<![CDATA[This study analyzes Islamic economic empowerment through Ar-Mart, a retail business unit of Ar-Risalah Islamic Boarding School in Lubuklinggau City, and identifies the constraints and supporting factors affecting its implementation. A descriptive qualitative field-research design was employed. Data were collected in July 2026 through interviews, direct observation, and documentation involving four purposively selected informants representing the pesantren leadership, Ar-Mart management, students, and consumers. The data were reduced, organized thematically, interpreted, and verified by comparing interview, observation, and documentation evidence. The findings show that empowerment is carried out through planning, organizing, operational management, and supervision. Ar-Mart meets the daily needs of the pesantren community, supports institutional economic self-reliance, provides practical entrepreneurial learning for students, and applies Islamic business values such as honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, transparency, halal-product selection, responsibility, and maslahah. However, its empowerment function is not yet optimal because supplier networks remain limited, inventory and product variety are unstable, capital and managerial personnel are constrained, and stock and transaction recording is still simple. Its main strengths are a captive internal market, foundation support, a strategic location, community trust, and pesantren values. Strengthening written planning, inventory systems, supplier partnerships, role division, student training, price transparency, and periodic evaluation is therefore necessary to transform Ar-Mart from a service-oriented retail unit into a more sustainable instrument of Islamic economic empowerment.]]>
