Islamic Roots of Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been widely accepted as a useful framework between business and society during the last decades. Depending on its increasing popularity among business enterprises, the scholars have also focused on its antecedents and consequences. As a significant reference for many people’s lives, religion has been seen as one of these antecedents which affect attitudes and behaviours of decision makers towards CSR. The current study particularly focuses on the role of Islam in shaping socially responsible behaviour among businesses. In doing so, the study follows the key texts of Islam and provides an integrated model of CSR within Islam by using CSR Pyramid on economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities. This critical perspective shows that Islam provides a strong support for the existence of these dimensions both on the theoretical (aqidah) and practical (ibadah) levels from an anthropocentric approach. Among these dimensions, the philanthropy attracts the attention of many businesses operating in the Muslim countries. Therefore, contrary to what many people think, these Islamic roots are closely overlapping with dominant Western paradigm on CSR. However, these spiritual approaches must be backed up with a sound institutional mechanism in order to strengthen CSR within the business community in Muslim countries.