  In this paper we introduce the notion of a quasi-modular and we prove that
the respective Minkowski functional of the unit quasi-modular ball becomes a
quasi-norm. In this way, we refer to and complete the well-known theory related
to the notions of a modular and a convex modular that lead to the F-norm and to
the norm, respectively. We use the obtained results to consider basic
properties of quasi-normed Calder\'on-Lozanovski\u{\i} spaces $E_{\varphi}$,
where the lower Matuszewska-Orlicz index $\alpha_{\varphi}$ plays the key role.
We also give a number of theorems concerning different copies of $l^{\infty}$
in the spaces $E_{\varphi}$ in the natural language of suitable properties of
the space $E$ and the function $\varphi$. Our studies are conducted in a full
possible generality.
