ABSTRACT
Islamic marketing has at its core the principles of honesty and ethics. The Islamic market presents great opportunities and challenges, including market per capita income spread and geographic and cultural spread. In addition, Muslims, like non-Muslims, can be expected to reflect differences based on socioeconomic position, education and gender. Both the opportunities and the challenges must be addressed through learning. Markets in Islam were under the authority of the Hisbah chaired by the market governor or Muhtasib. The Muhtasib had a dedicated place in the market later to become an office and would have employees assisting him. Companies owned by Muslim shareholders are sometimes classified as Islamic companies. However, one should be wary of making this assumption since many of these companies have operations that are un-Islamic or non-Shariah complaint. The marketing strategies of companies pursuing religion-based trading are based on religious appeal and the power of religion to attract.
