the management of spirituality activities among Muslim youth was found to be influenced by a total of eight

(8) dimensions which include age, education, familial and peer influence, shariah, akhlak, akidah and the need

for the spirituality program. Thus, for the management of spirituality activities to be effective, the quality and

design of the content, the method of delivery, and the active involvement of a knowledgeable facilitator need

to be prioritized.

Youths are the future citizens and key contributors to the uninterrupted development of any society. Therefore,

to the extent the potential of the youth is developed, the future socioeconomic development of the country will

be shaped. A key objective in the framework of youth development is to harness the potential, talent, and

and will form the core of a skilled and productive workforce needed to help the country achieve its developed

nation status. However, the rapid pace of economic development and industrialization will require added skills

and new work ethics from the youth. As the youth migrate to bigger urban centers, new tools and innovative

strategies will be required for designing youth programs.

To improve Youth Development, several initiatives were implemented. These covered leadership training and

other skills, entrepreneurial/resourceful training, healthy lifestyle training, and preventive and rehabilitative

programmes were implemented by various agencies. Managing and coordinating programmes and activities by

public and private sectors (including NGOs) is crucial in fostering and enhancing spirituality in the youth. To

promote positive Muslim youth, spirituality will have to be incorporated to the other core elements of

integrated health and wellness.

elements include: the observance of sacred Islamic rites (Ibadat) which are the five daily obligatory prayers

(solat), fasting (saum), almsgiving (zakat), the pilgrimage (haj) to Mecca, Forgivingness Attitude (Al a’fw),

Faith in Allah (Iman bil-Lah), and the Remembrance of Allah (Dhikrullah). The first of pillars of Islam is the

declaration of faith (kalimat shahadah).

Nevertheless, the numerous initiatives undertaken in the quest to improve the spirituality of the Muslim youths

in Malaysia appears to have yielded minimal and/or unsustainable results. These initiatives are tied to

significant costs and resource allocation. The recent reports - both national and local - have raised concerns

regarding the psychosocial challenges facing Malaysian youths. The Youth Mental Health Index 2023

(MyMHI’23) highlights the need for interventions that focus on the mental health, as well as the spirituality, of

the targeted youth demographic.

substance abuse, risk-taking, and other problem behaviors. There are unique gaps in the spirituality programs

on offer, specifically in the areas of accessibility, relevance, and overall quality. Therefore, this study aims to

explore the perceptions of Malaysia Muslim youth on the management of spirituality programs and the

determinants of their perceptions.

Islam recognizes that human being consists of two parts. The first part is the body which is the physical

dimension. The second part is the spirit, which is called “nafs” (in Arabic language) while the human is living

and “ruh” (soul) when the human dies. Al-Ghazzali (2004) indicated that human beings have four

distinguished classes of characteristics; animal characteristics, evil characteristics, wild characteristics and

prayer are only for their benefits so they could reach to the highest state of spiritual and physical fitness

(Ibrahim, 1997). In line with this contention, Hawa (2004) posits that spirituality could not be maintained

unless all rituals (Ibadah) of fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca (haj) and charity (zakah) are observed regularly.

Allah had imposed these rituals (Ibadah) on Muslims to provide them with daily, weekly and yearly meals for

their spirits, which can strengthen and renew their beliefs and cleans their hearts from stains of sins and

impurity. In view of the contention by Hawa (2004) and Al-Ghazzali (2004), it is worth noting that spirituality

does not depend on facial looks or wealth, personal backgrounds or race, but depends on how clean one’s heart

is from stains of sins and disobeying Allah’s commands.

To add to the elaboration of the benefits and importance of spirituality, (Hawa, 2004) explained that Islamic

spirituality is capable of producing a complete Muslim who would worship Allah and also be a valuable

In this study, spirituality encompasses more than prayer and it includes the conformity of other obligations.

According to Mohsen (2007) Islamic spirituality is a concept that is embedded in Taqwa (God-consciousness/

piety). To identify the characteristics of Islamic spirituality, the concept of Taqwa was thoroughly explored

from the Qur’an, found in six areas of the Qur’an; (2:3-4), (2:177), (2:183), (3:133-136), (5:8-9), (23:1-11) and

(25:63-76). From these verses, the characteristics of the Muttaqqeen (pious people) was collected and grouped

under two main categories; namely, Islamic spirituality which is defined as the relationship between the

Creator and man (Mohsen, 2007); and Islamic social responsibility (ISR) which is defined as the relationship

between man and his fellow man, nature, and other creations (Mohsen, 2007).

spiritual aspects associated with the pious people. These include; careful observance of the Rituals (Ibadat)

which comprises of prayers (solat), fasting (saum), charity (zakat) and pilgrimage to Mecca (at least once in a

life time) i.e. (haj); Forgivingness attitude (Al a’fw); Belief in Allah (Iman bil-Lah) and constant

Remembrance of Allah (Dhikrullah). The first pillar of Islam is the declaration of faith in Allah the Almighty

(kalimat shahadah).

However, Khaliq (2011) considered spirituality synonymous with purification of the heart, which is required to

set right all the parts of the human body. He stressed that for the heart to be purified (spiritual) it must be

behaviors such as empathy, volunteerism, and self-control. Ahmad, Osman, and Rahman (2024) revealed

positive correlations between spirituality, spiritual coping, and the valence of mental well-being of medical and

health sciences students in Malaysia. In the same way, religiosity along with family support were reported to

mediate the relationship between stress and adolescent risk-taking behaviors (Ibrahim & Roslan, 2023).

Recent scholarship draws attention to and includes the emerging concept of digital spirituality the new modes

of religious participation through social media and other online platforms. Rahim and Ismail (2024) and Saidin

(2024) note that Malaysian youth become active seekers of religious materials and communities and engage

with them in the digital sphere. This creates new and different forms of identity construction and spiritual

practice. While offering access to daʿwah and the formation of online religious communities for the socially

distanced, scholars warn of the dangers of digital spirituality, including insincere religiosity, misinformation,

with youth aspirations, as well as within the institutional framework (Othman & Yusof, 2022). From an

obligation, which ensures that program execution focuses on the inner development of the individual while

paying attention to social virtue.

through a self-developed questionnaire and distributed to Muslim youth in Malaysia.

In assessing the perceptions of Malaysian Muslim youth towards the management of spirituality programs, this

research utilized a quantitative cross-sectional survey design. The target demographic was Muslim youth aged

15 to 40 across all 14 states in Malaysia. Stratified random sampling was used to select the 3,648 respondents

ensuring equal representation in terms of gender, age, and education.

According to the conversation with the officer from the Department of Statistics Malaysia, 750 sampling

blocks were chosen, each of which is made up of 8 households. One sampling block accommodates all 16

states of Malaysia including the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya. Each state was

further categorized into urban and sub-urban. The respondents of the study were the country’s youth, who were

representative of different socio-economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. The study was designed to

management quality which included family, peers, and personal religiosity. The 10-point Likert scale was

employed to assess response to each question, where 1 meant strong disagreement and 10 meant strong

agreement. The data was processed using SPSS version 27 and analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-tests,

ANOVA, and multiple regression to find the main factors that determine the perception of youth.

single and consists of 2142 respondents.

qualification at school. While for types of secondary school, majority of the respondents are from Sekolah

Menengah Kebangsaan, in which they represent 88.5% of total respondents and mostly from arts stream for

the category of school streams (46.4%), and the majority of the respondents comes from daily school with

64.3%. In term of highest academic qualification (Higher Education) majority of the respondents hold diploma

In terms of the age when Muslim youth started to learn about religious lesson and the age, they started to

perform praying, majority Muslim Malaysia Youth started to learn about religions from age 1-5 years old with

the representation of 56.2%. However, they started to perform pray in the age of 6-10 years old. This is

because in Islam, parents are required to educate children to pray since 7 years old.

improved on the management side in managing the spirituality program especially for youth.