Economic Empowerment Model through Sharia’ Financing: A Case
Study on the Beneficiary of ‘Mesra Soft Loan’ in Bandung City
Muhammad Iqbal and Hendrati Dwi Mulyaningsih
Department of Business Administration, Telkom University, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Economic Empowerment, Islamic Finance, Mosque, Economy, Social, Spiritual.
Abstract: The paper aims to elaborate on an Islamic finance instrument as an empowerment tool in empowering the
micro-small economic sector. Particularly, this study seeks to analyze socio-economic empowerment effect
on the beneficiaries through an Islamic finance instrument issued by the Bandung City Government, called
‘Mesra Soft Loan' or ‘Kredit Mesra'. This research was conducted in several places in Bandung City, West
Java, Indonesia, which focused on PD. BPR Kota Bandung and Masjid Baitul Ma'mur, Bandung Kidul
Districts. The community, through sharia’ cooperative group, was collected to be empowered in a mosque.
The contract of qardhul hasan instruments was applied from funds budgeted by the Government of Bandung
City that channeled through the partnership of PD. BPR Kota Bandung and sharia' cooperatives in community
mosques. This qardhul hasan instruments, through Kredit Mesra program, had given exceptional impact in
developing and empowering the micro-small economic sector in the city. This program had succeeded in
impacting the social, economic, and spiritual aspects of society as an empowerment program.
1 INTRODUCTION
Islam is the second largest religion in the world after
Christianity, with a total of 1.6 billion people or 23%
of the world's total population. Indonesia becomes a
country with the largest Muslim population in the
world, with about 209 million people or 87.2% of the
total population (Masci & Desilver, 2017).
With a Muslim population of 209 million,
Indonesia had great potential for ZISWAF funds
(Zakat, Infaq, Sadaqah, and Waqf).). Firmansyah
(2009) estimated the potential for Zakat by accepting
zakat levels of at least 2.5% of each Gross Regional
Domestic Product (GRDP) as follows: 1) Agricultural
zakat levels amount to 2.5% of the GRDP value of the
agricultural sector; 2) Mining zakat level was 2.5% of
the GRDP value of the mining sector; 3) Zakat in
other sectors was 2.5% for each sector. However, the
Center for Strategic Studies of the National Zakat
Agency (Puskas Baznas) in 2017 noted that the
potential for zakat in Indonesia reached Rp.286
trillion per year, bigger than previous research.
If the potential of Rp. 286 Trillion of Zakat fund
could be managed appropriately, and the fund could
be used as a response to alleviate poverty, which was
a current fundamental problem of Indonesia since
Zakat actually targets people who are considered
poor. As of Allah SWT in Surat At-Taubat (9): 60:
"Zakah expenditures are only for the poor and for the
needy and for those employed to collect [zakah] and
for bringing hearts together [for Islam] and for freeing
captives [or slaves] and for those in debt and for the
cause of Allah and for the [stranded] traveller – an
obligation [imposed] by Allah. And Allah is Knowing
and Wise.”
However, in the reality, the absorption of Zakat
fund has not been optimal yet. During the year of
2017, the absorption of Zakat fund that noted in
BAZNAS’s data was only Rp. 6 Trillion, very far
below the estimated amount that BAZNAS noted.
Only 2.09 percent of the Rp. 286 Trillion of zakat
fund estimation from BAZNAS could be collected.
The Zakat, in fact, had not been able to overcome
poverty in Indonesia yet. In March 2018, the Central
Bureau of Statistics had noted that the poverty rate
was at 9.82 percent. However, often missed by the
media attention was the definition of BPS's "absolute
poverty" and the blurring of the actual number of
poverty.
The national poverty line in March 2018, which
resulted in a poverty rate of 9.82 percent, was IDR
400,995. However, if the poverty limit was changed
using the middle-income poverty line standard of
World Bank with a figure of USD 3.9 or IDR 56
348
Iqbal, M. and Mulyaningsih, H.
Economic Empowerment Model through Sharia’ Financing: A Case Study on the Beneficiary of ‘Mesra Soft Loan’ in Bandung City.
DOI: 10.5220/0008431103480357
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Inclusive Business in the Changing World (ICIB 2019), pages 348-357
ISBN: 978-989-758-408-4
Copyright
c
 2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

thousand per day, Indonesia's poverty rate will
increase dramatically to 30 percent in 2016. Indonesia
was even inferior to Vietnam by 11 percent.
Poverty in Indonesia was reflected by its position
in the fourth place as the country with the greatest
inequality in the world, with data from 1% of
Indonesia's richest people controlling 49.3 percent of
national wealth. This condition is only better than
Russia, India, and Thailand. When it was pulled-up to
10 percent of the richest, its control reached 75.7
percent. (Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databooks,
2017).
However, The Muslims, as the biggest religion
population in Indonesia, ironically contributed only
12 percent of the total economy of Indonesia (Dahuri,
2016). From the 50 of the Richest in Indonesia, only
8 people were Muslims (Tanjung, 2017). The data
showed that the contribution of Muslims of Indonesia
in the national economic was less contributed.
Furthermore, the data indirectly said that Muslims in
Indonesia is the biggest contributor to the national
poverty index.
Bandung, as the 4th biggest city in Indonesia and
the biggest city in West Java province, faced a
poverty problem of 117 thousands of household or
444 thousands of people living under poverty line.
This number represented 8.1% out of the total
population of Bandung City.
In 2017, the Bandung City Government had a
target in poverty alleviation efforts in the city of
Bandung. To solve this problem, the Bandung City
Government organized the "Kredit Mesra" program,
a mosque-based sharia' financing instrument, to
provide convenience in igniting and developing
micro-businesses. This program targeted efforts to
improve the welfare of the community through the
empowerment of mosque-based microfinance
institutions. By involving Bank Perkreditan Rakyat
Kota Bandung, the Kredit Mesra program was faced
with the ability to run in 4000 mosques in the city of
Bandung and be expected increasing in the future.
This Kredit Mesra program, in its application,
uses the contract of qardhul hasan as an Islamic
contract of finance. According to the research that
held by Said and Mahmuddin (2015), the attention to
the development of SMEs through the qardhul hasan
instrument is based on the fact that SMEs has a
greater power to reduce social and economy
disparities, unemployment and decreases poverty
rate.
Through Kredit Mesra program, a holistic
approach was used by the Government of Bandung
City in empowering the micro-small economic level
community, particularly they who come from
Muslims society. The mosque-based empowerment
approach is jointly integrates economy, social, and
spiritual aspect by mean to function the mosque as the
central place of worship and to reinforce the social
awareness and to shape good conduct and behavior of
the ummah. In addition, it is also meant to build the
awareness of the Muslim community on the
importance of unifying the spiritual, social and
economy aspects. (Said & Mahmuddin, 2015).
Indeed, mosques do not only act as a centre of religion
and worship of Muslims, but also as a centre for the
development and activities of ummah in the fields of
social, educational, economic, political, and defense,
as narrated in Al-Sira Al-Nabawiyya. From the
research held by Amaney Jamal (2005), the religious
aspect not only touches the soul more and builds or
constructs the awareness based on the feeling rather
than the mind, but also, as explained by Bagby
(2004), has a stronger bonding power for the
community because there are deep spiritual
dynamics, resulting in a feeling of community.
2 OBJECTIVE OF RESEARCH
Based on the reason explained, this study aims to
identify and to understand the model of economic
empowerment based on sharia’ financing scheme,
through Kredit Mesra program, that given to its
beneficiaries as an empowerment tool.
3 LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1 Community Economic
Empowerment
Ras (2013, p. 62) explained that as an effort to
alleviate poverty, the strategy considered as the most
appropriate to reduce poverty was through a
community empowerment strategy.
Empowerment referred to the delegation of some
authority and responsibility to employees and
involving them in the decision-making process, not
in mere job activities, but rather at all the levels of
management (Empowerment, n.d.).
According to Malumbot (2015), principally,
community empowerment was the concept of
actualizing the potential that had actually been owned
by individuals in society to organize themselves. The
process of community economic empowerment had a
starting point to establish the community to be able to
improving their own standard of living by using and
Economic Empowerment Model through Sharia’ Financing: A Case Study on the Beneficiary of ‘Mesra Soft Loan’ in Bandung City
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accessing local resources as well as possible. The
approach used in community empowerment aimed to
increase public awareness and capacity to be able to
influence policy changes that were pro-society.
Community empowerment encouraged the
internalization of development for the poor and
marginalized job creation, as well as the participation
of the poor in building and establishing the social
capital and good governance.
According to Suharto (2005), the community
empowerment could be interpreted as a process and
an objective, with the following explanation:
1. As a process, empowerment was an activity series
to strengthen a weak group in society, including
the individuals who experienced poverty
problems.
2. As an objective, empowerment referred to the
circumstances that a social change wanted to
achieve, which were an empowered society,
having the power or knowledge and ability to
meet their life needs, both physical, economic and
social aspect, such as confident in conveying
aspirations, having livelihood, participating in
social activity, and independent in running their
life duties.
However, Fahrudin (2012) explained that community
empowerment was an effort to make the community
becoming capable and independent through the
following actions:
1. Enabling, was creating an atmosphere or climate
that allowed people to develop themselves. The
starting point was the recognition that every
human being and every community had potential
that could be developed. Empowerment was an
effort to build power by encouraging, motivating
and raising awareness of its potential and to make
serious efforts to develop it.
2. Empowering, was increasing the capacity
through reinforcing the potential or power that
community owned. This reinforcement included
concrete steps such as providing various inputs
and opening up access to opportunities that could
make people more empowered.
3. Protecting, was protecting interests by
developing a protection system for the people as
the subject of development. In the empowerment
process, the weak must be prevented from
becoming weaker, due to lack of power in the face
of the strong. Protecting, in this case, was seen as
an effort to prevent unbalanced competition and
exploitation of the strong to the weak.
3.1.1 The Objective of Economic
Empowerment
Mardikanto (2014) explained that there were six
objectives of community economic empowerment:
1. Better Institution, by improving
activities/actions performed, it was expected to
improve institutions, including the development
of business partnership networks.
2. Better Business, improving education
(enthusiasm for learning), improving business
access, activities and institutional changes, were
expected to improve business development.
3. Better Income, through the improvement of
business development, it was expected that it
would be able to improve the income earned,
including the income of the household and the
community.
4. Better Environment, Improvement in income
was expected to improve the environment
(physical and social) because environmental
damage was often caused by poverty or limited
income.
5. Better Living, The improvement in the level of
income and environmental conditions were
expected to improve the living conditions of
household and community.
6. Better Community, a better life, which was
supported by a better environment (physical and
social), was expected to create a better community
life.
3.1.2 Stages of Community Economic
Empowerment
As in figure 1, Wilson (as cited in Tukasno, 2013)
explained four stages of empowerment process, were:
1. Awakening, at this stage, the community was
made aware of their abilities, attitudes and skills
owned, and also plans and hopes for better and
more effective conditions.
2. Understanding, at this stage, the community
were given new understanding and perceptions
about themselves, their aspirations and other
general conditions.
3. Harnessing, after the community had been aware
and had understood about empowerment, it was
time for them to decide to use for their
community's benefit.
4. Using, Using skills and abilities as part of daily
life.
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Figure 1: Wilson’s Four Stages of Empowerment Process.
(Source: Wilson (as cited in Tukasno, 2013)).
3.2 Qardhul Hasan as Sharia’ Finance
Contract
In terms of terminology, al-Qardhu al-Hasan (soft and
benevolent loan) was a loan given on the basis of
mere social obligations, in this case, the debtor was
not required to return anything except the loan.
Further, the nature of Qardhul Hasan did not provide
financial benefits (Adnan, 2006). Whereas, some
experts stated that giving assets to other people which
could be billed or asked to return or in other words
lent without expecting a reward was defined as al-
Qardh. In classical fiqh literature, qardh was
categorized in aqd tathawwui or contract of help and
not as a commercial transaction (asy-Syarbasyi,
1987) (Sabiq, 1987).
However, Abidin, Alwi, and Ariffin (2011)
believed that Qadrul Hasan could be used as an
effective means of economic development and
poverty alleviation.
The Islamic scholars allowed the transaction of
qardh based on the hadith that was narrated by Ibnu
Majjah and Ijma or consensus of Islamic scholars.
However, the God, on the Al-Quran, commanded the
humans to lend something for “God’s religion”. It
was explained on Al-Quran surah al-Hadiid:
”Who is he that will lend to Allah a goodly
loan, then (Allah) will increase it manifold to
his credit (in repaying), and he will have
(besides) a good reward” (Al-Quran surah Al-
Hadiid 57:11, Translation by Muhammad
Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali and Muhammad Muhsin
Khan).
The basis of the argument in this verse was that
humans were called to 'lend to God', meaning to
spend wealth in the way of Allah.
Antonio (2001) explained that in alignment with
lending to God, humans were also called “to lend to
other human being”, as a part of civil society.
Another command was narrated by Ibnu Majjah
in a hadith that the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) said:
“Ibn Mas’ud narrated that the Prophet
(Peace be upon Him) said: ‘There is no
Muslim who lends something to another
Muslim twice, but it will be like giving charity
once’” (HR Sunan Ibn Majjah no. 2, kitab al-
Ahkam,; Ibn Hibban and Baihaqi)
It was narrated from Anas bin Malik that the
Messenger of Allah (
ﷺ ) said: "On the night on
which I was taken on the Night Journey (Isra),
I saw written at the gate of Paradise: 'Charity
brings a tenfold reward, and a loan brings an
eighteen fold reward.' I said: 'O Jibril! Why is
a loan better than charity?' He said: 'Because
the beggar asks when he has something, but
the one who asks for a loan does so only
because he is in need.' " (HR Ibnu Majjah no.
242, Kitab al-Ahkam, and Baihaqi).
The Islamic scholars agreed that al-qardh was
permitted to do. This consensus was based on the
nature of humans who could not live without help
from their brothers. No one owned everything that
was needed. Because of that reason, lending and
borrowing had become a part of human's life. Islam
very paid its attention to all of its followers' needs
(Antonio, 2001).
3.2.1 The Application of Al-Qardh
In the book of Bank Syariah: Dari Teori ke Praktik,
Antonio (2001) explained that the application of al-
Qardh, as a financial product, was usually applied as
followed:
a. As a complementary products to the customers
who had been proven of their loyalty and
reliability, who needed an immediate bailout for a
relatively short period of time. The customers
would return as soon as possible in a sum of
borrowed money.
b. As a facility to customers who needed fast fund
while they could not be able to withdraw their
fund because, for example, their money was saved
in the form of deposit.
c. As a product that was donated to micro-
enterprises or helping the social sector.
3.2.2 Source of Fund
Futhermore, Antonio (2001) said that the nature of al-
Qardh did not give financial benefits. Because of that
Awakenin
g
Understanding
Harnessin
g
Using
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351

reason, the al-Qardh funding could be taken
according to this following categories:
a. Al-Qardh needed to help customers' finances
quickly and short terms. The bailout could be
come from the bank’s capital fund.
b. Al-Qardh needed to help micro-enterprises and
social welfare could be sourced from funds of
zakah, infaq, and sadaqah. Besides from the
source of ummah’s funds, the practitioners of
sharia’ banking, as well as Islamic scholars, saw
the existence of other fund sources that been able
to be allocated to Qardh al-Hasan, which were
doubtful incomes, such as nostro services at
conventional correspondent bank, interest of L/C
collateral in foreign bank, etc. one of the
considerations the utilization of these funds was
akhaffu dhararain rule (took less harm or
mudharat). It considered if Muslims’ fund were
allowed in non-Muslim institution, it might be
used for something detrimental to Islam, for
example, the fund of Arab Muslims in Jewish
bank in Switzerland. Therefore, the parked funds
would be better taken and utilized for social
welfare needs.
The risks in al-Qardh were counted having high-risks
because it was considered as a fund that not been
closed with collateral (Antonio, 2001).
In general, al-Qardh could be visualized into
figure 2.
Figure 2: Al-Qardh Scheme. (Source: Antonio (Bank
Syariah: Dari Teori ke Praktik, 2001)).
4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study aims to identify the model of economic
empowerment based on Sharia’ financing through
Kredit Mesra program. The research used a
qualitative approach to explore the research subject.
This research location was focused on PD. BPR Kota
Bandung and neighborhood of Masjid Baitul Ma'mur,
Bandung Kidul District. The techniques of qualitative
data collection, as pointed out by Bodgan and Biklen
(1982, 27) were participant observation and in-depth
interview. In addition, documentation and online data
searching studies were used as the additional
collection method
In-depth interview was addressed to the HRD
manager of PD. BPR Kota Bandung, the Head of
Masjid Baitul Ma’mur, and three beneficiaries of
Kredit Mesra program the empowerment target.
Observation on beneficiaries was used to see the
reality of the empowerment activity in the field to
identify the result of an in-depth interview. In
addition, documentation and online data searching
were used to proof the data gotten and comparing
with the data published.
5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
5.1 Kredit Mesra
Kredit Mesra was a community empowerment
program from the Government of Bandung City in the
form of a soft loan with Islamic principles which was
rolled out through a community mosque that owned
sharia' cooperative. Kredit Mesra was launched in
2017 by the former Mayor of Bandung, M. Ridwan
Kamil. This loan program was devoted to Muslim
people due to the channeling system through the
community mosque that only could be reached by the
ummah of the mosque. It was expected that the Kredit
Mesra could stimulate the growth of the economy in
the mosque's neighborhood and create the mosque as
the centre of ummah’s activities, not only in the field
of ibadah but also muammalah.
Kredit Mesra, as an economic empowerment
program, was issued by the Government of Bandung
City. However, on the implementation, the Bandung
City Government appointed PD. BPR Kota Bandung
to distribute the fund and manage administration, and
MUI (Indonesian Ulema Council) to socialize the
Kredit Mesra idea to the community mosque and to
give assistance to the mosque and beneficiaries.
The structure could be seen as follow in figure 3.
Figure 3: The Structure of Kredit Mesra.
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PD. BPR Kota Bandung as a regional-owned
company was pointed by the Government of Bandung
City to distribute the fund allocated for the program
of Kredit Mesra. The budget of funds used by BPR
Kota Bandung is the budget allocated by the City
Government of Bandung amounting to 600 Billion to
run this program. By the recommendation of Sharia
cooperative at the community mosque as the party
that administered administrative matters, the BPR
Kota Bandung transferred funds to the beneficiaries.
In its socialization, the Bandung City Government
appointed MUI of Bandung City to socialize the
Kredit Mesra program to community mosques in the
city of Bandung. Furthermore, the MUI of Bandung
City had the duty to direct mosques in the
implementation of this program and was also tasked
with providing assistance, through community
mosques, to the beneficiaries of the Kredit Mesra
program.
In its presence, the program targeted people with
small and micro economic levels who had businesses
as targets. This matter was created because the main
purpose of the Kredit Mesra program was to
empower the community, Muslim community in
particular, and it was designed to alleviate and help
the poor community which in Islam was seen as the
enemy that could harm the dignity of all the poor as
the noble creation of God.
This program had been created to be based in
mosques because the main target was the ummah who
lived around the mosque, and often came and
worshiped in the mosque. Furthermore, because this
program adhered to the value of trust in customers, it
was expected that beneficiaries who often worship in
mosques were trustworthy and able to use the loan
properly and repay it well.
Figure 4: The Application Flow of Kredit Mesra.
To be able to get this program, the beneficiary had
to be a member of sharia' cooperative at the mosque
that they wanted to apply for the program. It aimed to
show that the beneficiaries were the jama’ah of the
mosque and to fulfill the requirement because the
recommendation that explained the beneficiary was
proper to get the financing program should be issued
by the sharia' cooperative. Furthermore, the
beneficiary had to form a group to apply to this
program. It was required in purpose to make sure that
the empowerment program targeted community as
the main target, not an individual.
According to the PD BPR Kota Bandung’s
statement, the Kredit Mesra program had already
been available in over 10 out of around 4000
community mosques in Bandung City. Masjid Baitul
Ma’mur in Bandung Kidul District one of the 170
community mosques that had run this program. This
mosque served several districts in southern Bandung
area, besides the Bandung Kidul District, such as
Batununggal, Buahbatu, Regol, and Lengkong, that
had a total population of over 429,300 living in this
area since the scarcity of mosques that owned sharia'
cooperative.
5.2 Kredit Mesra as a Tool of
Economic Empowerment
The Kredit Mesra as a sharia' financing product to
empower the community, according to the
explanation of PD. BPR Kota Bandung and the Head
of DKM Masjid Baitul Ma'mur, had been
successfully empowering and stimulating the
economic between ummah. It was marked by the
growth of the individual economy, the increment of
ummah's independency, and the economy in the
mosque's neighborhood and the prosperity of the
mosque increasing. The loan rate of return was also
100%, as PD BPR explained.
The Masjid Baitul Ma'mur, as a mosque that
serves the application of Kredit Mesra program for
five districts in the southern area, had issued over 190
recommendation of applicants who were eligible to
receive the benefit of Kredit Mesra program to PD.
BPR Kota Bandung. As the intermediary that serves
Kredit Mesra application, Masjid Baitul Ma'mur
inadvertently received the benefit that came from the
existence of Kredit Mesra. First, it got a new member
of its sharia' cooperative that automatically
contributed to an increase in the amount of savings of
members of cooperatives managed by its sharia'
cooperative which some of the profits would be
channeled for the aim of the mosque prosperity.
Furthermore, from the statement given by the
Head of DKM Masjid Baitul Ma’mur, after this
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353

program had run to the beneficiaries who applied
trough this mosque, the absorption of ZISWAF
(Zakat, Infaq, Shadaqaah, and Waqaf) fund at Masjid
Baitul Ma’mur increased highly. The mosque’s
financial balance, based on interview result with
DKM Baitul Ma’mur, had already reached Rp. 50
Million in only latest six months which it did not
usually happened before the existence of this
program. Moreover, the mosque got additional
income from infaq since it was currently doing
expansion of its building and build a new Madrasah
at its area that averagely reached Rp. 12 Million per
month.
The Kredit Mesra beneficiaries came from a
homogeny background, small and micro economic
level of community. The beneficiaries were they who
had business, either business that was already running
or new business, due to the requirements that the
prospective debtors had to have a business.
Most of the beneficiary started their business as a
form of survival effort after they had gotten economic
difficulties because work termination and
extraordinary condition that forced them to survive
with starting a business. However, another reason
also became the reasons why the beneficiaries started
their business, i.e., their needs to find certain goods
that became an idea to run a business, although they
also had economic difficulties but it was not the main
reason.
The beneficiaries got to know the availability of
Kredit Mesra program, from the explanation of DKM
Baitul Ma'mur, because of the socialization from
MUI and BPR Kota Bandung at their mosque.
However, some of the beneficiaries knew it because
they got information from their relatives or even been
referenced by other mosques since the mosque in
their neighborhood had no sharia' cooperative.
Almost all of the groups of beneficiaries, based on
an interview with DKM Baitul Ma'mur and the
beneficiaries, consisted with the members who had
already known and trusted each other. It was
reasonable because the beneficiaries expected if they
knew each other closely, the problem that might be
occurred in the future could be minimizing and be
avoiding since the Kredit Mesra was based on
trustworthy.
The Sharia' principle usage of the financing
program became a special attractiveness for their
beneficiaries to apply for this program. In term of
loan given, based on the informants' experiences, it
was not burdened at all since it had no loan interest
and no sanction or penalty given, although it had an
administrative cost. The application and fund
disbursement was also easy and quick.
Furthermore, the beneficiaries felt improvement
after they had received this program. They
experienced economic improvement. For example,
they who had no income and suffered critical
economies difficulties experienced improvement
economically and became independent. They who
already had business could get additional capital to
add new goods to sell and made their income
increasing.
The Kredit Mesra affected its beneficiaries'
fulfillment of needs, either physical or nonphysical
thing. The improvement began with their fulfilment
of daily basic needs. After had received this sharia’
based empowerment financing program, the
beneficiaries became able to fill their needs more
freely and been free owing to warung in fulfilling
their daily needs, although there was no significant
change, explained the beneficiaries, since they only
bought what they really needed.
Besides the fulfillment of daily basic needs, some
of the beneficiaries had been able already to fulfill
their secondary needs though with a different
purpose, such as buying a new motorcycle to help
running their business or buying a laptop for their
child study. The fulfillment of nonphysical goods
became more achievable. The beneficiaries became
able to send their children to higher education and to
get proper health facilities.
Since the beneficiaries received the Kredit Mesra
loan, they could contribute to their family economy.
The income that they earned from their business was
felt strongly affected to their economy. In some cases,
their income even became the main source of the
family revenue. The savings and assets (gold) that
were sourced from the income gotten as the results of
this empowerment program could be created by the
beneficiaries.
Furthermore, besides economic improvement, the
beneficiaries could contribute to determining the
family decision to their family, and their partner's
willingness to give a chance for the beneficiaries
became one of some factors.
The beneficiaries got improvement in social
aspects. Through joining this program, they could
meet and know new people from other groups. The
contribution to environment economy was improved
through the ZISWAF fund that they could give after
receiving the Kredit Mesra program or even
increasing in number and frequency. This program, as
felt by the beneficiaries, extremely saved their life
from the bondage of loan shark which influential in
turning the beneficiaries business off or even
breaking their family’s economy down.
The Kredit Mesra contributed to strengthening the
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ukhuwah islamiyah towards its beneficiaries. The
beneficiaries became more often to come to the
mosque for attending religious class, meeting other
jama’ah, praying congregationally or salah al
jama’ah, attending and contributing for a religious
event, and even they had understood the prohibition
of Riba and tried to avoid it as much as possible. The
Head of DKM Masjid Baitul Ma’mur said that the
Kredit Mesra program had been successfully
empowering the people and brought change to them
in muammalah and ibadah aspects. ’If the
muammalah aspects are strong, the ibadah aspects
will follow,’ the DKM Masjid baitul Ma’mur says.
5.3 The Impact of Empowerment
The community empowerment was the concept of
actualizing the potential that had actually been owned
by individuals in society to organize themselves. The
process of community economic empowerment had a
starting point to establish the community to be able to
improve their own standard of living by using and
accessing local resources as well as possible
(Malumbot, 2015). The indicators of success used to
measure the success of community empowerment
programs, according to publication of RISTEKDIKTI
(as cited in Arifin, 2014), consist of declining in
number of poverty; improvement of business and
income of the community; improvement in public
awareness of efforts to improve the welfare of poor
families in their environment; increment in group
independency which is characterized by the growing
development of member and group productive
businesses, stronger group capital, more neat group
administration systems, and increasingly the extent of
group interaction with other groups in society;
community capacity and equitable income
improvement characterized by an increase in income
of poor families who are able to meet basic needs and
basic social needs. This indicator approach was used
by the Researcher because it was able to
comprehensively explain and analyze in identifying
the effects of the economic empowerment process
that occurred on the Kredit Mesra beneficiaries.
Declining the number of poverty is an indicator
that shows the declining of poverty number as the
positive impact of the empowerment program. Based
on the Researcher's analysis, the improvement in
alleviating poverty through this program is
experienced by the beneficiaries and the environment
where they live. It is reflected by the statement from
DKM Masjid Baitul Ma’mur that stated if the Asnaf
(people who are entitled receiving zakat) from poor
community was declining, and the number of
Muzakki (people who are obligated to pay zakat fund)
was increasing, especially for the Zakat al-Fitr since
the collection of Zakat fund was centered in that
community mosque. The beneficiaries who had not
been able to pay zakat before they got the assistance
of Kredit Mesra, currently, they are able to spend this
obligation as their income has been able to fulfill their
needs. This declining in poverty number aspect
became a critical factor in community empowerment
since this program aimed for poverty alleviation.
Improvement of business and income of the
community was marked by the improvement in the
beneficiaries’ business and income. From the findings
in the field, the beneficiaries experienced some
improvement, on their business in particular. Two
beneficiaries who were observed said that using this
Kredit Mesra assistance, they could develop their
business significantly. Previously, they only made
their business as a side business that was run
irregularly. However, through the Kredit Mesra that
they got and develop for their business, they could
make their business becoming the main income for
their family and improve their business in the number
of goods sold or the condition of the shop owned. The
income of their business was also improving since it
became the current main income for their family and
their living. It was reflected by a beneficiary who
could get IDR 500 thousand per day after she got the
Kredit Mesra and run her business properly when she
had worked before, she only could earn IDR 60
thousand per day.
Improvement in public awareness of efforts to
improve the welfare of poor families in their
environment was becoming an important aspect since
the community empowerment targeted communal
and not individual. This Kredit Mesra program
required its beneficiary to apply in a group that made
this program did not target an individual but
community. The beneficiaries, after they could run
and develop their business, became aware that this
empowerment program was really helping and
important to they who want to empower themselves
and becoming independent.
It was proven by the statement of a beneficiary
who said that this program was really empowering the
small economic society. It made them becoming free
to borrow money from the loan sharks when it
actually killed the small businesses.
Some of the informants from the beneficiaries
even promoted this program to their fellow and
relatives who had small businesses and said that this
program was really soft loan and helpful for the
business.
Increment in group independency, as an empo-
Economic Empowerment Model through Sharia’ Financing: A Case Study on the Beneficiary of ‘Mesra Soft Loan’ in Bandung City
355

werment indicator, was characterized by the growing
development of productive members and groups, the
stronger the capital of the group, the more tidy the
group administration system, and the broader
interaction of groups with other groups in society.
From the Researcher analysis, this aspects had been
gotten by the beneficiaries because the solidarity in
their Kredit Mesra own group had been formed. It
was marked by the group cohesiveness in paying the
loan, more advanced business that run by every
individual in the group, involvement of group
members in giving help when one of them getting
difficulties, the frequency of interaction among the
beneficiaries, get involved in helping community
through the ZISWAF funds given by Kredit Mesra
beneficiaries, strengthen the fraternity and ukhuwah
islamiyah that experienced among the beneficiaries
and its community since they were started to come
mosque often that made them got to know each other.
Community capacity and equitable income
improvement were marked by an increase in income
of beneficiaries who were able to meet basic needs
and basic social needs. According to the witnesses of
the beneficiaries, the income that they got after had
received the Kredit Mesra improving a lot that made
them becoming able to fill their basic needs and even
secondary needs since some of them, before
accepting the Kredit Mesra, had had no income at all
in particular. Furthermore, the beneficiaries had been
already able to allocate and to increase their ZISWAF
funds expenditure. It made the Researcher able to
conclude for his analysis that this indicator had been
reached by the beneficiaries.
5.4 Economic, Social, and Spiritual
Changing
According to from the Researcher's findings in
analyzing this empowerment scheme through the
Kredit Mesra on its beneficiaries, this Kredit Mesra
program was not only acting as en empowerment tool
but also as a value creator in community and mosque.
This program had been successfully turning the
community who had no income previously to become
able earning income from a business made using this
program. It also turned they who had had income
already but limited into profit gains in their business.
Through this program, the prosperity of the mosque
was also improving since the increase of people who
came to the mosque and expended their ZISWAF
money through the mosque. It could be seen in figure
5.
Figure 5: Value Creation of Kredit Mesra.
Furthermore, the generation of Kredit Mesra fund
by the mosque and its beneficiaries became an
implementation of social entrepreneurship action,
particularly in Islamic perspective. In Islamic social
entrepreneurship, as explained by Mulyaningsih and
Ramadhani (2017), Muslims entrepreneur, as the
person on duty of Allah, had an obligation to manage
their activities into two roleplays: for people
development (habluminannas) and for spiritual
development (habluminallah). The beneficiaries had
been able to run this aspect. In people development
aspects, they got a change in the economic condition
of themselves through income earning and profit
gaining. For spiritual development, the improvement
of their worship activities could be seen from their
ability to issue ZISWAF fund and often becoming to
come to the mosque to attend congregation prayer and
religious classes. They even had been able to combine
the habluminannas and habluminallah aspects in
changing their society through strengthening their
fraternity and ukhuwah Islamiyah on their society.
The visualization could be seen in figure 6.
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Figure 6: Overview of Islamic Social Entrepreneurship
Application through Kredit Mesra.
6 CONCLUSION
The beneficiaries’ achievement of improvement in
the empowerment indicator that had been reached.
The beneficiaries had experienced the improvement
in all points of the indicator that measured the success
of economic empowerment, were declining in
number of poverty; improvement of business and
income of the community; improvement in public
awareness of efforts to improve the welfare of poor
families in their environment; increment in group
independency which is characterized by the growing
development of member and group productive
businesses, stronger group capital, more neat group
administration systems, and increasingly the extent of
group interaction with other groups in society;
community capacity and equitable income
improvement characterized by an increase in income
of poor families who are able to meet basic needs and
basic social needs, after had been given the Kredit
Mesra program as a mosque-based sharia’ financing
with qardhul hasan scheme.
As an empowerment's object, the beneficiaries
had experienced some positive changing both in the
economic aspect, social aspect, and even spiritual
aspect. As the example, they, who had had no income
before got the Mesra soft loan or Kredit Mesra, had
been able to earn income from the business they run
that helped by this program. Further, they could fulfill
their needs and spend their obligation as a Muslim of
ZISWAF expenditure. In the social aspect, they
became able to socialize and to build fraternity and
ukhuwah islamiyah at their environment and became
able to help other who needed through their ZISWAF
expenditure, particularly shadaqaah and infaq, given
which also reflected the spiritual aspect improvement.
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