Demystifying the sacred and the profane in religious consumption: an exploration of Islamic consumption in the Malaysian marketplace through the lens of consumer culture theory.

The global Muslim population is an expanding market, anticipated to grow to 3 billion by 2060. This is nearly a quarter of the world’s population (Pew Research Center, 2017). Along with this comes increasing attention on halal (permissible) products and services, and institutions are shaping their marketplace offerings to fulfil the growing demand for these products. One area that generates much research interest is Islamic financial services. This includes Islamic life insurance which despite many theological debates, has seen growth in its consumption in Muslim-majority as well as Muslim-minority countries (Thomson Reuters, 2018a). However, little is known about this consumption. By studying the literature on Islamic consumption and marketing as well as Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), this research aims to explore the dynamic influences of the sacred and the profane in shaping consumption and the marketplace in religious context. A total of 44 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with Takaful and conventional life insurance consumers, those who consumed both types of life insurance, non-insured consumers as well as agents. These interviews aimed to understand the underlying meanings assigned towards the consumption of Islamic life insurance, including consumers’ lived experiences of their religious beliefs, the social and cultural environments in which they consume the service. It was evident from the research that there are different layers of reasoning that influence Malaysian Muslims’ choices in consuming life insurance. This is due to the complex and multifaceted symbiosis between the sacred and the profane as well as the religious beliefs, which in this case refers to the halal and the haram. Therefore, the perceived sacredness and profaneness of Islamic life insurance is critical in its consumption because of these multiple layers of influence