THE CONTRIBUTION OF ISLAMIC ETHICS TOWARDS ETHICAL ACCOUNTING PRACTICES

Abstract

The professional ethics of accountants is an important issue directly relating to the integrity ofthe profession and its ability to secure the public trust. The fraudulent activities in accountingfield indicate the failure of accounting education as the beginning stage of the practice. It isperceived that those happen due to deficiency of moral values inserted in the education level.Inevitably, education system is alleged as the main cause of the problem. Accounting educationseeks for moral values to generate ethical accountants as part of society. Accordingly, the visibilityof ethics education in accounting programs may initiate the development of morality andalso increase public confidence in the profession. However, the efforts to integrate ethical valuesin educational system will not work well if there are no moral commitments implanted inthe individuals. Islam with its divine values plays the notable role to embed cognitive ethicalvalues. It emphasizes on the unity of God, the accountability to God and the concept ofmaslahah (public benefits) to be the foundations of ethics. Incorporating Islamic ethics into thesystem will be a significant contribution towards generating ethical accounting education. Thispaper attempts to elucidate how the Islamic ethics contribute its role towards ethicalaccountants as the products of accounting education. Copyright © www.iiste.org