The contribution of Islamic banking towards economic growth remains debatable amongst academicians and practitioners. This study investigates the relationship between Islamic banks’ financing and economic growth in Indonesia which is the largest Muslim population country. This study adopts Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) and utilizes time-series quarterly data from 2011Q1 to 2019Q3. The study uses four predictors: financing to deposit ratio; inflation; gross capital fixed formation; and trade openness. The results from the auto-regressive distributed lag model indicate that, in the long-run, Islamic banks' financing has a significant impact on the Indonesian economy. However, in the short-run, financing does not make a substantial contribution to Indonesian economic growth. The study’s key implication is that financing by Islamic banks still makes a limited contribution to economic growth in Indonesia. This study enhances the literature review, specifically on evaluating the contribution of Islamic banks towards economic growth. Numerous existing studies on this topic covering the crisis period data, which might suffer from data bias. Therefore, this study addresses this topic, excluding the global financial crises period such as 1998, 2008, and 2020, to demonstrate Islamic banks' evident contribution to Indonesian economic growth.

Zakat has been widely described as a tool of income distribution. Not with standing of the potential of zakat in Indonesia and Malaysia, however, there are some issues in zakat institutions. This study aims to analyze institutional program of collecting zakat in reaching Maqashid Sharia and also to identify the issues over the program conducted by the Selangor and DKI Zakat institutions. This study conducted a case study approach which involved two Zakat institutions in two different countries; Lembaga Zakat Selangor in Malaysia and Badan Amil Zakat Infaq and Sadaqah in Indonesia. Zakat Institution should be the leading institution in economic empowerment of society by using Maqashid Sharia as benchmark indicator to design zakat distribution program. This study found that LZS has fulfilled all aspects of maqashid ShariaSharia in zakat distribution program while BAZIS DKI meet three aspects of maqashid Sharia namely hifdzu ad-din, hifdzu an-nafs and hifdzu an-nasl. It is acknowledged that the zakat institutions have made many improvements, there are still few issues that need to be highlighted to meet the needs of the society. The following recommendations are given to empower and enhance the role of zakat particularly in accomplishing the objectives of the Sharia.

Social enterprises are expected to bring significant positive impact on Indonesia's economy and may help to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Social enterprises empower minorities by providing more opportunities for a sustainable means of livelihood, especially for low-income and disadvantaged groups. However, despite its potential, financial issues remain a significant barrier for the viability of social enterprises in Indonesia. Cash waqf is one of the Islamic social finance vehicles that can be used to invest and manage funds to address a variety of social issues related to the SDGs. Hence, this study aims to propose cash waqf model for social enterprise in achieving the SDGs in Indonesia and to assesses the potentials and opportunities of developing the proposed model in Indonesia. This study employs a qualitative research approach, with primary data gathered from interviews of relevant stakeholders. This study finds that, the cash waqf can solve a multitude of financial issues faced by many social enterprises in Indonesia by enlarging their pool of financing support. The possibilities and opportunities of developing the cash waqf model for social enterprise include alternative funding for social enterprise, alternative waqf for waqif, an increase in nazhir, and more effective contribution to the SDGs.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is taking role as the backbone for sustained economic growth, particularly in developing countries. However, SMEs might not easily get the financing from the banking institution due to the lack of financial history and collateral. Islamic crowdfunding has become a solution to deliver accessible financial services to the unbanked SMEs in the countries, especially in Indonesia. Islamic crowdfunding impacts the SMEs in regard to the ease of obtaining capital access, improving the welfare of SMEs, and creating growth for the national economy in the long-term. By using literature review, this study aims to show how the Islamic crowdfunding develops and how it affects the SMEs in Indonesia. The result shows that Islamic crowdfunding potentially benefits the SMEs in capital access, improving the welfare and economic growth.

Social enterprises have substantially affected Indonesia’s economic growth and may contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs’) achievement. Social enterprises empower minority groups by giving greater accessibility to a facility for a sustainable means of livelihood to the low income and disadvantaged groups, which make up a considerable part of the population, thereby creating an inclusive workforce. However, financial issues still pose a challenge for the sustainability of social enterprises in Indonesia due to the awkward reconciliation of their social missions, a characteristic of their businesses, with the less attractive returns for their investors. Cash waqf is one of the Islamic social finance instruments accepted to invest and manage certain funds to solve different social challenges relevant to the SDGs. Hence, this study aims to achieve the following objectives: (i) to identify the current issues of social enterprises; and (ii) to propose an Integrated Cash Waqf Social Enterprise Business (ICWSE-B) model in achieving the SDG8 in Indonesia. This paper adopts a qualitative research method with primary data obtained mainly from interviews. The findings suggest that financing remains the most significant challenge for most social enterprise businesses. The study also introduced an innovative integrated business model of social enterprise and cash waqf known as the ICWSE-B model to solve many social enterprises’ financial issues. The proposed ICWSE-B model is considered most suitable for social enterprise as it supports decent work and economic growth of the SDGs.