Finance as Worship or A Commercial Funding: Empirical Evidence from Islamic Banking Industry of Pakistan

Finance as Worship or A Commercial Funding: Empirical Evidence from Islamic Banking Industry of Pakistan The present study aims to determine the perception of general public well versed with the conventional education regarding the contemporary Islamic banking & finance as to whether they consider Islamic banking finance as worship or a commercial funding. A total of 644 questionnaires were distributed to collect the data. Independent sample t-test through SPSS was used to estimate the results. The findings revealed that the mean values of independent sample t-test of the Islamic bankers, conventional bankers, teaching faculty and non-finance industry professionals are 6.07, 4.91, 4.86 and 5.07 respectively. As the mean values of conventional bankers, teaching faculty and non-finance industry professionals are less than that of benchmark level of 6.0. Therefore, the study recommends authorities to formulate policies and initiate Islamic banking awareness programs both at the micro & macro levels. Keywords: Finance, Worship, Commercial Funding, Islamic Finance.