Meaning-Making in Faith-Based Finance: Lived Experiences of Urban Muslim Millennials Using Islamic Financial Products

Abstract

Islamic economics has increasingly drawn scholarly attention for its emphasis on value-based financial systems grounded in religious principles. Within this field, the experiential engagement of Muslim millennials with Islamic financial products remains underexplored, especially in urban contexts where modernity and religiosity intersect. Existing research tends to rely on quantitative models, leaving a gap in understanding the lived experiences and subjective meanings behind faith-driven financial behavior. This study addresses the question: How do urban Muslim millennials experience and interpret their use of Islamic financial products in everyday life? Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study explores the personal, spiritual, and ethical dimensions of financial decision-making among twelve urban Indonesian Muslim millennials aged 25–35 living in Jakarta. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted over a two-month period and subsequently analyzed using thematic coding. . four central themes: spiritual tranquility, identity expression, institutional trust, and moral empowerment. These themes reflect how Islamic financial engagement extends beyond functional use to become a site of religious affirmation and socio-cultural navigation. The findings contribute a human-centered understanding of Islamic finance by capturing emotional and existential meanings often overlooked in prior studies. This research deepens our knowledge of Islamic economic behavior and suggests future directions for integrating phenomenological perspectives in studies of faith-based financial systems.