Iran and COVID-19: An Alternative Crisis Management System Based On Bottom-Up Islamic Social Finance and Faith-Based Civic Engagement

The COVID-19 pandemic can teach Islamic societies many lessons in terms of crisis management and revitalisation of their faith-based Islamic assets. This chapter conceptualises Iran’s case to draw upon its impressive citizen-centered collaborative crisis management, with Islamic leadership and bottom-up Islamic social finance at its core. In this model, with the directing role of leadership and discourse on the Islamic concepts of jihad, Infaq, holy defense, and martyrdom, the community was mobilised far from mere social financing, but also by civic engagement and faith-driven participation. Such an approach yields a more bottom-up Islamic social finance, stronger social bonds (Akhuwat), distributedness, fast responsiveness, and less information asymmetry in regards to targeting the
actual victims in a timely manner.

Download Link