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A Qualitative Insight into Islamic Advertising Ethics
Mohammad Noorizzuddin Nooh
Abstract
Advertising plays a major role in today’s businesses. Its role in
disseminating information has transcended over the geographical and
cultural boundaries. It is considered to be one of the essential marketing
tools which have been proven to be effective in capturing new customers
and creating brand image. The advancement in technologies has created new
media thus it is almost impossible to manage the effects of advertisements
particularly to the younger generations. Advertising in the new millennium
has raised substantial concerns among religious scholars particularly in the
issues of unethical advertising. The author has conducted several qualitative
interviews among Malaysian Islamic religious scholars in order to
understand their concern on these issues and also to gauge qualitatively on
their views on Islamic advertising ethics. The paper discusses the religious
scholars’ views on the Malaysian advertising industry in general, its effect
on children, teenager, and adults, roles of the government, society and
advertising practitioners in improving the current situations, the foundations
of Islamic ethics, roles of advertising in Islam, conflicts between current
advertising practices and Islamic teachings, and also the ideal roles of
advertising in the society.
Keywords: Ethics, Advertising Ethics, Islam, Islamic Advertising Ethics,
1.
Introduction
Advertising is one of the most integral parts of a business entity.
Organizations all around the world spend billions of dollars every year to
promote their products and advertising is one of the tools to promote their
product globally. As businesses transcend across border, the role and
magnitude of advertising expenditure have expanded thus require a close
examination in terms of its roles and functions. These ethical issues include
women exploitation, subliminal perception, advertising to children,
deceptive advertising, and other issues which can lead to moral deterioration
of the society1. The fact that potentially unethical advertisements are
reaching the marketplace suggested that current methods of evaluating
advertisements may be insufficient for some of today’s controversial or
innovative campaigns2. Most of the criticism of advertising comes from
those who focus on advertising’s social role while most of the defenses
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come from those who emphasize on economic functions3. Researches in
business ethics covers all the functions of business thus it also covers the
area of advertising and promotion. Due to the fact that advertising stirs
ethical controversies, numerous studies from different perspectives have
been done to understand this phenomenon4.
Ethics is one of the branches of philosophy5. According to Spence and
Heekeren6, ethics can be defined as “a set of prescriptive rules, principles,
values, and virtues of character that inform and guide interpersonal and
intrapersonal conduct”. Schlegelmilch further argues that ethics is hard to
define due to the fact that it cannot be directly measured and it originates
from many influences such as internal and external environmental
influences7. Dr H. Hamzah Ya’qub in his book, Etika Islam: Pembinaan
Akhlaqulkarimah, perceives ethics as a body of knowledge that examines
good and bad/right and wrong by observing human behaviors8. Ethics in
Islam differs from the philosophical ethics because it is rooted in the sources
of Al-Qur’an and Hadith9. In Islam ethics covers the aspects of physical,
emotional and spiritual10. Furthermore, Islam is the basis in shaping an
individual with a towering personality and a commendable ethics11.
A. Advertising ethics from theological perspective
There are scholars who focused on the theological perspectives on
advertising ethics. Even though these approaches are theological in nature,
they are still under the applied ethics approach because they are more
concerned towards the impacts and affect of advertising on the society and
the economy. For example, a study was done in five different countries to
gauge the influence of religion on attitudes towards the advertising of
controversial products12. Even though using different religions as constructs
of the research, this study does not focus on studying the operational
definition of advertising ethics and how people ought to behave or act as far
as advertising ethics is concerned thus this research is focusing on the
applied ethics practices. Another example to illustrate the practice of
employing the theological applied ethics approach in studying advertising
ethics is a research by Rice and al-Mossawi on the implications of Islam for
advertising messages13. The authors suggested that due to the fact that
Muslims in the Middle Eastern countries share the same beliefs, the
advertising messages intended for those countries will be the same.
Another prominent study on the advertising ethics through a theological
perspective was done by the Pontifical Council for Social Communication,
Vatican City14. The Council acknowledges the importance of advertising in
the society and views it as ‘gifts of god’ that brings people together15. The
objectives of the monograph were to:
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i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Call awareness to constructive contributions that advertising can
and does make
Note ethical and moral problems that advertising can and does rise,
Point to moral principle that apply to this field, and
Suggest certain steps for consideration of those professionally
involved in advertising16.
In the monograph, the Vatican laid out the benefit, the harms, some ethical
and moral principles worth considering, and steps to be taken to improve the
current situation regarding advertising ethics17. In discussing the benefits of
advertising, the Council divides these benefits into four different segments;
economic, political, cultural, and moral and religious benefit and the same
four segments are then used again in their explanation on harms of
advertising18.
The monograph does not come without any weaknesses. Murphy argues that
the monograph has several weaknesses that range from being too general in
nature, mixing a lot of different issues throughout, too idealistic or
unrealistic in some places, and avoiding from citing the secular literature19.
Foley also acknowledges that issues such as the use of product placements
in films and television programs, the promotion of products connected with
the programs being shown, and also endorsements of products by famous
persons should be included in the monograph in the first place20. Brenkert
argues that in the monograph, the Council argues from one-sided
perspective that advertisers are morally responsible in the market and rejects
the view in which the consumers have responsibility for their own
decisions21.
2.
Research Objective
The main objective of this paper is to understand the Islamic
approach towards ethics in advertising. Islamic advertising ethics is
relatively new in the advertising body of knowledge. Due to numerous
articles written on unethical advertising, the researcher feels that an in-depth
study on this area is needed to shed light to current problems. An existing
research on this area is only done through the Christianity perspective but it
only touches benefit and harms of advertising in general22. Being a Muslim
country, it is an added advantage to practice Islamic teachings in all aspects
of life including when interacting with people through advertising. The
researcher intends to come up with a model of Islamic advertising ethics.
3.
Interview Protocol
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The interview protocol was developed through consultations with a
marketing assistant professor and several religious scholars. As mentioned
earlier, this research is a part of a research on the effects of religiosity on
advertising ethics. The interview protocol was divided into five main
sections. It started with the demographic section, followed with overview on
advertising ethics, religiosity, religiosity (existing measurement variables),
and religiosity and advertising ethics. For the purpose of this paper, only
results from the demographic and overview on advertising ethics are
utilized.
The interview questions are structured as broad and open ended questions in
order to gain more information from the religious scholars and also to
enable the informants to define the situation23. The main purpose of the
protocol is to gain in-depth information on religious scholars’ perceptions
and understanding on the issues of advertising ethics thus questions are
structured to achieve these objectives. The religious scholars are chosen
because they have a good understanding of the fundamental and advanced
concepts in Islam. Furthermore, they are also a part of the target audiences
of advertisements. Based on these assumptions, it can be concluded that they
are the best respondents for this research.
4.
Data Collection and Analysis
Due to the fact this is an ongoing research; the researcher has
managed to interview 11 respondents. In qualitative interview, statistical
power is not the goal, and large samples cannot be easily analyzed with
qualitative methods24. The personal interviews were conducted in 3 main
cities in Malaysia: Putrajaya, Nilai, and Malacca. The respondents, although
they are religious scholars, they came from different departments and
agencies such as the states religious agencies, universities, and also the
Islamic Development Department of Malaysia. Their working experience
ranged from 1 year up to 17 years in service25. Furthermore, the respondents
came from different academic background ranging from university diploma
to PhD.
Qualitative research is often about depth, nuance, and complexity thus the
act of focusing through sampling is very essential, strategic and practical26.
The researcher has utilized the snowball sampling technique by selecting
cases from referrals by respondents27. Through this method, the author can
get access to a lot of respondents compared to other sampling techniques
due to the existence of bureaucracy and red tapes in the government
agencies where the respondents are employed.
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Table 1: Demographic of Respondents
Number of Respondents
Job assignment
Assistant religious officer
Religious officer
Deputy director
Lecturer
Deputy dean
Dean
3
2
2
1
1
1
Years of experience
1 – 5 years
6 – 10 years
10 – 15 years
More than 15 years
4
6
0
1
Gender
Male
Female
10
1
City
Putrajaya
Nilai
Malacca
1
3
7
Academic background
Diploma
BA
Masters
PhD
3
4
3
1
Area of Expertise
Quranic studies
Sharia’h and law
Islamic civilization
3
7
1
5.
Limitations
One of the major concerns regarding analyzing qualitative data is
on the issue of subjectivity in interpreting the data28. Maxwell argued that, a
qualitative research is not principally concerned with getting rid of the
variance between researchers in the values and expectations they bring to
the study, but with understanding how a particular researcher’s values and
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expectations influence the conduct and conclusions of the study29. In
analyzing the data, the researcher tried to be as transparent as possible thus
written journals and memos are kept for future references. The researcher
has employed both the expert and peer reviews throughout the research in
order to monitor the consistency between the research’s methodology and its
conclusion30. Another issue that should be put into consideration is the
language barrier. The researcher has translated the original English version
of the interview question in the Bahasa Melayu language31.
6.
Findings and Discussions
Generally, the religious scholars involved in this research agreed
that ethically, advertising in Malaysia is tilting towards the negative side
even though they are some positive aspects that can be commendable.
A. The Malaysian advertising scenario
Basically, religious scholars position’s on this issue is leaning towards the
negative side with a few of them are on the neutral zone by citing positive
and negative influences of advertising on the society in terms of ethical
implications. Some of the scholars believed that advertising’s roles are to
introduce products to the public, raising awareness in the aspects of
consumers’ rights, and also bringing forwards new concepts such as Islamic
financial products. Furthermore, some of the scholars believed that current
advertisements are better in the forms of promoting Halal32 products and
controlling forbidden substances such as cigarettes and alcohol
consumptions.
On the subject of negative effects of advertisings, the most important
aspects that have been stressed by all of the scholars involved are in the
areas of exploitation of women and also excessive emphasis on the financial
return. Other aspects that have been also stressed are on the issues of false
claim, fraud, lewd and vague advertisements, less emphasis on educating the
public, and putting more emphasis on western culture.
B. Effects on the target groups
Basically the effects of advertisements on the general public can be divided
into three distinct target groups; children, teenagers, and adults.
a. Children
Children due to their age and lack of purchasing experience, they are the
most prone target group among the three groups. Products that are targeted
to this age group are simple and do not involve extensive cognitive thinking
such as fast food and games. The religious scholars believed that the
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children can be easily influenced in the forms of their behavioral attributes
through the use of packaging, cartoon characters, celebrities, fantasy, and
animation. They are attracted to things that are fun and visually attractive
because at this stage, their mind can easily capture the promotional message
from the advertisers.
b. Teenagers
This group raised a lot of concerns from the religious scholars interviewed
because their purchasing decision at this stage has an impact to their future
purchasing behaviors. The advertising practitioners used icons and
celebrities to promote the message of freedom and happiness. This will
actually determine the current trends in terms of dressing and social
interactions among the members in the group. Products that are targeted at
this group are electronic and high tech gadgets such as cell phones, personal
computers, audio players, and also personal electronic games. The female
sub group is more attracted to products such as beauty products and other
products that can show their economic status such as expensive clothing,
handbags and shoes.
c. Adults
All of the religious scholars agreed that adults are more matured in their
purchasing decision. Their current purchasing decision is determined by
their previous purchasing decision made during their teenage years.
Purchases made in this stage are more towards family oriented products
such as children education, self enhancement, self fulfillment and also
sometimes acted as a proof of their economic success such as house,
vacation, advanced degree, and also luxury items.
Overall, advertising influenced all these target groups because companies
have allocated a lot of money for advertising. Those who only cater to their
basic need are the people who are not affected by advertising. The religious
scholars believed that the children and teenagers should be disciplined at
home because most advertisement impacts happened at home and the
parents have total control over the television, radios, Internet usage and the
reading materials that they bring into their homes and one of the scholars
dubbed it as ‘fingertip parenting’ but the blame should not always be set on
the parents only because other parties such as the government and also the
society have their own roles to play. Another interesting fact derived from
the interview is that one of the scholars argued that the advertisements are
the reflections of the advertising practitioners’ true self.
C. Improving the current situation
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In order to improve the current situations, the religious scholars have
suggested that the government, society, and the advertising practitioners
should understand their own roles.
a. Roles of the government
The main role as agreed by the religious scholars is to monitor the process
of advertising through an ethical guideline. Even though currently there is
the Ethical Guidelines for Advertising under the Ministry of Information,
the scholars believe that it should be streamlined in terms of enforcements
and monitoring. They believe that enforcement and responsibility come
hand in hand. Some of the roles proposed by the scholars include preparing
general rules and regulations pertaining the issues of ethical advertising,
setting up frequent discussion sessions with advertising practitioners,
establishing an agency to filter every television commercials, fine tuning the
current guidelines, delegation of enforcement power to local authorities and
also to give good and transparent information to the public regarding the
effects of unethical advertising to them.
b. Roles of the society
The religious scholar believed that the public should start responding to
unethical advertisements through the consumer association. They added that
the association has a strong voice but the coverage is not wide enough and
its influence on the public should be promoted systematically. Another
argument from the scholars is that knowledge is very important in order to
ensure that the public will not fall prey to unethical advertising. The public
have the choice whether to read, listen or watch the advertisement and the
choice is in their hands. Parents are part of the components in the society
and they have a substantial role to play.
c. Roles of the advertising practitioners
The advertising practitioners should act based on social responsibility. The
scholars believed that it is time that the practitioner should act responsibly
by giving and portraying the truth, assimilating social values, and by not
focusing only on the aspect of financial implication. One interesting
suggestion from the scholar is that before any advertisement being aired or
published, it should be referred to panels of religious scholars for their
expert views. This will prevent further unethical advertisements being
revealed to the public intentionally or unintentionally. The most important
things as suggested by the scholars is the awareness among the practitioners
should be promoted and this can be done through discussions among their
peers or setting up an association as a proper venue for discussion regarding
the issue of unethical advertising.
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All in all, all the parties such as the government, the public and also the
advertising practitioners should play their own roles and work together
when it comes to overlapping roles to achieve the objective of reducing or
eliminating unethical advertisements. Ethical self control should be strong
among the practitioners in order for them to better understand the boundary
of ethics. They should be grounded on the notion that advertisements are
just the summaries of all the product characteristics to be sold to the
consumers.
D. Foundation of Islamic ethics
The fundamental foundations as agreed by all the religious scholars are
Quran and Sunnah. It rooted from those two sources and then transcended
into the act of performing religious rituals such as prayers and from there it
transcended to the understanding of religious ritual. Thus ethics is the end
product of this process. The scholars also believed that Iman is important
while knowledge can differentiate between good and bad. Daud (1996)also
argues that the system of belief or Iman in Islam is a combination of three
elements which are heart, verbal and action in which a person who have
high level of Iman will believe it in his/hart, vocalizes it through his/her
words, and showing it through his/her actions33. The importance of Iman is
evident in the Qur’an:
Only those who are believers who have believed in Allah
and His messenger, and have never since doubted, but
have striven with their belongings and their persons in the
cause of Allah: Such are the sincere ones34.
Islam can be defined as ‘purity, peace, tranquility, obedience and surrender’
while Iman is the ‘belief in the Oneness of Allah and obedience to His
command’ and those who believe in this is referred to as a Muslim35.
According to Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi, the axioms of Islamic ethics are
Tawhid, moderation, freewill, and responsibility36. His view is supported by
Rafik in which he argues that the five main axioms of Islamic ethics are
Tawhid, ‘Adl, freewill, responsibility and benevolence, and these five
axioms fall under the Islamic Sharia’h principles37. Tawhid in Islam can be
defined as the concept of worshipping the one and only God or the concept
of monotheism and it is considered a moral matter38. This is evident in AlQur’an:
“Say: He is Allah, The One; Allah the Eternal, Absolute;
He begetteth not, Nor is He begotten; And there is none
Like unto Him.”3940
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Apart from that, even though there are considerable amount of ethical
teachings and examples in the Qur’an, it is not the sole source of expression
of the ethical ideal of Islam because the Sunnah41 is also important source
that magnifies and extends the key revelation substance from the Qur’an42.
In Islam the first and foremost important moral and ethical element is
devoting oneself to Allah. Mohd Nasir Omar defines ethics and moral from
Islamic perspective as akhlaq or the state of feelings that shapes human
behavior43. Mohd Asri Abdullah et al. argue that there are two categories of
akhlaq; mahmudah44 and mazmumah4546. Zakaria Stapa argues that akhlaq is
the element that promotes cohesiveness47. The religious scholars
interviewed believed that the mahmudah characteristics can guide the
society in order to promote ethical behaviors which are parallel to the Quran
and Hadith. The scholars also believed that the ethical behaviors can be
promoted through social activities within the community.
E. Roles of advertising in Islam
According to some of the religious scholars, advertising served the same
function and preaching towards the path of godliness. This is because
advertising is the process to disseminate information and the same practice
is being used in religious preaching in which information about religious
deed are being disseminated to the public. The scholars believed that
advertising is a medium of information dissemination to the public, a source
of knowledge, and should portray Islamic values such as getting oneself
nearer to God, promoting good personal and family financial planning
behaviors, and giving time and space for the public to think and evaluate
purchase decisions.
The most important roles of advertising according to the scholars are not to
deceit, not to encourage false claims, not to complicate purchase decision,
and not to withhold facts from the public. If these conditions are fulfilled,
then the incidences of unethical advertising will slowly dissipate. One
interesting discovery from the interview is that one of the scholars suggested
that engagement and wedding ceremonies in Islam are considered to be acts
of advertising. This is because other than connecting two individuals in a
blissful matrimonial event, wedding and engagement ceremonies are also
one of the ways to inform the public that these two individuals are taken and
no longer available in the dating market.
F. Bridging the gaps between current advertising practices and Islam
One of the suggested solutions is through promoting the understanding of
Islam among the advertising practitioners. They have to know and
understand the rules, regulations, principles and guidelines that exist in
Islam. Some of the scholars believe that the advertisements itself has to be
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Islamic in the beginning with the intention of promoting good ethical
behavior starting from the advertisement drawing and story boards.
Instilling good and ethical behaviors should never came at the last stage in
advertisement’s production.
The government, religious scholars, and the advertising practitioners should
sit on the same table discussing about the paths that advertisements should
take. In addition, the advertisements should be realistic without neglecting
the commercial elements of advertising. The scholars believed that
commercial elements and the promotion of ethical behavior can come hand
in hand if the practitioners understand the requirement from both sides. The
advertisements should also be focused on improving the moral values
among the intended recipients.
G. Conflicts between advertising and Islam
All of the religious scholars agreed that there are conflicts between the
current advertising practices in Malaysia with the Islamic values especially
in terms of gender exploitations. Another interesting conflict between these
two is in the area of promoting unnecessary wastage through unintentional
purchasing behaviors. The religious scholars understand that most of the
advertising practitioners in Malaysia are not Muslim but these ethical values
goes beyond the religious boundaries or in other words, all religions
promotes ethical behaviors one way or another.
H. Ideal roles of advertising in the society
Advertising should play its own original intended roles which are to
promote products and services while protecting good social values. The
scholars also believed that there should be check and balances in advertising
and this can be done by the government by monitoring the process of
advertising in Malaysia. They believed that advertisements should help in
creating a good social norms and it should be taken as a social obligation to
the public.
7.
Conclusions
Based on the literature on ethics and advertising, it is evident that the current
research on advertising ethics are focused on issues such as deceptive
advertising, subliminal advertising, sex, age and gender manipulation,
celebrity endorsement, industry regulation and self-regulation, advertising to
children and a few studies on practitioners and advertising stakeholders.
There are relatively few studies focusing on the theological aspect of
advertising ethics such as the Christianity views on advertising ethics which
is evident through the article written by Foley that focuses only on benefits
and harms of advertising48. Based on these literatures, the researcher
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believes that the area of Islamic advertising ethics is a new area to venture
into and in need of a thorough study.
1
Haseeb Shabbir and Des Thwaites ‘The Use of Humor to Mask Deceptive
Advertising’, Journal of Advertising , 36 (2), 2007, pp. 75-85 ; Patrick E
Murphy. ‘Ethics in Advertising: Review, Analysis and Suggestions’,
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing , 17 (2), 1998, pp. 316-319; Jessica
Dawn Blair et. al,. ‘Ethics in Advertising: Sex Sells, but Should It? ‘Journal
of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues , 9 (2), 2006, pp. 109-118.
2
Alan J Bush and Victoria Davies Bush. ‘The Narrative Paradigm as a
Perspective for Improving Ethical Evaluations of Advertisments’, Journal of
Advertising , XXIII (3), 1994, 31-41.
3
Geofrey P Lantos, ‘Advertising: Looking Glass or Molder of the Masses’
Journal of Public Policy and Marketing , 6, 1987, pp. 104-128.
4
Israel D. Nebenzahl, and Eugene D. Jaffe, ‘Ethical Dimensions of
Advertising Executions’, Journal of Business Ethics , 17, 1998, pp.805-815;
Kim Shyan Fam, David S. Waller, and B. Zafer Erdogan, ‘The Influence of
Religion on Attitudes Towards the Advertising of Controversial Products’,
European Journal of Marketing , 38 (5/6), 2004, pp. 537-555; David S.
Waller, and Kim Shyan Kam, ‘Cultural Values and Advertising in Malaysia:
Views form the Industry’. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics ,
12 (1), 2000, pp. 3-16.
5
Drs. Achmad Zubair,. Kuliah Etika. Jakarta: Rajawali Pers, 1987.
6
Edward H Spence, Bret Van Heekeren, Advertising Ethics. New Jersey:
Pearson Education, Inc, 2005, p 8.
7
Bodo B. Schlegelmilch, Marketing Ethics: An International Perspective.
London: International THomson Business Press, 1998, pp. 6-7.
8
Dr. Hamzah Ya'qub, Etika Islam: Pembinaan Akhlaqulkarimah (Suatu
Pengantar) (3 ed.). Bandung: CV. DIPONEGORO, 1985, p. 13.
9
Dato’ Dr Harun Din, Islam: Rujukan Efektif Akhlak Mulia. Kuala Lumpur:
PTS Millennia, 2007.
10
Mohd Asri Abdullah et al.. Prinsip-Prinsip Asas Islam: Syariah, Ibadat
dan Akhlak. Shah Alam: Penerbit Universiti UPENA, 2007a.
11
Che Zuina Ismail, Pengantar Asas-Asas Islam. Shah Alam: Pusat
Penerbitan Universiti (UPENA) Universiti Teknlogi MARA, 2007.
12
Kim Shyan Fam, David S. Waller, and B. Zafer Erdogan, ‘The Influence
of Religion on Attitudes Towards the Advertising of Controversial
Products’, European Journal of Marketing , 38 (5/6), 2004, pp. 537-555.
13
Gillian Rice, and Mohammed al-Mossawi, ‘The Implications of Islam for
Advertising Messages: The Middle Eastern Context’, Journal of
Euromarketing , 11 (3), 2003, pp. 1-16.
13
14
From here onward, the Pontifical Council for Social Communication will
be referred to as the Council and the report will be referred to as monograph.
15
Pontifical Council for Social Communication, Ethics in Advertising,
1997, Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana
16
Ibid.
17
John P. Foley, ‘Ethics in Advertising: A Report from the Pontifical
Council for Social Communication’, Journal of Consumer Marketing , 16
(3), 1999, pp. 220-221.
18
Jef I Richards, Catholic Church Handbook on Ethics in Advertising,
1997, Retrieved August 1, 2007, from Department of Advertising, The
University of Texas at Austin:
http://advertising.utexas.edu/research/law/catholic.html
19
Patrick E. Murphy, ‘Ethics in Advertising: Review, Analysis and
Suggestions’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing , 17 (2), 1998, pp. 316319.
20
John P. Foley, ‘Ethics in Advertising: A Look at the Report by the
Pontifical Council for Social Communication’. Journal of Public Policy and
Marketing , 17 (2), 1998, pp. 313-315.
21
George G. Brenkert, ‘Ethics in Advertising: The Good, the Bad and the
Church’, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing , 17 (2), 1998, pp. 325-331.
22
Pontifical Council for Social Communication, Ethics in Advertising,
1997, Vatican City: Liberia Editrice Vaticana
23
Minette E. Drumwright and Patrick E. Murphy, ‘How Advertising
Practitioners View Ethics’, Journal of Advertising, Vol 33, No 2, Summer
2004, pp. 7-24.
24
Sabine Mertens Oishi, How to Conduct In-person Interviews for Survey,
2nd Edition, Sage Publication Inc, California, 2003, p. 171.
25
See Table 1 for demographics of the respondents
26
Jeniffer Mason, Qualitative Researching, 2nd Edition, Safe Publication
Ltd., London, 2002, p. 121.
27
Carol A. Bailey, A Guide to Qualitative Field Research, 2nd Edition, Pine
Forge Press, California, 2007, p. 65.
28
Minette E. Drumwright and Patrick E. Murphy, ‘How Advertising
Practitioners View Ethics’, Journal of Advertising, Vol 33, No 2, Summer
2004, p. 10.
29
Joseph A. Maxwell, Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive
Approach, 2nd Edition, Vol. 41, Sage Publication Inc, California, 2005, p.
108.
30
Carol A. Bailey, A Guide to Qualitative Field Research, 2nd Edition, Pine
Forge Press, California, 2007, p. 188.
14
31
It is the official language of Malaysia and commonly used throughout the
country.
32
Things that are permitted in Islam that encompasses the areas of food,
financial products and other important daily products, practices and
conducts.
33
Dr. Mustafa Haji Daud, Akidah Mukmin. Kuala Lumpur: Bahagian Hal
Ehwal Islam, Jabatan Perdana Menteri, 1996.
34
Al-Qur’an: Al-Hujrat 49:15
35
Prof Dr. Ala’eddin Kharofa, Islam the Practical Religion (2nd ed.). Kuala
Lumpur: A.S. Noordeen, 200, p. 15.
36
Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi, Etika dan Ilmu Ekonomi Islam: Satu Sintesis
Islami., H. Bagir, Ed., D. H. Anis, & D. A. Hikmat, Trans., Bandung,
Indonesia: Penerbit MIZAN, 1985, pp. 77-89.
37
Rafik Beekun, Islamic Business Ethics. New Delhi: The International
Institute of Islamic Thoughts, 2003.
38
Salehuddin Ahmed, Islam Basic Beliefs. Kuala Lumpur: A.S. Nordeen,
1999, p. 13.
39
Al-Qur’an: Al-Ikhlas 112: 1-4
40
All Quranic translations in this writings are based on the English
translation of the Holy Qur’an “The Meanings and Commentary”, King
Fahd Holy Qur’an Printing Complex, Madinah al-Munawwarah under the
Auspices of the Ministry of Hajj and Endowments. The Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. 1410 Hijriyyah.
41
tradition based on the saying and doings of prophet Muhammad
42
W. Montgomery Watt, What is Islam? (2nd ed.). London: Longman,
1979, p. 192.
43
Mohd Nasir Omar, Falsafah Etika: Perbandingan Pendekatan Islam dan
Barat. Kuala Lumpur: Bahagian Hal Ehwal Islam, Jabatan Perdana Menteri,
1992, p. 69.
44
good and required by Islam
45
bad and should be avoided
46
Mohd Asri Abdullah et al.. Prinsip-Prinsip Asas Islam: Syariah, Ibadat
dan Akhlak. Shah Alam: Penerbit Universiti UPENA, 2007a.
47
Zakaria Stapa, ‘Akhlak Islam Titik Tolak Perpaduan Ummah’. In Z.
Stapa (Ed.), Islam dan Cabaran: Ke Arah Kecemerlangan Ummah. Kuala
Lumpur: Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia, 1999, pp. 93-108.
48
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Author’s Affiliation
The author is a PhD candidate at the Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah
Alam, Malaysia. He is currently attached as a lecturer at the Islamic Science
University of Malaysia, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. He can be
reached at [email protected]
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