Islamic Business Practices in Bangladesh –a Survey on Some Selected Firms in Chittagong

Abstract

In Bangladesh, contemporary business practices are fraught with lot of undesirable and un-Islamic business practices like bribery, corruption, falsehood, underweighing, frauds, adulteration etc. But, Bangladesh being a Muslim majority country this should not be the practices here. The demand of Islam is such a business environment which is immune from such malpractices.  These malpractices created a lot of issues in the business world and society in Bangladesh which are in no way desirable by the government and society. So there are lot of issues which need to be studied carefully, as for example; Why the scenarios are as such? Why a Muslim majority country like Bangladesh’s business world is not transparent and clean? Therefore, in order to uncover and identify the clue to the crux of these problems an empirical study is conducted on some selected business firms in Chittagong.The major finding of the study is that Islamic business is practiced partially by most of the businessmen because of many reasons such as lack of knowledge about IB, lack of knowledge about the benefits of IB, lack of Islamic environment, and lack of policy support. But most of the business people think that the practices of IB will ensure welfare society by eliminating bribery, corruption, falsehood, under weighing, frauds, and adulteration which will protect the interest of the producers, traders, consumers and all stakeholders.

Key Words: Islam, Business, Bangladesh, Chittagong.