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How Practitioners Make Sense of Gratitude in Qur’an Journaling

Aisyah Amini 1* , Evi Afifah Huriyati 2
(1–2) International Open University, Indonesia Indonesia
* Corresponding Author: Aisyah Amini
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Keywords: Variations of gratitude Imtinaan Hamid Qur’an journaling Interpretative phenomenological analysis
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Abstract

Qur’an journaling provides a setting in which practitioners relate scriptural reflection to gratitude, but the meanings of this experience require differentiation from claims of psychological improvement. This study asks how three experienced members of The Qur’an Journal Indonesia community make sense of gratitude and how their accounts converge and differ. Interview transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Personal Qur’an journals served as contextual material. Four gratitude-related themes from a broader set of 13 cross-case themes inform the discussion. The accounts support three overlapping meanings: recognizing blessings, responding through responsibility and action, and sustaining praise during difficulty. These meanings are interpretive groupings of the participants’ accounts. Praise during difficulty is explicit in the accounts of P2 and P3, while continued negligence, sustained effort, and discomfort qualify a uniformly positive interpretation. The study offers a situated account of gratitude as meaning-making and practice oriented toward Allah. The purposive selection of participants who already reported tranquility or gratitude and the retrospective design preclude causal or population-level conclusions.

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Copyright © 2026 Aisyah Amini, Evi Afifah Huriyati.

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How to Cite

Amini, A., & Huriyati, E. A. (2026). How Practitioners Make Sense of Gratitude in Qur’an Journaling. Substantia: Jurnal Ilmu-Ilmu Ushuluddin, 28(2), 112-125. https://doi.org/10.22373/substantia.v28i2.21
How Practitioners Make Sense of Gratitude in Qur’an Journaling
Substantia: Jurnal Ilmu-Ilmu Ushuluddin
Issue: Vol. 28 No. 2 (2026)
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