The study reports a research which was conducted on 640 respondents of Malaysian society to know their perception on the relation between science and religion. The study was conducted throughout the country of Malaysia involving male and female respondents from the age of 20 to 50 years from various ethnics and religious backgrounds. The study was conducted by using the questionnaire method in which the respondents were asked to respond to given statements on the relation between science and religion and the importance of religion and science for human being. The booklets of questionnaire were collected to be analysed using the SPSS to obtain the mean response according to the ethnic, religious and academic background. T-test were also conducted if the means responses were significantly different. The findings of the study show that generally the respondents accept that science leads people closer to god. The mean response between the different ethnic group’s means was also significant. Moreover, the finding also shows that the respondent accept the importance of religion and science for the well being of the people

This study aims to seek the impact of zakat accounting standards (PSAK Shariah No.109) adoption on the financial performance of zakat institutions. This study employed the Difference in Difference (DiD) test and Panel data regression using the data from 5 national scale zakat institutions in Indonesia from 2006 to 2019. This study found a difference in zakat institution performance between the pre and post-adoption of PSAK Shariah No.109, both in the DiD test and Panel data regression model.

Baitul-Mal is normally known as one of financial institution in Islam. This point is true because presently Baitul-Mal‟s role is more prominent in terms of providing assistance and contributions to reduce the poverty in the Muslim country. The rapid global economic changes towards 2020 clearly impact to the Baitul Mal as a Socio-economics institution, politically and economically. This paper tries to explore and examine some basic issues and challenges in the development of Baitul Mal facing economic transformation 2020 in the Indonesian context.

Education is un-separated part of the human society as old as life itself. Human societies time bytime have had vested interests in education. The societies always agree to acknowledge theimportance of education, even a large number of them fail to provide sufficient resources thatcan be used as support to educational institutions and activities. Waqf as an institution andIslamic finance instrument has a direct and un-direct effect to upgrade the capabilities of theneedy and enhance their quality of life by providing access to education facilities. Hence, theWaqf institution surely can accommodate the issue of financing for government’s educationexpenditure in its effective and comprehensive approach. Thus, the main objective of this paperis to propose the model of Waqf financing for reducing government’s education expenditure byusing cost benefit analysis. The methodology of this research is a qualitative research towardsliterature related to Waqf. The general finding of this paper shows that there is should a strongwillingness from government to devote and make Waqf institution as one of financing capitalfor education expenditure.

The paper reports and discusses a study which was conducted on 490 Muslim respondents from the young generation between the ages 18 to 40 years. The study aimed to identify the popularity of the Islamic banking system among the students of the National University of Malaysia, and the role of Islamic education in promoting the Islamic banking system to the respondents. The findings of the study could be used to popularise further the Islamic banking system in the country. The respondents were selected randomly from The National University of Malaysia. Each respondent was given a booklet of questionnaires containing statements with given choices of yes or no answers as well as the open ended questions. The responses were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), to obtain the percentages of the responses. The findings of the study indicated that the Islamic banking system was very popular among the younger generation. About 63% of respondents kept their savings in the Islamic banking system. The findings also shown that the respondents who are most inclined towards the system were those who had been educated in the Islamic education system. 85.0% of the students of the Islamic Studies Faculty saved their money in the Islamic banking system, followed by the respondents from the Faculty of Education (73%) and also the Faculty of Law (72.3%). The controlled groups i.e. the respondents from the other faculties, where the Islamic education was not thought, the percentages of the respondents who saved in the Islamic banking system were much lower.

The first Islamic Market which was founded by the Prophet (Peace be Upon Him) and his companions after establishing Nabawi Mosque is Anshar Market (Suuq al-Anshar) in Medina, where at the time the construction of mosque by the Caliphs also followed by establishing the market. This model shows us the emergence of market in building of economy among the Moslem Community, the market was established on Islamic value where the people from every country can visit and join in economic transaction without any hindrance, tax, rent, and other expenses so that the Islamic market has more ability to compete fairly than other markets. The Islamic market mechanism was free from any intervene in determining of price, even the government only take the role of supervisor to ensure the enactment of disturbance on the market such as overview, fraud, and other market distortions. The structure of the Islamic market is perfectly competitive market where prices are determined by forces of supply and demand. This system was brought the Moslem community as the advance society with prosperity and peace as we called in recent time by civil society. But, this system was not famous among the economic system in today, and it is will become solution for developing Islamic market in order Islamic community and civil society.

The community based Local knowledge, basically is an adaptation strategies that arise from within the community itself in fixing socially problem related to the life of society itself. Since local knowledge is the result of interaction between the community and the environment, it is needed to help the community living independently. Hence the local knowledge is the core of efforts to reduce poverty that exists and grows in the community and as the big part of from the process of poverty alleviation programs. The complexity of poverty not only can be overcome by purely economic approach, but it is associated with the dynamics of social, political and cultural that inherent in a community. The multidimensional problems requires synergy between government policy, community and local knowledge itself. This paper attempts to describes the frameworks of Indonesian policy to link the three sectors to empower the poor exit from poverty problem

This study investigates the determinants of Net Profit Margin (NPM) in Malaysia’s Islamic banking system for the period of 2011-2015 by using static panel data analysis. In Malaysia, conventional banks through its Islamic subsidiary banks are dominating the Islamic banking system in terms of total assets, total loans and total deposits. Therefore this paper attempts to investigate the impact of these Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks towards the NPM. In relation to that, the impact of the conventional parent banks’ Net Interest Margin (NIM) towards its Islamic subsidiary banks’ NPM is also investigated. For the first objective, the displayed results shows positive relationship indicating that the Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks’ NPM is higher than the full-fledge Islamic banks’ NPM. While the empirical results on the banks’ specific variables suggest that size, risk aversion and operating cost are positively related to NPM. However, credit risk tends to reduce NPM. Besides that, this study also finds that market concentrations and GDP growth will influence NPM in negative ways whilst inflation and Islamic stock market developments will increase NPM. Liquidity however is found insignificant to NPM. As for the second objective, the Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks’ NPM is observed as being independent from its conventional parent banks’ NIM.

This study reports the findings of a research involving 400 respondents from all over the country to investigate the effect of industrialisation, modernisation and urbanisation to social cohesion of the Muslim society in Malaysia. The respondents were drawn from all segments of the society, male and female from the age of 16 to 60 years old. Every respondent was given a booklet of questionnaire with statements to be responded. Each statement was provided with five choices of responses ranging from 1. Strongly agree, 2. Agree, 3. Not sure, 4. Disagree, and 5. Strongly disagree. The questions were related to social issues including the issues of social cohesion such as the relations with the neighbours. The relationship with neighbour is an indicator of the social cohesion. The respondent was given 30 minutes to respond to the questionnaire, and the booklets were collected to be analysed using the SPSS. The findings show that social cohesion within the contemporary society changes with urbanisation since the finding show that social cohesion stronger in villages where modernisation and urbanisation effect is not strong compared to those who live in towns and big cities. The finding has also shown that there was a significant difference between the rural social cohesion and the urban social cohesion.

Social justice in the Islamic economy is based on spiritual commitment and the concept of universal brotherhood among human beings which requires that all resources be sacred trust God, used to realize Maqashid Shari’ah, it is the fulfillment of human life. This paper describes the theory of social justice that focus on Islamic financial. The foundation of Islamic justice can be seen from al-Qur’an Surah al-Hadid: 25 affirming that justice has been emphasized by the Qur’an as the primary mission of the Prophets sent by God Almighty, including economic justice and the elimination of the income gap. Social justice in Islam is the implication of the fundamental principle underlying all the teachings of Islam, namely monotheism. At the level of practice, Islam prohibits usury, Islam seeks to build a society based on honesty and fairness. Justice in this context has two dimensions, namely the financiers are entitled to a reward, but should be commensurate with the risk and effort required, and the reward is determined by the profit. Implementation of Islamic justice theory in Islamic finance can be seen from mudharabah and Musharaka or commonly known as a profit and loss sharing.

Policy environment particularly local content legislatures in most emerging economies where oil and gas are produced have become major development agenda of host countries and stakeholders alike. Apparently, efforts are made to enact local content legislature as a means of optimizing oil and gas benefits. Per contra, mixed results had been ascertained with regards to outcome of these policies. This study was conducted to determine how dimensions of policy environment impact on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) investment in the Ghanaian oil and gas sector. This study relied on primary data and structured questionnaire to elicit data from 497 Ghanaian SMEs across different industries. Using explanatory research design and binominal regression model we found that Skills and expertise development policy, local workforce education policy, employment policy and macro-economic environment policy significantly increase the odd of SMEs investment in the Ghanaian oil and gas sector. However, technology transfer, research and development policies exert insignificant influence on SMEs investment decisions. This study has implications on oil and gas policy reforms, investment decisions and future research. Particularly we recommend replication of this study within other emerging economies.

This study aims to evaluate the characteristics of zakat institution and proposes the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) since it has developed and provides various product i.e zakat for productive purpose. This is important, considering that one of the measurement of accountability and transparency of an institution is providing brief financial report towards its beneficaries. Thereby, this study found that practically zakat institution is simillar to the SMEs, and there are 11 strandard of IFRS for SMEs that could be applicable to zakat institutionto achieve accountability and transparency. However, this study is preliminary study that proposes a conceptual frameworkwhich limited to the sharia compliance of IFRS that could be applicable to zakat Institution.

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of financial distress, rewards and company performance using return on assets (ROA), managerial ownership, ownership concentration, directors’ composition and leverage on directors’ remuneration with company size, leverage and company age as control variables. The study population comprised manufacturing companies in the food and beverage sector listed on the ASEAN state stock exchange. The study used a purposive sampling method. The sample number consisted of 68 manufacturing companies. The data used are secondary data obtained from ASEAN state stock exchanges. Data analysis used multiple linear regression. The results indicate that ROA, managerial ownership, ownership concentration, firm size and leverage have a significant effect on directors’ remuneration, while financial distress, reward, company age and state have no significant effect on directors’ remuneration. The implications of study mean that boards of directors can conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the directors’ remuneration system by establishing a team that has the authority to provide input and formulation of a remuneration system that meets the principle of fairness.

In general, this paper will explore features and patterns of Islamism in Indonesia after the downfall of Suharto’s regime in which people called it as reformation era. In Indonesian context, the Islamism at least have four characteristics; (i) promoting Islam as a sole basis in transforming society, (ii) acknowledging Islam as an ideology, (iii) among at the establishment of Islamic state, (iv) which is characterised by implementing Shari`ah laws in daily lives. These four attributes may be used in capturing the growth of Muslim’s perception on state and democracy in the era of Islamic revival. The above views spread in the various streams or any schools existed in Indonesia, both Islamic movements and other form that is very influential in the process of democracy in Indonesia.

This paper aims at calculating and analyzing the Index of Syariah Financial Inclusion (ISFI) during the period of 2015-2018 and its correlation with poverty level in Indonesia. Using the secondary data of 33 provinces in Indonesia from Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), Bank Indonesia and Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) and Index of Financial Inclusion (IFI) method, this paper found that the Index of Syariah Financial Inclusion is generally low and DKI Jakarta is the most financially inclusive province of Indonesia. Furthermore, the results show that the Index of Syariah Financial Inclusion is negatively correlated with the poverty level. This conclusion suggests the promotion of Syariah Financial Inclusion to be a policy priority in Indonesia to achieve the central goals of inclusive growth, welfare and economic development.

The study aims to examine the financing profitability optimization as recorded by Sharia Business Unit of Regional Development Banks (RDBs) in Indonesia. The profitability measured by Net Operating Margin (NOM) and predicted variables were tested with the ratio of Operational Cost to Operational Income (BOPO), Non-Performing Financing (NPF) and Profit Sharing Financing (PSF). On the basis of the literature review conducted, the study proposed five path coefficients to impact NOM, of which the constructed direct path to NOM was three and two for indirect paths. Time series data used were obtained from annual reports and publication reports. Using Pearson Correlation and Path Analysis, the study has found that BOPO, PSF, and NPF contributed to impact to NOM directly, and PSF impacted NOM indirectly through BOPO. Interestingly, PSF recorded a negative impact on NOM, suggesting inefficiency matters faced by SBU of RDBs not contributed from PSF. Another interesting finding, NPF was found insignificant to BOPO, indicating loan default is not a major matter for inefficiency issue, but could be a tight financing policy

This study investigated dimensions of SME’s constraints and decisions to Invest in the Ghanaian Oil and Gas Sector. Using a binominal regression model we analyzed primary data from 497 local SMEs. The study found that SMEs with inadequate capital, had high level of competition, had high corruption perception, lacked policy awareness, lacked adequate external credit facilities, had inadequate information, lacked managerial capabilities, lacked technological capabilities were less likely to invest in the Ghanaian oil and gas sector. Per contra, inadequate human resources capabilities, inadequate entrepreneur characteristics exerted no significant influence on SMEs decisions to invest in the Ghanaian oil and gas sector. This study has implications on oil and gas policies, investment decisions and future research. Particularly Ghanaian government is required to expedite and enforced the Local Participation in Petroleum Activities Policy under the Petroleum Regulations. This study could be replicated within other emerging economies using different models.

This study sought to ascertain critical determinants of Islamic Banking (IB) adoption among different religious groups. The study draws on from the Theory of Planned Behaviour, Diffusion of Innovation, Theory of Reasoned Action and Technology Acceptance Model on IB adoption. The study employed a quantitative research paradigm to study 600 individual financial service users in Ghana. Structured questionnaire from previous studies was adopted, modified and used to conveniently elicit data from the participants. Smart Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was deployed to analyse the empirical data. The results show that perceived knowledge, perceived benefit, perceived innovativeness, perceived religious promotion, customer’s attitude and readiness to comply with sharia were significant determinants of IB adoption for the Muslims, Christians and Africa Traditional Religion (ATR) sub-groups. However, perceived threat of violence was a significant negative determinant of IB adoption for the Christians and ATR sub-groups but insignificant for the Muslims sub-group. More so, perceived religious promotion was a negative factor for ATR sub-groups intention to adopt IB. The result pinpoints the need for formalization and demystification of IB to attract different religious groups. However, theseresults should be taken as preliminary since counterfactual analysis (CFA) across entire Ghana is required to validate IB implementation and adoption. Although these results support most previous studies further empirical research is proposed to replete this study across other Non-Islamic States in the SubSahara Regions

Islamic Waqif has an important role as one of the instruments in the economic empowerment of the people. In history, awqf played an important role in the development of social, economic and cultural life of the people. Both laws and regulations in the form of Law No. 41 of 2004 and Government Regulation No.42 of 2006 regulating the interests of worship, education, social and more important are the interests of the people's economic welfare. This study has a general purpose to formulate productive awqf management strategies in Indonesia, with specific objectives as follows: a.Identify constraints in developing productive awqf in Indonesia; b. Formulate productive awqf management strategies in Indonesia as literacy efforts in the field of da'wah in the community. Research examines the factors that influence the productive awqf management in Indonesia, through interviews of experts and regulators. Then analyze the policy. With the ANP and SWOT methods, that found the Strengths factors are Regulations / Laws and the largest Muslim population in the world. While Weaknesses are a lack of socialization and traditional mindset about awqf. Elements in the SWOT method, which is an opportunity to develop awqf (Opportunity) is the collection of endowments as the main element of worship and Professionalism in managing waqif funds. And the Threats in waqif management are materialistic lifestyle (hedonism) and non-Islamic education patterns. It is expected that the results of this study can provide input to the Regulators (Government and Legislature), Academics, Wakif and the Community beneficiaries of the awqf itself

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine the inter-generational transfer by not only looking at the monetary transfer as discussed by many economists and sociologists but also by advancing the conceptual discussion and illustrating it with some examples of empirical comparison. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides recent theoretical and empirical work on inter-generational transfer from the viewpoint of different systems and compares it to the Islamic view of inheritance. Findings – One finding of this paper is that the Islamic inheritance system is a socially and economically more comprehensive and broad framework than inter-generational transfers from another system. Originality/value – This paper is considered as an original approach to the framework of the Quranic basic source and Islamic literature regarding inter-generational transfer compared to another system.