Awareness And Understanding Of Takaful Al-Ijtimai’: A Descriptive Study

Malaysia has set a goal of becoming a developed economy with high income through sustainable and equitable economic growth by 2030 under Shared Prosperity Vision 2030. To accomplish this vision, vast implementation of takaful al-ijtimai’ (social security) is needed as each individual in the society is entitled to basic needs for them to improve standard of living. The implementation of takaful al ijtimai' in Islamic perspective is much wider which considers the roles and responsibilities of all (i.e., government, institutions, agencies, NGOs and individuals) towards achieving sustainable development. However, one factor that hinders further practices of takaful al-ijtimai’ is the lack of awareness and knowledge of its concept and purposes. Therefore, this paper designed to investigate the awareness and understanding of takaful al-ijtimai’ among Malaysian within the takaful market by collecting primary data through questionnaires. This paper reports results of 267 respondents in Klang Valley and Nilai, Negeri Sembilan. The findings indicate that 71.9 percent of respondents were unaware of takaful al-ijtimai’ due to the Arabic term. Surprisingly, despite their lack of knowledge and understanding of takaful al-ijtimai’, majority of respondents agree that takaful operators can be trusted in dealing with people. The paper will be useful to researchers, professionals and others concerned with sustainable and inclusive economic growth to understand the importance of takaful al-ijtimai’. Such studies on takaful al-ijtimai’ has not been done before. Other than revealing ambiguities, gaps and contradictions in the literature, this paper provides information and guidance for other researchers wishing to embark on research on takaful al-ijtimai’.
Keywords: Takaful al-ijtimai’, social security, awareness, knowledge.