While ample emphasis has been given to the juristic (fiqh) aspects of Shariah compliance in Islamic banking and finance, relatively little has been attempted to explore its ethical dimensions (akhlaq) in the compliance parameters. Further, Shariah compliance has been product centric rather than people-centric. This is evident in view of recurring unprincipled events reported in the Islamic banking and finance industry where its ethical standing is under public scrutiny. Given this undesirable circumstance, this study intends to examine the factors determining decision-making behaviour in Islamic banking related to ethical issues as defined by the Ferrell and Gresham (1985) contingency model as well as factors that are religious in nature as encapsulated in Al-Ghazali's ethical philosophy. The first objective of the study is to develop a "synthesized conceptual model", which incorporates selected aspects of Al-Ghazali's ethical philosophy into the Ferrell and Gresham (1985) contingency model. The second objective of the study, which is an empirical examination of factors influencing 'decision-making behaviour related to ethical issues' is conducted based on newly 'synthesized conceptual model'.
