Religion, economic acumen and authority: an ethnographic study of Muslim entrepreneurship in Malabar, India

This paper explores the contemporary configuration of Islam and economic life through the entrepreneurial practices of Muslims in Kerala, India. Based on ethnographic research on Markaz Knowledge City (MKC), a major township project led by a Muslim religious group, this study explores how Muslim entrepreneurs build large, lasting enterprises. This happens within a framework influenced by Islamic legal traditions, religious authority, and secular corporate law. The analysis situates contemporary entrepreneurship against the historical role of jurisprudential categories of muamalat, (Islamic jurisprudence on economic matters), encompassing faraid (inheritance), waqf (endowments), riba (usury), wasiyat (bequest), and hiba (gifting), which have exerted a substantial impact on the imperative institutional reforms required to facilitate modern economic progress. While these institutions continue to shape economic expectations and constraints, large-scale accumulation and organizational continuity rely heavily on state-recognized corporate forms. This shift comes with ongoing involvement from religious authority, whose leadership and moral guidance shape economic activities in line with shared and religious goals. In this paper, we illustrate how contemporary Muslim economic life thus unfolds through the alignment of secular business structures and Islamic moral authority, creating companies that are legally secular yet ethically religious.