Comparative study on Islamic teachings and religious roots of entrepreneurship

This article aimed to identify the effective ethical-religious roots on primary entrepreneurship within capitalism, in order to firstly present Islam's view on the ethical-religious roots; and secondly, to state the basic teachings preventing the dilemmas that the Western economic system has been suffering from. The research was done by content analysis and semantic methods. The results suggest that some of the ethical-religious roots of primary entrepreneurship in capitalism are not accepted by Islam. In addition, “Economic greed” that isn’t acceptable in Islamic view, is contrary to the Bible too. Islam firstly, does not encourage achievement motivation, which is one of the most important characteristics of entrepreneurs, by sanctifying wealth and mere profit; Islam encourages it by inviting to development of the earth and ultimately to Allah mercy and grace. Secondly, in order to improve personal and public life while preventing the capitalist dilemmas, Islam advises entrepreneurs to maximize efforts to increase income and return wealth through zakat, charity and job creation.