Islamic Ethics and Economic Transactions; Attitude of Muslims and Non-Muslims of South Western Nigeria

By Khalid Ishola Bello

Abstract

The six states of South Western Nigeria zone share the same cultural and ethnical background; socioeconomic and religious features. With the advent of Islam (and Christianity the people of the regions gradually gave up their traditional identities like naming, dressing etc for either of the two religions. This paper examines some economic transactions of people of the zone to determine the ratio of Muslim and non-Muslim who conform or otherwise to Islamic ethical values. The data collected via administration of questionnaire were analyzed using simple percentage and frequency count method. The study shows that the number of Muslims (30%) who agree that interested trader of any particular item has freedom of entry and exit in to marketplace without any hindrance from the existing traders is lower than non-Muslims (37%). Many of the Muslim (28%) and non-Muslims (27%) agree to display their goods without separating between standard and substandard. Most of Muslims (37%) and non-Muslim (36%) see nothing bad selling goods under negotiation by one customer to another who promises to buy the good with higher price. Obviously, many practices in our study areas have conformity to Islamic rules without significant difference between the two groups.