Takaful also known as Islamic insurance industry has been growing rapidly across the globe. The unique organizational structures of takaful operators, their products' and participants' rights have increased the demand for transparency and put additional pressure to voluntarily disclosed more information. This study focuses on disclosure of takaful information from user's perspective. A checklist was developed to represent desirable level of disclosure based on various requirements and standards. To measure the voluntary disclosure level, the checklist was distributed to takaful agents to examine their perception of the disclosure on takaful information. The findings show that majority of the users (86.14%) agreed that all disclosure items on takaful policy requirements are meaningful. It is hoped that the findings will assist authorities in formulating guideline or policy pertaining to meaningful disclosure for the users in the future.

The concept and goals of takaful are based on the objectives of Islamic law, which are centred on the five dimensions of maqasid Shariah that are essential to the life of a Muslim. The application of takaful in the Muslim community appears to have a significant relationship with the attainment of Shariah objectives. The study intends to investigate the extent of Takaful reporting in Malaysia and its relationship to maqasid shariah. The disclosure index was created using the three perspectives of Islamic accountability (Shariah, social, and financial) as well as takaful-specific information. The checklist items consist of 124 items: 67 mandatory items and 57 voluntary items. These items are classified as financial reporting; Shariah compliance and governance; corporate governance; takaful policy requirements; Family Takaful; takaful undertaking solvency requirements; risks and enterprise risk management. Takaful operators disclosed 95% of the total mandatory disclosure on average. In terms of voluntary disclosure, takaful operators disclosed 38% of total voluntary disclosure. All mandatory items are fundamental or essential (daruriyat), and takaful operators are expected to have a high level of disclosure, whereas voluntary disclosure items such as general needs information (hajiyat) and refinement information (tahsiniyat) have a lower level of disclosure. Keywords: Takaful; Maqasid Shariah; Voluntary Disclosure; Mandatory Disclosure; Institutional Theory

Bank Negara Malaysia (2014) mentioned the importance of having meaningful disclosure to protect participants. However, it did not provide details of the elements of meaningful disclosure. There is no specific guidelines or standards of what should be reported and how detailed the items should be reported. Takaful operators have more knowledge in the operational aspect of takaful, compared to the participants. Authorities try to harmonise all the possible variations and gaps between takaful operators (preparers) and participants (users) for the benefit of the industry. Any gap between what is expected to be reported (desirable) and what is actually reported needs to be analysed in order to provide more information relevant to the users and to standardise the disclosure level. By adopting Sulaiman's (2005) framework, the study determines what users and preparers perceive as meaningful disclosure on the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) standards. The first two objectives of the study are to determine the disclosure perspectives of the two parties while the third objective is to examine if gaps exist between the two stakeholders. Questionnaire was distributed to takaful agents to examine their perception while content analysis was employed to evaluate the actual level of disclosure in takaful operators' websites. The gap analysis was conducted between the desired and actual level of disclosure and found significant differences among all the gaps. Additionally, the average level of disclosure is 44%. It is hoped that the findings will assist authorities in formulating guideline in takaful industry in Malaysia.