Reconceptualising Muslim Entrepreneurial Well-being: A Multidimensional Falāḥ Framework Grounded in Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah

Abstract

Purpose: To reconceptualise entrepreneurial well-being (EWB) for Muslim business owners by adopting falāḥ as the evaluative referent, and to develop an individual-level multidimensional framework.

Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual article of the theory-synthesis type (Jaakkola, 2020). Literature was selected purposively by theoretical centrality from three streams that have developed in isolation: entrepreneurial well-being, Islamic entrepreneurship, and the operationalisation of maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah. Synthesis proceeded through conceptual-misfit identification, cross-domain abstraction, structural mapping, and proposition development.

Findings: The prevailing EWB definition is this-worldly, individualistic, and treats religion as contextual, failing to capture the referent Muslim entrepreneurs actually use. The study defines falāḥ-oriented well-being as cross-temporal flourishing experienced when venture activity is perceived as aligned with the objectives of the Sharia, maps it onto al-ḍarūriyyāt al-khams as five dimensions, and identifies four regulatory spiritual mechanisms — niyyah, tawakkul, ṣabr, qanā‘ah — with their dark sides. Nine testable propositions are derived, three curvilinear.

Practical implications: Evaluations of Sharia-based enterprise development programmes should incorporate multidimensional well-being indicators, since assessing them by revenue growth alone neglects the outcomes beneficiaries value most. For Islamic financial institutions, contract literacy carries well-being value in itself through perceived purity of capital.

Originality/value: The first systematic attempt to bridge entrepreneurial well-being research with the operationalisation of maqāṣid at the micro-individual level — hitherto dominated by macro-national indices — anchoring the spiritual mechanisms in organisational psychology theory so the framework is testable.

Paper type: Conceptual paper.