*4.1.1 Religious responsibility for the sake of the Ummah*

The conviction towards religious responsibility has been the driving force of their career undertakings. Some of Malay women entrepreneurs put preference on their convictions before their career. This has been due to many reasons, such as the serve Muslim with *wudu'*-friendly and maternity designs which has led to religious commitments. Such religious awareness is intrinsic in nature.

*"The products supplied and produced must be coincided with the Islamic law. For me, the Muslimah fashion products must comply with the Shariah compliance itself in order to avoid defamation from God" (I1).*

*"As a Muslimah fashion designer and entrepreneur, the element of creativity and innovation should be harmonized with the Shariah-compliant…. We try to convince our customers that we will always produce the best for the adherents of the Muslimah fashion who always put their confident on our collections" (I2).*

*"I produce the designs that the Arabic-style robe (jubah) that are wudhu'-friendly and I do not use materials that could expose and fit tightly to human body, like lycra fabric. And other products that I have produced are for example, the "A-cut Muslimah t-shirt". This design would be loose and comfortable for big size individuals" (I6).*

*"Actually, at the beginning, I am really not interested to start a business, but the world has changed. I am now happy and very grateful to thank Allah SWT [syukur], and Alhamdulillah, because now, I really love, admire and happy and even deeply interest in my own business that promotes the Muslim fashion products to serve for the sake of Ummah. This is my jihad and da'wah in economics" (I7).*

*Creativity, Innovation and Shariah Compliance by the Malay Middle Class Women… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109655*

*"Our designs are produced on the costumer design basis. They may suggest their own design exclusively and we offer an advice to the designs that still preserve the Shariah principles, especially covering the aurah of the customer" (I9).*

*"As an entrepreneur, this is my responsibility to offer a collection of garments that certified with the Shariah-compliant verification as well as stylish recent fashion. I think that the basic aspect of the Shariah such as covering aurah must be considered in advance" (I9).*

*"Any creativity effort in designing a product need to put a priority on the aspect of aurah which should be covered properly. For that reason, I choose fabrics that do not cling to the customers' body as well as offers the best design for the customers" (I10).*

#### *4.1.2 Self interest in entrepreneurship*

Entrepreneurial interest or inclination is described as motivating factor that affects the individual to pursue in an entrepreneurial venture [78]. According to Bardai [79], the absence of deep interest for running a business will lead to the failure in entrepreneurship. This is proven by the description given by Arifin and Sabaruddin [80], who emphasised that a high interest can encourage and inspire someone to be persistent when dealing with risk.

Moreover, positive interest in a particular field of endeavour is the key to one's success. Individual interest enable someone strives towards something desirable. Otherwise, lack of interest would influence the determination of a person and thus would degrade the performance of its achievements in a particular field. The results showed that all informants have deep interest in entrepreneurship and business.

*"Most people who start a business in order to seek the money. Money is a leading motivating factor to start a business, but I did a business due to my personal interest. Self-interest has motivated me to continue studying in this field to ensure that my business could be succeeded and lead to the progress in the coming years" (I6).*

*"Actually, at the beginning, I am really not interested to start a business, but the world has changed. I am now happy and very grateful to thank Allah SWT [syukur], and Alhamdulillah, because now, I really love, admire and happy and even deeply interest in my own business that promotes the Muslim fashion products to serve for the sake of Ummah. This is my jihad and da'wah in economics" (I7).*

*"I have intensely interested in business since primary school to find my own pocket money for the reason that my family who lived in a simple life request e to work hard for survival" (I3).*

*"I really have a deep interest in the Muslim cloth design, so I do not really look for the profit solely, because I am more concern about customer satisfaction and acceptance" (I4).*

*"A deep interest and dedication in the world of business had been contributed to my serious involvement in this arena despite many challenges that I faced" (I5).*

#### *4.1.3 Family support*

Some informants describe that family support and encouragement help them to develop their interest in business. Family is not just a focal factor of their success in business, but also become a backbone that always back them up when they face tribulations and problems in business.

*"My husband is a very supportive mate of my life. He continues to support me at home with my children. We do many activities together, playing and studying with children. My husband helped me to create an online business and manage to run online marketing to increase sales and purchases" (I1).*

*"My father and my sister also had involved in business. I have experienced and started to study business since my childhood because I always follow my father in managing our family business" (I2).*

*"I manage to begin my business since I was studying at the university. At that time, I did not have enough capital and investment to start the business. Fortunately, I have my family that had provided me motivational and financial supports to start my new business and starting from that I managed to involve in entrepreneurship of the Muslim fashion" (I4).*

The informants' convictions about the role of the family which contribute to their involvement in business have been explained by many researchers. Parents have crucial and significant roles to generate and inculcate interest in their children based on their free wills and choices. The previous studies show that parental influence on learning helps to encourage and inculcate good values and even this interest in individuals did not exist at the first place [81]. Moreover, Desforges and Abouchaar [82], also suggests that positive attitudes of parents and their encouragement would help to increase interest in children and improve their achievement, particularly in academic and school performance.

#### *4.1.4 Positive attitude towards success*

Most of the informants also show their positive attitude and enthusiasm towards success in business as well as throughout their life at the first place. Such positive attitudes for example, responsibility, positive thinking, put an effort to help the family in term of finance, improve social mobility and standard of living, working independently without hoping for others' assistance, being self-confident and self-reliant. These were shown through some of their confessions as follows:

*"As the eldest in the family, I feel responsible to help my family as well as this could increase our social mobility and standards of living in term of economic. For example, we need to have a high income and to have a big car and big house" (I3).*

*"I prefer to carry out my works without depending on other assistance. This is because I feel free to make any decision by myself" (I4).*

*"Not everyone likes to be instructed by someone else and that is why I decided to stop working in the previous company. I'm a person that do not like to work under an authoritarian leadership and I want to do work that I really love. In other words, I want a freedom to do things that I like and do not involve other people who could give the instruction on me" (I5).*

Attitude is an abstract value that shape in the mind of the individual. It can create the perception in the individual [83]. To develop the interest of the individual in entrepreneurship and business, Mohammed Idris [84] advocates that a person's beliefs must build his or confident that he or she could succeed in this field. This optimistic attitude towards success is a very significant step that determine the future prospect of someone's life.

#### *Creativity, Innovation and Shariah Compliance by the Malay Middle Class Women… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109655*

In addition, Mohd Osman [83] had listed some attitudes that are needed to be a successful entrepreneur. These are self-reliance, perseverance, creativity, innovation, receiving the challenges, hope and ambition, to see and grasp the opportunities, self-confident in individual's ability, energetic, enthusiasm, hardworking and good effort.

Even in the case of disabilities students, the parents and school should educate their students to build their positive attitude. For example, U.S. Department of Education [85] had addressed that the attitude and self-advocacy skills of students with disabilities may be two of the most important factors in determining their success or failure in postsecondary education. To ensure that students with disabilities possess the desired levels of self-advocacy to succeed in postsecondary education, high school educators may want to encourage the students to: First, understand their disabilities. Second, accepting responsibility for success, Third, take an appropriate preparatory curriculum. Fourth, acquire computer skills. Fifth, consider supplemental postsecondary education preparatory programs. Sixth, research postsecondary education programs. Seventh, get involved on campus.

#### *4.1.5 Improving soft skills for survival*

In addition to the previous factors, the informants' involvement in entrepreneurship has been triggered by their effort to improve the soft skills for survival. The followings are some of the informants' reasons for conducting business in the Muslim fashion industry.

*"I have sewing skills and I realize that these skills can help me to earn more money and gain more profits. At first, I just sewed clothes as free time activities. Furthermore, I began to receive customers' orders for tailoring from nearest neighbors and friends. From there, I started to seriously involve in business, and I had decided to lunch a Muslim dressing and gauze boutique" (I2).*

*"At the beginning, I manage a business through social media, such as blog. From there, I managed to develop social relationship with other people who eventually become customers, agents and suppliers via online business without physical face to face communication" (I4).*

*"I am a friendly and verbose person. I like to ask other opinions, so that I can practice effective communication when dealing with the customers, the competitors and suppliers. Such skills are significant in business for the purpose of improving the quality of the products, as well as to gain better profits for both parties, the owner and the customers" (I5).*

The ability to use the internet and social media is the pre-requisite soft skills to market goods or product worldwide. Local entrepreneurs also need to think and act creatively in generating and stimulating unique ideas for their product. This includes to demonstrate the physical and non-physical products which could be the assets for business [86]. For example, the physical product can be viewed from the production, packaging, and branding, whereas the non-physical aspects can be viewed as managing a network of social communication with customers, family, followers and society in general. Thus, someone who has knowledge, the ability and expert in designing a business via social media communication has advantage to market their products very fast through this medium.

The findings of the previous studies also demonstrated the similar results that network relationships are important to entrepreneurs as they provide access to resources that are an important component in the entrepreneurial process [87]. In addition, seizing information is a very important skill for entrepreneurs in generating a market, making decisions, or solving problems [88]. The benefits of networking will engage these women entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial activities such as scanning, for, recognising and exploiting business opportunities [89]. This networking as the acquired soft skills could motivate Malay Muslim women entrepreneurs to involve in the Muslim fashion industry worldwide.
