Fireside Chat: Muslims need early exposure in entrepreneurship

SHAH ALAM - Although in Islam Muslims are encouraged to be the producers, in the global Islamic economy and business sector, there seems to be less participation.

Syariah scholar in Islamic banking and finance Dr Zaharuddin Abdul Rahman said this was due to the fact that Muslims lack the knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship.

He said while non-Muslims were adept in business and becoming the producers, Muslims seemed to be very complacent to become the consumers.

To draw emphasis on the matter, Dr Zaharuddin said according to the statistics by the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim), 60 to 70 per cent of halal food producers in the country were non-Muslims.

“Although Islam encourages Muslims to be producers, they are complacent to be consumers in the global Islamic economy and businesses.

“Meanwhile, non-Muslims are using their skills (in entrepreneurship) to become the producers.

“What about Muslims? They are the consumers, they are just criticising this and that, but are not doing anything other than playing a role on social media and that is very unfortunate,” he said during an exclusive interview with Sinar Daily on its Fireside Chat programme.

Dr Zaharuddin is one of the speakers for The Straight Path Convention 2022, which is an annual event featuring international standard lectures on religion in line with the Quran and Sunnah.

The two-day convention which started today is held at the Bank Rakyat Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Dr Zaharuddin said there was a need for Muslim youths to be given proper education on entrepreneurship and it could start as early as in schools and universities.

“Early step is of utmost importance as running a business takes a whole list of capabilities.

“Being a businessman requires a long list of skill sets; hard and soft skills which are not taught in universities or schools.

“So, if you became an entrepreneur after college, you would find yourself lost in the jungle of business.

“You wouldn’t know how to manage your staff, you wouldn’t know what the labour law is, you wouldn’t know accounting and cash flow management and what not,” he said.

He said he was of the view that this was the biggest obstacle for Muslims.

Citing the Chinese community as an example, he said they were being encouraged, tested and given a lot of emphasis on mathematics, economics and on how to run a business and survive in the country.

They were taught about business from a very young age, he added.

“Even based on my personal observation on my own children, in the Muslim and government and religious schools for example, they are not being taught about such things, so if they wanted to be entrepreneurs, they needed to learn on their own.

“We need to amend and add selective subjects to schools and universities syllabus as they are the factory that produce a student to become employees or employers," he said.