Embedding Islamic Values into Agile Delivery

We're witnessing an exciting moment in Muslim tech and Islamic enterprise. Organisations articulate inspiring Islamic principles.

The Muslim Tech Manifesto energises developers. Islamic fintech and tech startups multiply. Ma Sha Allah. Alhamdulillah! There is energy, conviction, and vision.

Many successful teams maintain Islamic values through strong culture, individual judgment, and shared understanding. Most use established Agile methods (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) to manage their delivery work.

As teams grow and evolve, they naturally ask: how do we translate Islamic principles into the daily Agile practices our teams already use? How do we enrich sprint planning, retrospectives, and stakeholder engagement with our values, without replacing the methods that already work?

Consider the everyday decisions teams navigate:

• A development team balancing testing thoroughness with delivery deadlines

• A Scrum Product Owner weighing feature priorities: conversion metrics or user wellbeing?

• A designer choosing between engagement optimisation and transparent interactions

• A team managing technical debt: how to balance speed with future sustainability?

These decisions touch on justice (ʿadl), trust and stewardship (amānah), transparency, and care for stakeholders. They're not "Shariah decisions" requiring formal governance, yet they shape whether organisations actively embody Islamic values or gradually drift.

Muslim-led organisations and teams care deeply about Islamic values. The question is: How do we embed those values into the Agile ceremonies and practices teams already use?

How do we make values systematic, teachable, and sustainable, without starting from scratch or replacing what works?

This is where Ihsan Agile provides a practical approach: an overlay onto existing Agile methods that enriches what teams already do, rather than replacing it.

Making Values Operational

Ihsan Agile is for Muslim-led teams and organisations who are:

• Already building with Islamic values in mind, and want to formalise those practices when scaling

• Maintaining ethics through culture, and ready to make it systematic and teachable

• Scaling teams, and need values to scale alongside growth

• Onboarding new members, and want clear structure for ethical decision-making

• Building for the long term, and need sustainability beyond individual judgment

Whether you're Islamic fintech, Muslim-led startup, Islamic charity, or development team within a larger organisation, if you're committed to values-aligned work, this framework supports that commitment.

Who This Framework Serves

The Three Pillars of Ihsan Agile

Ihsan Agile is built on three foundational dimensions of ethical, God-conscious work:

Niyyah نِيَّةٌ (Intention)

Clarify the purpose and higher aim of every sprint, flow, or initiative.

Work begins with conscious intention directed towards Allah and service to His creation. Every planning cycle starts with: "Why are we building this? Who benefits? How does this serve maslahah?"

Strive for beauty, quality, and meaningful impact in all deliverables and interactions, as though Allah sees every detail.

Excellence infused with consciousness. Every line of code, every interaction, every decision is witnessed by Allah and has consequences for His creation.

Orient all work towards genuine benefit, not output for its own sake, but service that uplifts people and communities.

Maṣlaḥah becomes our qibla: Does this work create genuine benefit? Success is measured by uplift, not just velocity.

Ihsān إحسان (Excellence with God-consciousness)

Maslahah مَصْلَحَة (Public Good)

These pillars are operationalised through Five Core Principles and practical ceremonies embedded into your existing Agile workflows—whether you use Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, or Scrumban.

Read the Complete Framework ↓

Five Core Responsibilities

1. Facilitate Niyyah Check-ins — 2-3 minutes at planning to clarify "why?" and "who benefits?"

2. Transform Retrospectives into Muhāsabah — 5-10 minutes of ethical reflection: "Where did we embody ihsan? Where did we fall short?"

3. Embed Justice in Definition of Done — Add criteria for transparency, stewardship, accessibility, dignity

4. Conduct Stakeholder Barakah Reviews — Ask: "Did this create uplift? Was it fair? What harms need addressing?"

5. Support Shūrā (Consultation) — Ensure affected voices are heard in decisions

The Ihsan Agile Facilitator:

From Principles to Practice

The Ihsan Agile Facilitator (IAF) is a companion-coach who embeds ethical consciousness into routine workflows. The IAF answers the question: "Who ensures everyday decisions actively express Islamic values?"

The IAF is:

• Complementary, not replacement: Works alongside Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and existing Agile roles

• Helps small and scaling teams make implicit ethical practices explicit, systematic, and scalable.

• Lightweight: Adds 2-10 minutes to existing ceremonies, not hours

• Framework-agnostic: Adapts to Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, or Scrumban

• Operationally focused: Daily and weekly practice, not periodic governance

Learn more about the IAF Role ↓

• You're a Scrum Master or Agile Coach wanting to embed Islamic ethics into ceremonies you already facilitate

• You're a Product Owner or Team Lead in a Muslim-led organisation seeking to operationalise values in backlog decisions

• You're a Muslim developer or designer wanting your daily work to reflect Islamic principles structurally, not just individually

• You're leading an Islamic charity or NGO using Agile methods for campaigns or service delivery

• You're founding or leading a Muslim tech company and need to bridge Shariah compliance with ethical product development

This framework is for you if...

Join the Pilot Program

Ihsan Agile is a developing framework. The Core Principles are grounded in Islamic sources. The practices are designed based on observing successful Muslim-led teams and agile consultancy experience.

Now we're seeking early adopter organsations to help refine and validate the framework through real-world practice, teams who want to pilot these approaches and contribute their learnings back to the community.

What's Included:

• Training and facilitation support

• Adaptation of the framework to your specific context

• Ongoing consultation and community connection

• Recognition of pilot Ihsan Agile Facilitators as founding Certified Ihsan Agile Facilitators (CIAFs), the first cohort

• Contribution to building a body of practice for Muslim tech and Islamic enterprise

What We're Asking:

• Minimum 2-3 sprint cycles (typically 4-6 weeks)

• Openness to making values explicit in your workflow

• Feedback to help refine the framework

• At least one person who can dedicate time to the IAF role

You're not adopting something finished, you're partnering in developing something valuable for the ummah. Your experience will shape how this framework serves the community.

Express Your Interest in Piloting →

Download the Official Ihsan Agile Guide