In business transactions, many tend to focus on customer satisfaction as the main goal, and the value that gets back to the seller as well. Many times when a shared value is identified, people overlook scrutinising how a transaction dealing is structured. Factors that determine if a transaction is Sharia compliant or not go beyond the purity of the commodity in question; or the concept of Riba alone. The underlying factor for the invalidity of a deal could be as minute as the ethics of business which many don’t really care about. This is where Sharia engineering or design thinking comes in.
There are several products and services in today’s market that are non-compliant with Sharia and this can be in any commodity in any market. Mortgages, property finances, insurance of any kind, investment in shares and bonds, even some micro sukuk, and more. In reality, a hungry person could buy chicken in a kitchen that is not dealing with Halal. In such a kitchen, people will beg for answers if the chicken is Halal or not.
There are many questions to be asked when thinking of a Sharia-compliant business model. A common misconception is that people think that a Sharia-compliant business should best have an Arabic name. We think every conventional business is not Sharia compliant and everyone given an Arabic name is automatically Sharia compliant. Or a business owned by a Muslim is Sharia compliant and the ones owned by non-Muslims are not Sharia compliant. This distinction is not a Sharia rule. Rather, we can say a Muslim-owned business or a non-Muslim-owned business, this is not a problem in Sharia. The Rasul (Alayhi Salat wa Salam) had dealings with non-Muslims on both personal and community level.
Owned by a Muslim or not, the business should be Sharia-compliant. Therefore a non-Muslim could own a sharia-compliant business and vice versa. An example is a Hajj and Umrah venture taking people on pilgrimage to the holy lands, there could be a non-Sharia compliant element in their business model, but because it is Hajj we don’t know or even bother to ask. On the other hand, another tourism venture could have everything structured in a fully Sharia-compliant way while nothing in its business model has a direct link to any noticeable Islamic notions.
One of the beautiful businesses in town is the boutique business. Immoralities and the absence of bashfulness is one major selling point that gears customers to shops. If business owners stoop so low just to make money by compromising that aspect by contributing to moral decadence with their business, even if selling clothes is fully Sharia compliant, the business model is questionable, and the science of Fiqh will have something to say in the light of the Maqasid of Sharia. Therefore, this is not just an issue of what is wrong in opening a boutique, or a mere notion of what is in vogue in the modern world. How a business conducts itself really matters.
To begin with, we need to understand the distinction between conventional businesses and Sharia-compliant businesses. We need to understand if there is any technical difference in the naming conventions of the two or if they are mere textbook meanings. What does a Sharia business canvas look like and what distinguishes it from non-compliant ones, or at best, what is missing? What should an investor, or business person look out for in an acclaimed Sharia-compliant product or service? Is there a level of compromise that can be trivialized in a context judging by the factors surrounding or contributing to a particular transaction or dealing or business as a whole? These are some of the questions we will simplify in coming blogs. Please stay posted.