Towards sustainable success through corporate social responsibility disclosure: an Islamic approach

Abstract

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the West teaches that companies are not only responsible to their shareholders, through profit making, but that they also have a corporate social responsibility to the other stakeholders as well as society overall. In some ways, this concept is likely to be consistent with the concept of tawhid (oneness of God) and maqasid al shariah (objectives of shariah) in Islam. This paper is intended to discuss the concept of tawhid and maqasid al shariah and to explore possible implementation of those concepts into CSR. It finally observes that the concept of tawhid provides a philosophical and practical foundation for CSR including its definition, its objectives as well as to whom the responsibility should be addressed. The concept of maqasid al shariah advices the practical operation of CSR including what type of responsibilities should be addressed by companies and how the responsibilities should be carried out. Thus, both concepts provide moral and practical guidelines on what CSR is, as well as why and how CSR should be discharged.