This chapter examines the relationship between corporate governance practices and firm performance. The characteristics of the board of Shari'ah-compliant companies in consumer products counter of Bursa Malaysia were examined against the firm's performance using data from 77 companies from 2014 to 2016. Based on the result of multiple regression; board size, Muslim chairman, and Muslim director have a weak positive correlation with the performance of the firms. However, directors with Shari'ah background seem to have a negative correlation with the performance of the firms. The findings of the chapter would be very useful to the regulators to improve the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance (MCCG). The findings also help to fill the gap on scarce literature that study the relationship between the corporate governance practices involving Muslim characteristics and performance.

This chapter aims to provide an overview of the dates palm farming in Malaysia. Besides, this paper also discussed on issues and challenges, prospect and future “baraqah” for dates palm farming sector in Malaysia. As new farming sector in Malaysia, facts sheets and general farming information are readily available and easily accessible to dates palm farmer. However, as the sector is rapidly growing, the lack of research in dates palm farming, production and prospect in Malaysia could represents a serious limitation to the long term viability of the sector. As results, several important issues and challenges for dates palm farming in Malaysia are derived such as dependency of imported dates, insect pest attack, climate and lack of expertise in dates palm farming. Besides, several prospects and future ‘baraqah’ for dates palm farming in Malaysia such as fulfilling local consumption trends, cultivation nature, dates palm health and disease, establishment of the National Dates Palm Centre and Waqf dates palm are proposed.

This study aims to examine the disclosure of web-based accountability of zakat institutions in Malaysia. This study examines 14 zakat institutions which covers all states in Malaysia. The website of the zakat institutions are analyzed based on content analysis. The levels of disclosure in the websites are examined using binomial logic. This study finds that there are limited web-based accountability practices of zakat institutions in Malaysia. The limited disclosure is observed at all the three accountability dimensions' disclosures, namely financial accountability, performance accountability and political accountability. The findings suggest that there is a need for zakat institutions in Malaysia to enhance its accountability disclosure especially via websites.

This chapter is written by Muhammad Iqmal Hisham Kamaruddin, Mustafa Mohd Hanefah and Zurina Shafii from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). The chapter aims to assess the gaps that exist between the requirements outlined by Malaysia accounting standards (MAS) with AAOIFI’s Financial Accounting Standard No.1 (FAS1). Additionally, this chapter also focuses in examining the compliance of all IFIs in Malaysia with the disclosure on investment account. This issue could potentially be explored to identify the extend of the disclosure practices by IFIs in Malaysia and whether it is beyond MAS requirements and in line with some other additional features of FAS1.

It is undeniable that a non-profit sector as the third sector plays important roles in the economy nowadays. As a non-profit sector born from loopholes of public and private sectors, its impacts is believed to fulfill society’s interests that cannot be fulfilled by these two previous sectors. The third sector concept is derived from accumulation of public wealth and designed to distribute the wealth back to the society wisely. Non-profit organizations have been earning income by themselves traditionally (Zimmerman & Dart, 2000). Despite dependency on public for its sustainability and continuity, some of non-profit organizations developed into stronger entities by generating revenues by themselves. This ‘new’ trading activity by non-profit organization which is known as Social Enterprise (SE) are not just to reduce dependency on public support, it also creates other issues and challenges for these non-profit organizations. The issues and challenges include matters relating to financial management. The accounting and financial management of SE consume as many issues and challenges as corporations with profit-seeking motives. This chapter aims to present financial management perspective in SE, particularly related to Islamic Social Enterprise (iSE). As an iSE, the organization also needs to consider the Islamic principles in its operation and management, including in the financial aspects. The paper is based on a review of professional documents and comprehensive literature review. The review aims to synthesize previous research findings and views, thus capsulizing the structural overview for this topic. The structural overview of this chapter, therefore could be oriented to identify the gaps and direction for future research. This chapter begins with an overview of the SE including its differences with other entities which are profit-based organizations and nonprofit organizations. The definition of iSE is also established in this section. Next, the discussion on financial management concepts are presented in Section 2, where key elements for financial management such as internal control system, financial planning and decision making, financial reporting and disclosure and financial performance measurement are being elaborated. Further, the chapter highlighted Islamic principles and views relating financial management that iSE have to take into consideration. Finally, the chapter is concluded by highlighting the gaps and direction for future research.

Islam encourages Muslims to take care of their brothers and sisters by sharing and distributing their wealth to the different levels of the community. There are a few types of mechanisms that can be used to achieve this purpose. Nowadays, Islamic philanthropic institutions are known for the activities of collecting, managing and distributing either zakat, waqf, sadaqah, hibah and other types of Islamic charity funds. These funds are entrusted to these institutions as part of amal jariah (good deeds) as encouraged by Islam itself. However, as the world economy develops, including Islamic economics itself, the roles and functions of all sectors including Islamic philanthropic institution also have been demanded to change. From basic activities that stress on management of Islamic charity funds, Islamic philanthropic institutions are now demanded to create a new focus on generating sustainability and continuous contributions to Islamic community and Islamic economy at large. The term of Islamic social enterprise (iSE) is currently known and used to fit with the current needs to ensure the sustainability of the philantrophic institutions and to maintain the continuous donations and services to the third parties. Its development is consistent with social enterprise (SE) that is established worldwide, even though in practice it may relatively be left behind in terms of the structured governance. SE is defined as a hybrid form of profit and social benefit-seeking organization whereby traditional profit organization pursues both its social mission and business opportunity (Lian & Ko 2011). SE deviates from the regular charity perspective by embedding the elements of modern business entity in charity institutions and involving in trading activities for the purpose of generating revenues. Thus, this study aims to identify the selected iSE approaches that draw its root from Islamic charitable funds, specifically the sadaqah. This chapter begins with an overview of the Islamic philanthropic institutions and later focuses on current iSE practices in Malaysia.

Halal lifestyle is one of the contemporary issues discussed by Muslim populations around the world, including Malaysia. Muslim consumers treat Halal as a compulsory element in all transactions as part of religious obligation, while traders see Halal as an important element in expanding their business empire globally. In addition, the Halal scope itself have grown exponentially from food and beverage into other consumer products and services including in banking and finance, transportation, tourism, health and others. Moreover, Halal is also currently being pursued by non-Muslims as they see its potential to be explored further and is high in demand. Before in-depth discussion is made, it is necessary to understand what Halal is. Thus, this chapter will help readers to understand what Halal is and will give an overview on Halal.

At the beginning of the year 2020, massive fast spread Coronavirus or (COVID-19) pandemic caused a serious impact on the education system worldwide. This chapter aims to explore the students' attitude to use social media as a learning tool during COVID-19 pandemic based on the view of the Health Belief Model (HBM). A total of 504 students in Malaysian universities were involved in this study. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-PM) has been employed to analyse the data collected in this study. The results indicated that perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived barriers, perceived (health) motivation, perceived benefits and self-efficacy were significant in predicting the students’ attitude to use social media as a learning tool during COVID-19 pandemic. The results of this study has been contributed to the existing literature by validating HBM in the Malaysian context and provide theoretical contributions and practical implications to the theory, and practice.

Islamic scholars have been discussing organ donation issues since it is not specifically mentioned in Al-Quran and Hadith. Organ donation is permissible in Islam because it fulfils the requirement in the preservation of human life, which is one of the five objectives in maqasid syariah. It is believed that the awareness to donate organs is based on good knowledge and attitude among members of the public. Hence, this study aims to determine knowledge and attitude towards organ donation among Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia’s (USIM) staff. A cross-sectional study using systematic random sampling was conducted. A total of 103 USIM staff responded to the self-administered and validated questionnaire. The respondents comprised of 32 (30.8 %) academic, 11 (10.6 %) administrative and 60 (57.7 %) support staff. A quarter of the respondents were Diploma holders (26 %) followed by Masters’ degree holders (22.1 %). The total scores for knowledge and attitude were 7.68 (SD 1.615) and 31.89 (SD 4.845), respectively. There was a significant correlation between total knowledge and total attitude score (p = 0.038, r = 0.204). There was no significant mean difference in the knowledge and attitude scores of male and female staff. The mean knowledge showed positive correlation with age (p = 0.042, r = 0.200). As a conclusion, the knowledge and attitude towards organ donation were good among the staff. However, aggressive educational campaigns with Islamic input highlighting the concept of daruriyyah and maqasid syariah are needed to promote and create awareness regarding organ donation in Malaysia.

Sejarah mencatatkan, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) dikenal pasti sekitar abad 17 Masihi dan dikaitkan dengan peranan cetusan syaitan sehingga perlu dirawat menggunakan pendekatan menghalau hantu exorcisme (Salzman & Thaler, 1981). Istilah OCD diambil menerusi kenyataan Westphal’s pada akhir kurun ke 19 dengan terma “zwangsvorstellung” yang bermaksud “obsession” atau “compulsion” (Kaplan & Sadock’s, 2017; 4577). Di Perancis, OCD dikenali sebagai folie du doubte atau “doubting disease” (Martin & Castello, 2008: 40). Hakikatnya OCD suatu ketika dahulu dianggap penyakit psikiatri yang jarang berlaku. Namun, kajian oleh Hollander (1997) mendapati, OCD sudah menjadi penyakit psikiatri yang paling lumrah berbanding penyakit psikiatri lain melibatkan 1-2% populasi dunia. OCD dikelaskan kepada beberapa tema seperti contaminantion fears, checking, rumination, symmentary and ordering (Victoria et al., 2017), sexual aggressive, religion, repeating ritual dan hoarding (Danielle Einstein & Menzies .G, 2003).

This chapter is written by Supiah Salleh, Mustafa Mohd Hanefah, Zurina Shafii and Muhammad Iqmal Hisham Kamaruddin from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM). It explains the perceptions of the internal auditors (Shariah auditors), regulators (BNM), Shariah committee, Shariah officers, external auditors and depositors concerning the Shariah audit practices in the Islamic banks in Malaysia. Besides that, this study is also conducted in the aim to determine the existence of expectations performance gap between internal auditors (Shariah auditors), regulators (BNM), Shariah committee, Shariah officers external auditors and depositors concerning the Shariah audit practices in the Islamic banks in Malaysia.

Waqf is one of Islamic economic instruments to promote the distribution of public wealth. This perpetual voluntary charity concept is that the underlying asset should remain and the people can benefit from the asset perpetually. It promises a continuous reward in the eternal life for as long as the underlying asset endures to be useful. As in the past, the waqf sector has the potential to become part of a strong civil society which promotes socioeconomic welfare and reduces inequality. However, in some Muslim countries, waqf properties have been neglected. Therefore, it is not surprising if some of the waqf assets are not recorded properly and some have even gone missing. ln fact, waqf assets are contributory in providing social and economic welfare as well as promoting religious charity. Since the waqf assets should be in existence in perpetuity, the assets must be managed and administered by appropriate parties responsible to supervise waqf property benefits so that the benefits can be distributed to the recipients. In Islam someone who is appointed to manage awaqf property as a trustee is known as a mutawalli. The major tasks of a trustee are to preserve and develop the properties that are donated, and collect waqf income and distribute the income. Mutawalli should also preserve the properties from any loss and damage. This chapter focuses on waqf management by an Islamic nonprofit organization, namely Islamic Aid Malaysia (IAM). Previous, studies mostly focus on waqf institutions managed by State Islamic Religious Councils (SIRC) and corporations. One of the aspects least focused in waqf literature is on independent management of waqf by a non-profit organization. The revival of waqf institution creates the needs for developing a good management of wagf assets, which could improve transparency and accountability of the institution. The purpose of waqf is to provide continuous charity that could generate perpetual income flow for the needy. If good management is in place, the accountability can be proven to various stakeholders such as waqif (giver) and beneficiaries.

This chapter proposes the best reporting practices for waqf institutions, concerning information disclosure on performance, governance, and socio-economic impact using the waqf integrated reporting (WAQIR) model. The WAQIR model is viewed as a comprehensive reporting tool for waqf institutions. This study reviewed previous literature and reporting guidelines for waqf and similar organisations, such as not-for-profit and faith-based organisations, to identify the appropriate measurements for disclosure, limited not only to the input and output of the waqf project, but also its governance and socio-economic impact. Based on the review, the WAQIR model is explicated with four pillars of disclosure: (i) waqf financial and non-financial; (ii) waqf governance; (iii) waqf performance; and (iv) waqf socio-economic impact. The proposed WAQIR model would be useful for waqf institutions in implementing best waqf reporting practices. This could help them to enhance their accountability and to promote transparency, enabling the sustainability of the entire waqf management practices.

The value of a currency swings between low and high in an acceptable or extreme range. This change has effect on debts and loans. This research aims to explain the effect of low and high values of currency on the settlement of debts and loans with the application on the Syrian currency as the case. The research relies on the inductive, analytical and practical approaches. The researcher concluded some findings; one of the important findings is that the standard currency is influenced by the low and high value in extreme cases. In this case, debts and loans are settled by their values of gold or any other common currency. On the practical aspect, the Syrian currency sharply declined and the exchange rate on 1/7/2011 was 50 Syrian Lira to one dollar and today on 24/11/2012 it is 82.5 Syrian Lira to one dollar which is an extreme change that must be settled by the value of gold or any famous currency such as the dollar or others.