When Preference Is Not Enough: Utility, Sharia Constraints and Maslahah in Islamic Consumer Rationality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21580/economica.2026.17.1.32719Keywords:
Consumer rationality, Islamic microeconomics, maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah, maṣlaḥah, utility maximizationAbstract
This study describes Islamic consumer rationality while preserving the integrity of preference formation by incorporating ethical, religious, altruistic, environmental, and intertemporal considerations. Through a critical, thematically organized literature review, three operations are distinguished: Sharia-based admissibility constraints, priority rules to protect obligations and essential needs, and a context-sensitive higher-order maṣlaḥah evaluation. Legal admissibility of options is first screened, priority rules constrain option selection, and utility is invoked to rank remaining options. When the utility-ranked option fails a higher-order maṣlaḥah evaluation, the consumer is required to reconsider the option and take steps to ameliorate or remove detrimental features, or reconsider the choice and select a permissible option which is consistent with priority rules. The pervasive nature and wide interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence ensure the admissibility of options, but to apply them in a given context, scholarly and institutional judgment is necessary. The framework distinguishes the permissibility of products from broader consideration of the effects of consumption. The framework articulates falāḥ as an end state and positions it at the normative frontier rather than a terminal state which is mechanically produced.
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