ETHICS IN ACCOUNTING EDUCATION: CONTRIBUTION OF THE ISLAMIC PRINCIPLE OF MASLAHAH

Abstract

There is a growing concern over the apparently low moral standards of some accountants and an increasing number of academics who suggest that the education system should bear some of the blame. Ethical components in accounting education have been found to be insufficient and there is a lack of emphasis on humanizing accountants. The objective of this paper is firstly to address the importance of ethics in accounting education and evaluate the development of literature in this area. Secondly, the paper argues for the direction of accounting education to focus on religious ethical development and values in developing accounting ethics. The paper argues that the Islamic worldview and ethics perspective can provide some insights into the process of developing a more humanized and ethical accountant. This paper proposes the Islamic legal principle of maslahah as an ethical filtering mechanism to be taught as part of the ethical accounting education process. This is aimed at providing awareness to accounting students and accountants on the process to resolve ethical conflicts. The study of Islamic worldview and ethics provides a different ethical dimension on accounting education. Here, the debates on ethics in accounting education need to start with values, not on codes of professional conduct, and on responsibilities, not on rules.

JEL classification: M4

Key words: Accounting education, Islamic ethics, Maslahah