International Journal of Human Research and Social Science Studies

While healthcare ethics has historically been examined through institutional frameworks developed within Western normative traditions, the subjective moral lens through which patients in Muslim-majority societies evaluate physician conduct remains substantially understudied in the Islamic marketing literature. This paper addresses this gap by investigating how patients in Tunisia construct ethical evaluations of clinical encounters through the lenses of Islamic religiosity and moral sensitivity. Drawing on thematic analysis of 23 semi-structured interviews facilitated by ATLAS.ti 9, the study identifies three core themes specific to the Tunisian socio-religious setting: the multidimensionality of patient ethical perception, the operationalization of Islamic religiosity as a moral filter and spiritual anchor, and the role of patient moral sensitivity in detecting gaps between expected and observed physician conduct. Within this particular cultural and religious context, patients evaluate physician morality not through technical expertise alone but through deeply embedded Islamic values of compassion, dignity, and equitable treatment. Islamic religiosity establishes elevated deontological expectations of physician conduct rooted in Islamic moral duty, while moral sensitivity operates as the interpretive capacity that detects discrepancies between those expectations and actual clinical behavior. These findings carry implications specific to patient-centered care design, Islamic health services marketing, and cross-cultural clinical communication within Muslim-majority healthcare contexts.

Islamic religiosity, patient ethical perception, moral sensitivity, healthcare service quality, qualitative research, Tunisia.

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