The Moral Entrepreneur

Abstract

Zimmerer, Scarborough & Wilson (2002) defined an entrepreneur as "one who creates a new business in the face of risk and uncertainty for the purpose of achieving profit and growth by identifying opportunities and assembling the necessary resources to capitalize on them." Over the last decade or so, the concept of entrepreneurship has been put forward as an important vehicle for the development of economies, and the empowerment of the poor and middle class in all countries, whether developed or developing. A vast majority of the entrepreneurship discourse has viewed entrepreneurship from a secular perspective, with the ultimate objective seen as the alleviation of poverty and the improvement of the quality of life of people through business activities. This article sought to deviate from the norm and discussed entrepreneurship from a religious perspective; the Islamic perspective. The objective of this paper was to provide a comprehensive description of the entrepreneur from an Islamic perspective using Zimmerer et al.'s (2002) five-component definition as a framework. It is hoped that it will serve as a useful guide for the Muslim Entrepreneur who hopes to gain a blessed provision in this life and in the Hereafter through his entrepreneurial activities.