Islamic Psychospiritual Approach in Forming University Students’ Ethics: A Narrative Review

Ethics is an important foundation in the formation of university students’ personalities, but the increasingly worrying issue of ethical violations has affected the reputation of higher education institutions and has a negative impact on the development of the country’s human capital. In facing this challenge, the Islamic psychospiritual approach is considered to have the potential to strengthen the intellectual, emotional and spiritual balance of students, thus increasing ethical awareness. However, previous studies have not thoroughly examined the application of the Islamic psychospiritual approach in Malaysian universities. Therefore, this study aims to identify the issue of ethical violations among university students and examine the Islamic psychospiritual approach as an alternative basis in the formation of ethics. This study uses a qualitative approach and a narrative review method to examine the latest literature from the Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. The data was analysed inductively to formulate the main themes related to concepts of ethics, forms of ethical violation, and relevant Islamic psychospiritual principles. The study’s findings show that student ethical violations include deviant behaviour and academic fraud, which stem from weak student involvement in campus activities and a lack of integration of spiritual values in education. Furthermore, the Islamic psychospiritual approach provides an alternative framework by strengthening religious practices, developing a university environment based on spirituality, and integrating spiritual values ​​into educational modules. This study stresses the importance of mainstreaming the Islamic psychospiritual approach as a holistic framework for the formation of student ethics and as a basis for higher education policies that emphasise intellectual, emotional, and spiritual balance.