The Etiquette of Privacy in Islamic Education – Legal Guidelines and Educational Applications in Building a Healthy Personality

Abstract

This research aims to examine the ethics of concealment in Islamic education by analyzing its legal foundations, purposive controls, and educational applications in building a balanced personality. It treats concealment as a reformative value that preserves human dignity and prevents an individual mistake from turning into a social scandal. The study highlights the Qur’anic and Prophetic foundations of concealment through the protection of honor, the prevention of spreading immorality, and the prohibition of tracking people’s faults, while emphasizing the Prophetic approach that gives priority to reform over exposure and makes concealment a means of opening the door to repentance rather than a cover for wrongdoing. The study also shows that concealment in Islamic education does not mean hiding every mistake or tolerating deviant behavior. Rather, it is governed by legal controls that distinguish between reformative concealment and approval of wrongdoing, while considering the condition of the wrongdoer, the nature of the act, and its effects on the individual and the community. The research explains that concealment helps protect the innate moral disposition of young people, preserves modesty, restores the self after wrongdoing, and prevents behavioral persistence when accompanied by private advice, calm follow-up, gradual reform, and gentle treatment. The research concludes that the ethics of concealment represent an integrated educational approach to building moral conscience and strengthening self-monitoring. It moves learners from fear of scandal and punishment to modesty before God and self-review. The study also confirms that contemporary educational environments, especially in the age of social media, need to turn concealment into practical policies within the family, school, and university. These policies should prevent defamation, protect learners’ privacy, and regulate educational correction according to the principles of privacy, gentleness, gradual reform, and role modeling, thereby contributing to the formation of a balanced personality that combines dignity, responsibility, and reform.