religious knowledge into personally meaningful beliefs. These beliefs subsequently foster internal attribution, in which santri interpret worship as an expression of faith, responsibility, and spiritual identity rather than as a response to external control. Internal attribution then strengthens intrinsic religious motivation, which becomes the psychological basis for consistent worship behavior across different environments.

The attribution-based framework developed from this systematic review demonstrates that the transformation of religious knowledge into consistent worship behavior is not a direct process but occurs through a sequence of interconnected psychological and educational mechanisms. As illustrated in Figure 1, fiqh al-ibadah provides the cognitive foundation for worship by equipping santri with knowledge of religious obligations, procedures, and ethical principles. However, knowledge alone is insufficient to ensure behavioral consistency. The framework suggests that religious understanding must first undergo a process of value internalization through which religious teachings become personally meaningful and integrated into the individual’s belief system. Through this process, worship is no longer perceived merely as a formal obligation but as a meaningful expression of faith and spiritual commitment.

A key contribution of the framework lies in the introduction of attributional orientation as the central explanatory mechanism linking religious understanding to worship behavior. Drawing on Attribution Theory (Weiner, 1972), the framework proposes that the way santri interpret the causes of their worship behavior significantly influences their motivational orientation and subsequent behavioral persistence. When worship is associated with internal attribution, such as faith, spiritual awareness, personal responsibility, and commitment to Allah, santri are more likely to develop intrinsic religious motivation. In this condition, worship is performed because it is personally valued and considered an integral part of religious identity. Consequently, intrinsic religious motivation promotes consistent worship across different environments, enabling santri to maintain religious practices not only within the structured setting of the pesantren but also in family and community contexts. Over time, this process contributes to the development of sustainable religious character characterized by istiqamah and self-regulated religious commitment.

Conversely, the framework indicates that worship behavior may follow a different pathway when it is predominantly associated with external attribution. In such cases, religious practices are interpreted as responses to institutional regulations, teacher supervision, rewards, peer expectations, or social pressure. Although these external factors may successfully initiate worship behavior, they tend to foster controlled religious motivation rather than autonomous commitment. As a result, worship practices become dependent upon external regulation and are more vulnerable to decline when institutional supervision is reduced. This pathway ultimately contributes to the emergence of the knowing–doing gap, namely the discrepancy between religious knowledge and actual religious practice. The framework, therefore, suggests that the persistence of the knowing–doing gap cannot be explained solely by insufficient religious knowledge but must also be understood as a consequence of attributional and motivational processes that fail to support long-term behavioral sustainability.

Another important feature of the framework is the recognition of supporting educational contexts that facilitate value internalization and attributional development. The synthesis of the reviewed literature indicates that pesantren culture, teacher role modelling, spiritual mentoring, habituation programs, and family reinforcement collectively shape the environment in which religious values are experienced and interpreted. These factors do not directly determine worship consistency; rather, they influence how religious understanding is internalized and how santri construct attributional explanations for their behavior. For example, teacher role modelling and spiritual mentoring may encourage students to perceive worship as a personal responsibility grounded in faith. At the same time, family reinforcement may strengthen the continuity of religious commitment beyond the pesantren environment. Consequently, these contextual factors function as educational supports that enhance the likelihood of internal attribution and intrinsic religious motivation.

The framework also provides an important implication for contemporary Islamic education. Traditional approaches to religious instruction often emphasize compliance through discipline, supervision, and behavioral regulation. While such approaches may produce observable religious behavior, they do not necessarily cultivate the internal conditions required for long-term consistency. The present findings suggest that pesantren education should move beyond a compliance-oriented model toward an internalization-oriented model that prioritizes reflective learning, spiritual meaning-making, affective engagement, and personal responsibility. Such an approach enables religious knowledge to become integrated into students’ identities and encourages the development of autonomous forms of religiosity that remain stable across changing social environments.

Overall, the proposed framework contributes to Islamic educational psychology by explaining worship consistency as the outcome of an interaction among cognitive, attributional, motivational, and contextual factors. More specifically, the framework extends the application of Attribution Theory in the field of Islamic education by demonstrating how attributional orientation mediates the relationship between understanding of fiqh al-ibadah and worship behavior. The findings further suggest that the central challenge in pesantren education is not merely how to increase students’ religious knowledge or regulate their behavior, but how to cultivate internal religious agency that transforms knowledge into sustainable practice. In this sense, the framework offers a more comprehensive explanation of the knowing–doing gap. It provides a conceptual foundation for strengthening character formation, value internalization, and worship consistency among santri in both pesantren and family environments.

Conclusion

This systematic literature review demonstrates that the knowing–doing gap in santri worship practices is a more complex educational and psychological phenomenon than previously assumed. The findings reveal that the sustainability of worship behavior is not determined primarily by the amount of fiqh al-ibadah knowledge possessed by students, but rather by how that knowledge is internalized, attributed, and transformed into personal commitment. More specifically, the review shows that attributional orientation plays a pivotal role in shaping worship consistency. Santri who attribute worship practices to internal causes—such as faith, spiritual awareness, personal responsibility, and commitment to Allah—are more likely to develop intrinsic religious motivation and maintain worship consistently across pesantren, family, and community environments. In contrast, worship behavior that relies predominantly on external attribution, including institutional regulations, supervision, and social pressure, tends to produce controlled motivation and is more vulnerable to decline once external controls are removed. These findings suggest that attributional processes exert a greater influence on worship consistency than has been commonly recognized, thereby challenging the long-standing assumption that religious knowledge and disciplinary structures alone are sufficient to ensure sustainable religious behavior.

From a theoretical perspective, this study contributes to the growing field of Islamic educational psychology by extending the application of Attribution Theory to the context of santri worship practices and integrating it with Self-Determination Theory. The review reinforces previous findings regarding the importance of value internalization, intrinsic motivation, and religious commitment in sustaining worship behavior, while simultaneously questioning educational approaches that rely excessively on compliance, supervision, and external control. Furthermore, this study introduces an attribution-based conceptual framework that explains how fiqh al-ibadah understanding develops into worship consistency through the sequential processes of value internalization, attributional orientation, and motivational transformation. By integrating Islamic intellectual traditions with contemporary educational psychology, the framework enriches scholarly discussions on religious behavior, character formation, and the psychological foundations of istiqamah within Islamic educational settings.

Despite these contributions, this review has several limitations. First, the synthesis was based on fifteen selected studies published between 2020 and 2026, which limits the breadth of available evidence. Second, the reviewed studies were concentrated largely within Indonesian Islamic educational contexts, particularly pesantren, thereby restricting the generalizability of the findings to other religious, cultural, or educational environments. Third, because this study employed a qualitative systematic review design, the proposed relationships among fiqh al-ibadah understanding, attributional orientation, religious motivation, and worship consistency remain conceptual and have not yet been tested empirically. Therefore, caution should be exercised when applying the framework beyond the contexts represented in the reviewed literature.

Based on these limitations, several recommendations can be proposed. Islamic educational institutions should move beyond compliance-oriented models of religious instruction and adopt approaches that prioritize value internalization, reflective learning, spiritual mentoring, and autonomous religious development. Pesantren educators should strengthen collaboration with families to ensure continuity of religious reinforcement across educational and domestic environments. Future research is encouraged to empirically test the proposed attribution-based framework through quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods approaches involving larger and more diverse populations. Comparative studies across different types of pesantren, educational systems, and socio-cultural settings would also provide a deeper understanding of how attributional processes influence worship consistency. Such investigations may further refine the framework and contribute to the development of more effective strategies for bridging the knowing–doing gap in contemporary Islamic education.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to the Cyber State Islamic University of Syekh Nurjati Cirebon, Indonesia, for providing academic support and an enabling scholarly environment for the completion of this study. The authors also acknowledge the valuable contributions of researchers and academics in the fields of Islamic education, educational psychology, and pesantren studies whose published works served as important references for this systematic literature review. The authors are grateful to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and insightful suggestions, which significantly improved the quality, clarity, and academic rigor of this manuscript. Their feedback contributed substantially to the refinement of the theoretical framework, methodological approach, and interpretation of findings presented in this study. Finally, the authors appreciate the continued efforts of pesantren educators, teachers, and families in fostering religious character development among santri, which remains an important foundation for advancing research on worship consistency, value internalization, and Islamic educational psychology.

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