Social entrepreneurship in an Islamic context

Abstract

The concept of social entrepreneurship still has not been fully understood because of the various interpretations that come-out from different perspectives and people. However, previous studies on social entrepreneurship, mostly perceived it from the Western perspective, which was not established from a religious point of view which is a consequence of the lack of religious relations. In fact, the perspective of religion is rarely found in the literature on social entrepreneurship in previous studies. The term of Islamic social entrepreneurship is still new in social entrepreneurship and social enterprise theory and research. Entrepreneurship from an Islamic perspective closely considers on principles of thoughts that are affirmed in the following two ways. Firstly, Islam encourages entrepreneurial development and entrepreneurship as an integral part of its religion. Secondly, in the perspective of ownership resources and treasure, Muslims are khalifah and agents of trust of Allah who are responsible to generate prosperity and considering that doing business is a part of ibadah or good deed. Third, in the perspective of being successful in doing business, the most important thing is to be as useful as possible for the society (cooperation for existence) and to live ethically in correspondence with the philosophy of belief in Allah the Almighty.