Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of the different religiosity dimensions on the attitude of Muslim youth towards fashion. Design/methodology/approach – To understand the relationship between religiosity and Muslim youths’ attitude towards fashion, a structured questionnaire was circulated amongst university students in Cairo and Alexandria (Egypt’s two largest cities) using convenience sampling method. Religiosity has been measured using the operationalized definition by Glock (1972), as consisting of five different dimensions: ideological, Intellectual, ritualistic, experimental and consequential. Likert scales were used to measure religiosity dimensions, and semantic differential scale has been used to measure the attitude of Muslim youth towards fashion. An initial sample size of 350 Egyptian Muslim youth was surveyed on-campus using face-to-face method by a group of volunteer trainer students. Findings – Cronbach’s alpha has been measured for all variables to ensure internal consistency. The findings provide evidence that a negative relationship exists with all of the religiosity dimensions under study and attitude of youth towards fashion. More specifically, the intellectual and consequential dimensions had the strongest negative significant relationships with attitude of youth towards fashion. Research limitations/implications – The results of this study should be considered in light of a number of limitations on which recommendations for future research are based. First, the use of a student sample, even if these consumers are important and justified for this research, may hinder the generalizability of the findings across other segments of consumers who might behave differently. Second, this study relies on the declared attitudes of the respondents, which are likely to be biased because of respondents’ inclination to give socially desirable answers and spiritually peace reactions. Such an evaluation cannot identify unconscious attitudes and behaviours. Practical implications – The paper’s interesting findings serve to remind entrepreneurs and marketers in general that they cannot neglect the element of religion in their marketing activities, particularly in the fashion industry and the development of apparel targeting Muslim women. Such an understanding will help both marketers in designing their marketing practices according to their Muslim consumers’ convictions, and academicians in their research endeavours. Originality/value – Investigating and measuring the influence of religion in general and Islam in particular on youth’s attitude towards fashion is considered a very contemporary and raw topic that shall have significant contribution to the existing literature, as well as to fashion designers and marketers.

The rapid spread of Corona virus 19 (COVID 19) and its associated economic impact has again turned the spotlight on Islamic finance and banking to save the world from its economic consequences. Islamic finance by principle is an ethical finance which intends to help the poor and vulnerable under crisis. It has various financial tools like, Zakat, Sadaqa, Awaqaf and Qardh-Al-Hasan, especially designed for this purpose. Among various tools of Islamic finance, Qardh-Al-Hasan has emerged as the most viable Islamic finance weapon in the fight against the economic consequences of crises like COVID 19 and financial meltdowns. Against such a backdrop, the present chapter explores the possibility how Qardh-Al-Hasan can be used as an Islamic finance tool to help the COVID 19 affected SMEs and individuals. The present study is exploratory in nature as it explores the possibility of Qardh-Al-Hasan as the landscape in fighting the economic impact of Covid-19 on small businesses and individuals. The study proposes an Artificial Intelligence-based FinTech model to provide a solution for the affected SMEs and individuals to fight the economic consequences of this pandemic and survive. The findings of the chapter suggest that Qardh-

In the current 4th industrial revolution, digital finance is at the forefront of banking infrastructure and sustainable economic growth. It is becoming the baseline in conventional and Islamic banks alike. However, both the negative and positive effects of financial inclusion bring the question of whether digital finance can be the solution. This study intends to examine the role of digital financial inclusion (DFI) in promoting sustainable economic growth through Islamic banking stability using the unbalanced panel data by deploying panel corrected standard errors and two-stage least square-instrument variable techniques. The study also aims to focus on the impact, prospect, and the challenges of DFI and how the proper application of DFI can bring sustainable financial growth to achieve the SDGs. Our results suggest that DFI endorsement may ensure sustainable economic growth and stability within banks, specifically Islamic banks, which is a step towards SDGs achievement.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to modify the service quality scale (SERVQUAL) for measuring the performance of Islamic banks after modifying and validating it to fit the Islamic banking context. Furthermore, it provides insights for the limitations good service delivery has on maintaining favorable provider’s satisfaction in Islamic banks under conditions when category attitudes have been disrupted and made salient by major disruptive events. Design/methodology/approach Focus groups (managers of Islamic banks) were conducted to develop context-specific service quality measures. Exploratory factor analysis and CFA have been conducted to test the validity of scales developed and questionnaires were then sent to Islamic banking customers of major Islamic banks in Egypt for testing the relationships between the research variables and hypotheses developed. Findings The findings of this study are two-fold; identifying a service quality dimension not previously identified in extant service quality measures (SERVQUAL, CARTER), devotion to customers and alerts brand managers that harm to category attitudes caused by societal-level disruptive events can make it difficult to gain high satisfaction even with superior customer service. In this disruptive event context, although high service quality is associated with brand satisfaction, brand satisfaction seems unexpectedly dampened by category attitudes, perhaps, due to the general malaise felt toward the category following the disruptive events. Practical implications Islamic institutions are alerted to the heightened need for providing superior service, as even superior service may no longer assure high satisfaction. Extrapolating to an even bigger societal disruptor, in the soon-to-come post-COVID-19 world, category attitudes toward walk-in banking services will be in turmoil and highly salient. So, brand managers will need to develop creative ways to strengthen not just brand attitudes but also to re-stabilize category attitudes if the category is to recover. Originality/value This is considered a pioneer study in using mixed methods to re-think the famous SERVQUAL scale in a unique context and relating findings to impacts of disruptive events on attitude toward Islamic banking.

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