Rihla Nahtadiya, Darnoto Darnoto
This study examined how female students in the final year of the Islamic Religious Education (Pendidikan Agama Islam, PAI) program at Universitas Islam Nahdlatul Ulama Jepara understood self-reward and constructed boundaries among shukr (gratitude), isrāf (excess), and tabdhīr (wasteful expenditure). The study employed a qualitative approach with a phenomenological orientation. Preliminary screening involved 16 female students in their final year and examined variation in self-reward frequency, form, expenditure, motives, and ethical considerations. Five participants representing contrasting practices were then purposively selected through maximum-variation sampling. Data were collected between March and May 2026 through semi-structured, in-depth interviews supported by contextual nonparticipant observation and were analyzed manually using an interactive qualitative model. Participants understood self-reward as an expression of gratitude, recognition of effort or achievement, personal celebration, and emotional recovery. Stress management was the most frequently reported motive and was associated with academic assignments, organizational responsibilities, and social interaction. Participants constructed the boundary between acceptable and problematic self-reward through three primary dimensions: the relationship between expenditure and financial capacity, the presence or absence of spiritual awareness, and the proportionality of the reward to the effort or achievement. They associated isrāf with impulsive, repeated, or disproportionate consumption and tabdhīr with expenditure that lacked clear usefulness, created financial burdens, or primarily served social display. Participants differed in how explicitly they used Islamic ethical concepts when making these decisions. These findings indicate that the boundary was contextual rather than determined by a fixed monetary threshold.