International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 2017, Vol. 7, No. 2 ISSN: 2222-6990 686 www.hrmars.com The Determining Factors for Muslim Household Deemed Ideal to be in Debt: Proposed Conceptual Framework Hainnur Aqma Rahim Center of Islamic Development Management Studies (ISDEV) Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Pulau Pinang DOI: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v7-i2/2021 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v7-i2/2021 ABSTRACT The dependency of Malaysia towards the debt industry has made the trend of growth of household debt according to the ratio of household debt to the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) in 2015 to have reached a level that is more than 89.1 percent compared to 86.8 percent in the previous year and further increased to 89.9 percent in 2016. Such an increase has placed Malaysia at the highest rank, as a country with the highest growth rate of household debt in Asia and the trend of the household debt growth has seen the high-income group becoming the largest contributor to the increased rate of household debt compared to the middle and low income counterparts. Other than that, Islam has established a guideline on debt-making, implying that the Malay ethnic (or Muslims in specific) should stay being moderate and should not face the issue of debt. However, cases on debt practice have shown some opposing findings. The question is what are the determining factors for a Muslim household that is deemed ideal to be in debt? How is the factor of Religious Adherence determining the high income Muslim household to start making debts? Therefore, this study seeks to contribute to the relevant past literature and establish a conceptual framework that determines the ideal household to make debts by integrating the intrinsic determinants with the extrinsic determinants and further elaborates on the methodology that will be used in this work. Keywords: Household, Debt, Religious Adherence, Muslim household, determining factor, Debtor INTRODUCTION Thus, payment through debts has become the main financing mode adopted by Malaysians for the purpose of fulfilling the basic needs in life (Abdul Basit, 2014: 2). This is also thought of as possible because debt repayment had started in the era of ignorance (jahilliyah) in the communities until the emergence of Islam to cater for the economic needs related to production and use (Abdul Halim, 1992: 256). Looking at the need to be in debt, in Islam, indebtedness is a state only allowed among the less fortunate ones. Nonetheless, due to the more daunting and complex economic climate, other than the increasing needs and interests of the people, this has created a lot of consumer-individuals, with the fortunate, more able ones