Reclaiming moral responsibility in commerce and work

“Don’t cheat God.”

These words rang in my ears as I recently sat in a class with the eminent Shaikh Muhammad Akram Nadwi, where we studied the hadith in the Book of Tricks (Legal Stratagems) in Sahih Al-Bukhari, and helped me sum up what I wish to convey in this article. 

In reality, the words business and duty aren’t juxtaposed in our minds. Commerce and business, as we know them today, are mostly about opportunity, profit and arbitrage, and rarely, if ever, about duty.

Putting aside the fact that Imam Al-Bukhari saw the need to address tricks only some 200 years after the Hijrah, reflecting his concerns over the state of morality among Muslims in those early days, the common assumption today is: business is value-neutral as long as it is legal and profitable. 

Our belief, however, stands at variance with this notion. As Muslims we are slaves of God, and all our actions carry significance. Islam’s world view teaches us that business is a moral activity that places one under legal and ethical responsibility before God.

In this article, we examine the core Islamic concept of taklif (responsibility/obligation) and its significance to our business endeavors, building on previous articles where we covered the subjects of morality and rights in business and commerce. 

Business is not neutral

Taklif, in our tradition, implies conscious agency, freedom, and accountability under God. It is the moral and legal responsibility placed upon human beings.

A Muslim who is mature, sane, and informed is subject to taklīf and is called mukallaf. Taklīf grounds commercial life, helping guide investments with the spirit of service. It demands integrity and accountability, and ensures that self-interest is kept in check at all times. 

God says in the Holy book that He does not burden any soul with more than it can bear, from which we conclude that God’s expectations are just and entirely possible, or else such a judging mechanism would not have been pronounced. And because we know that even an atom’s weight of good or evil is recorded, all actions are morally significant.

Business as a service
Businesses exist to serve. Serving is not a marketing tactic, but a moral commitment that is embedded in Islamic norms: sincerity (ikhlāṣ), trust (amānah), and goodwill (iḥsān). This is how taklif manifests between businesses and their stakeholders - the direct and the indirect ones.

For customers it's about offering a legitimate product with quality and integrity. For suppliers, taklif indicates fair pricing, payment terms and transparency in agreements. And for society as a whole, businesses must provide legitimate, beneficial goods and services that improve lives, solve problems, or uplift communities.

Creating and maintaining just employment opportunities and avoiding types of harm (darar) like polluting, misleading advertising, compulsive product design, and/or social destabilization are other examples of how taklif, among other things, must be carried out. 

Taklīf case studies in a commercial context
If taklif denotes our moral and legal responsibility before God, then it can be understood perhaps as a framework through which His rights are mandated upon us.

Fulfilling those rights (Ḥuqūq Allāh) such as prayer, fasting, avoiding interest, Zakāh and truthful dealings) is part of fulfilling taklīf. 

How do we understand taklif in business? It enjoins accountability in our professional realms, making us answerable to God for our commercial and professional actions. That’s right. In addition to your customers and suppliers, God has rights in our business.

These include systemic concerns (e.g., prohibition of usury, justice in transactions) that one must uphold even when no other human is directly harmed. Legal minimalism can not work, not least, if any stakeholder is at risk of being adversely affected. 

Therefore, taklīf is not a public relations complication or a mere compliance add-on — it is essential to Muslim identity. Let’s look at some examples of how taklif might manifest for various actors.  

Entrepreneurs and founders are the first mukallaf of their business. They are morally accountable for the structure, financing, ethics, and impact of the businesses they create.

Their decisions affect the entire DNA of the enterprise - so their duty to uphold Ḥuqūq Allāh is heightened. They must choose a business model that doesn’t exploit consumers or workers, even if other models scale faster.

They must build compliance into the core ensuring Shariah/ethical/legal standards aren’t afterthoughts but part of the original blueprint. They must prioritize purpose over exit, resisting the temptation which would dictate them to scale fast for acquisition, potentially shadowing the duty to build something morally upright.

And they should avoid impermissible startup investment (e.g. interest-based loans) even if it’s harder to raise capital because taklīf binds the entrepreneur to seek halal financing.

Maintaining a mechanism for finding and solving issues is also a critical part of ethically managing a business. 

Corporate officers and board members are morally liable even when legally protected. Even with what is understood as limited legal liability, officers and directors remain morally mukallaf. Their taklīf includes strategic decisions that affect shareholders, employees, and the public.

They must facilitate ethical strategy. For example, approving a merger that will lay off hundreds may be legal - but if alternatives exist, taklīf demands exploration of just outcomes. Setting bonuses that widen inequality or reward short-termism violates the spirit of amānah (trust) under taklīf.

Greenwashing or sidestepping sustainability obligations to boost quarterly results breaches Ḥuqūq Allāh - even if ESG disclosures pass. Withholding material risk from shareholders or the public - even if legally allowed - breaks moral responsibility to truth (ṣidq).

Shariah scholars and advisors, as custodians of our tradition, are responsible to God before any and all other considerations. In fact, when it comes to our Deen (worldview and way of life), we are to ask them when we do not know.

So do they avoid/neglect flagging a transaction that falls afoul of our moral and legal standards? Do they not need to call out a transaction structure that fails to deliver equitably to all stakeholders? What should they do when a company they advise might be misleading customers with false advertising or putting short-term profits ahead of long-term value creation? 

Managers and employees should be on the lookout for any business practice that transgresses the rights of stakeholders. These should be documented sincerely and addressed through appropriate channels - internal and, if necessary, external.

The charity fallacy and institutional responsibility 
It’s critical to point out that our discussion is not limited to individuals. In fact, taklif extends to institutions as well.

In short, limited liability does not equal limited responsibility. As the owners and managers of companies, entrepreneurs must act on behalf of their companies, and invest in them responsibly.

Therefore, one can not misuse an enterprise to conduct activities that transgress the rights of God and human beings and later dilute the effect through purification of personal wealth accrued through questionable activities.. 

The common belief is: “Let’s accumulate wealth, and I’ll donate later.” Islam does not allow an ‘ends justify the means’ approach. Money made through questionable means should not be sanctified through charity.

In short, building ethics into business from the beginning is better than post-hoc purification. As the Prophet (PBUH) teaches us, “Allah is pure and accepts only what is pure.” (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)

Exercising restraint and discipline
The Prophet (PBUH) taught us the following supplication when we are to enter a marketplace. 

“There is no God but Allah alone, without partner. His is the dominion and His is the praise. He gives life and causes death, and He is Living and does not die. In His hand is all good, and He is over all things powerful.”

We are taught the supplication because the market is a moral battleground, a space where we are inundated with desires revolving around wealth, status, competition, and shortcuts.

The duʿā’ begins by reminding us that God owns everything, and that our transactions are not just financial acts but moral choices under His watch.

The duʿā’ also counters the heedlessness that commerce can induce and reminds the trader or buyer that success is from God, and that life, death, and sustenance are His domain exclusively.

Sajjad Chowdhry is an entrepreneur and C-level executive with over two decades of global experience across venture building, strategy, investment, and strategic finance. A Columbia and Hartford Seminary graduate, he is also a co-founder of DinarStandard