Mental health illness becomes one of the major illnesses in Malaysia aside from heart disease. It was recently reported that 29.2% of Malaysians are suffering from mental health illness which increases threefold from the previous year. Majority of the Malaysians suffering from mental health illness comes from the lowest income group. This shows that the lowest income group has less opportunity to seek treatment due to the cost. Even though other countries have started to offer mental health insurance such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia and recently Singapore, Malaysia is still way behind in offering coverage for mental health illness. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to study the mental health takaful from the perspective of Maqasid shariah. The results from this study show that mental health takaful is able to meet the requirement of Maqasid shariah and preserve the benefits of, and prevent harm to human wellbeing. Furthermore, this study will provide an insight to the takaful industry for developing new products that could help mental health disorder patients.

شهدت البنوك الإسلامية والتقليدية السعودية خلال الفترة من 2009م إلى 2018م العديد من التغيرات السياسية والاقتصادية في العالم والخليج العربي بشكل عام وفي المملكة العربية السعودية بشكل خاص. تؤثر هذه التغييرات على أداء القطاع المصرفي إيجابًا أو سلبًا مع إمكانية تهديد استمراريتها. نظراً لاختلاف طبيعة البنوك الإسلامية والتقليدية وأسس أعمال كل منهما، تبحث هذه الدراسة في أداء البنوك الإسلامية والتقليدية في هذه الفترة في المملكة العربية السعودية. تتضمن عينة الدراسة جميع البنوك الوطنية السعودية الاثني عشر (8 بنوك تقليدية و 4 بنوك إسلامية). تعتمد الدراسة على مؤشر السيولة ومؤشرات الربحية ومؤشرات النشاط وتوظيف الأموال. تم قياس الفروق بين متوسطات مؤشرات النسب المالية لمجموعتي البنوك التقليدية والبنوك الإسلامية من خلال التحليل الإحصائي الوصفي للمتوسط الحسابي والانحراف المعياري، والتحليل الاستدلالي (t-test) باستخدام برنامج التحليل الإحصائي (SPSS). ﺗﻮﺻﻠﺖ اﻟﺪراﺳﺔ إلى جملة ﻣﻦ اﻟﻨﺘﺎﺋﺞ أهمها: أن البنوك الإسلامية تتمتع ﺑﺴﻴﻮﻟﺔ ﻋﺎﻟﻴﺔ مقارنة بالبنوك التقليدية. أظهرت مؤشرات الربحية عدم وجود فروق بين البنوك التقليدية والبنوك الإسلامية في استخدام مواردها الذاتية لتحقيق أرباح في متوسط ​​فترة الدراسة. ﰲ حين أﻇﻬﺮت ﻣﺆﺷﺮات اﻟﻨﺸﺎط ان اﻟﺒﻨﻮك اﻟﺘﻘﻠﻴﺪﻳﺔ أفضل أداء من حيث توظيف مواردها ﻣﻦ اﻟﺒﻨﻮك اﻹﺳﻼﻣﻴﺔ، بينما كلا النوعين من البنوك متقاربان في نسبة توظيف الودائع. كذلك أوضح ﻣﺆﺷﺮ اﻷﻣﺎن أن البنوك التقليدية والبنوك الإسلامية تتمتعان بملاءة ﻣﺎﻟﻴﺔ ﻣﻘﺒﻮﻟﺔ. واختتمت الدراسة بمجموعة من التوصيات منها: أنه يجب الحذر من أن تصل السيولة في البنوك الإسلامية إلى درجة فائض سيولة، والعمل على زيادة التعاون والتنسيق والتكامل بين البنوك الإسلامية على المستوى المحلي والدولي وتطوير سوق مالي إسلامي وابتكار أدوات مالية إسلامية. كذا الدعوة الى الاندماج بين البنوك الإسلامية لتكوين حجم مثالي لبنك إسلامي يكون نموذجاً يحتذى.   The 2009-2018 period witnessed many political and economic changes in the world and the Arab Gulf in general, and in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in particular. These changes may affect the performance of the banking sector and threaten the growth and continuity of banks. This study examines the performance of Islamic and conventional banks in this period in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study sample includes all the twelve Saudi national banks (8 conventional banks and 4 Islamic banks). The study relies on the indicators of liquidity, profitability, activity, and financial solvency. The differences between the means of the financial ratios of conventional banks and Islamic banks will be measured using descriptive and inferential analysis. Data analysis will be carried out using the Statistical Analysis Program (SPSS). The findings have shown that Islamic banks have high liquidity compared to conventional banks. Profitability indicators showed that there are no differences between conventional banks and Islamic banks on the use of their own resources to achieve profits in the average of study period. In addition, the activity indicators showed that the conventional banks employ their resources better than Islamic banks, while both types of banks are approximately similar in investment-deposit ratio. Moreover, both conventional banks and Islamic banks has an acceptable solvency. The study is concluded with a set of recommendations including that Islamic bank must beware that the liquidity does not reach the level of excess liquidity. Islamic banks must work towards increasing cooperation, coordination, and integration between banks at the local and international levels, as well as develop an Islamic financial market and innovate Islamic financial tools. In addition, it is recommended for Islamic banks to amalgamate to form an ideal size of an Islamic bank to be a role model.

The funeral expense is becoming expensive. It will lead to funeral poverty whereby the next of kin of the deceased face difficulty paying funeral expenses. Increasing numbers of people seek financial management advice following bereavement, which can have a long-term effect on the grief experience and an individual's ability to manage. More should be done to encourage people on low incomes to prepare for death through simple advice and guidance. In Malaysia, a funeral social fund such as the Khairat death fund, in general, is financial assistance that is a grant to the family of the deceased for covering the cost and expenses of funeral processes. Khairat death fund was managed by community members or organizations in the areas. However, all this Khairat death organization moving with their own way as there is no legal jurisprudence as guidance to regulate and to be more systematic and synchronize management. Hence, this study will review regulation and governance for the funeral social fund in Malaysia.

The alarming increase in type 2 diabetes have not only impacted the public with mental and physical distress but have also increased anxiety and burden on financial aspects in relation to preventing and treating the disease. This has mostly been a result of increasing health care costs and unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity on a consistent basis; therefore, causing people to be unaware of their health status which may have already developed into the early onset of such disease. This study aims to evaluate the degree of the Malaysian public's risk in developing diabetes type 2; and further investigate the relationship of socio-demographic factors in explaining the variation in risk categories. The study employs both descriptive as well as inferential statistics such as the multinomial logistic regression in achieving the objectives. Findings from the sample of 860 Malaysians in the study reveal that almost half of the respondents are in the intermediate risk category of developing diabetes type 2; while results from the regression portray that, factors such as marital status, household income, and education levels play significant roles in the willingness to pay for takaful policy related to diabetes. Finally, the study also provides an evaluation of the degree of risk among three scenarios to show their degree of risk in terms of probabilities.

Social finance is not new, but most low-income earners are not keen to utilize social finance products due to its association with riba (usury). Islamic social finance on the other hand offers the alternative to generate economy and create wealth, with its Shariah-compliant underlying principles. This new mechanism offers the alternative for people under the paradigm of Islamic economic system. This instrument covers the deficiency of Islamic finance, in both ijtimai’e and tijari sectors. Thus, it is crucial to the stages involved in the creation of Shariah-compliant products that can meet the objectives of ijtimai’e and tijari sectors. The main objective of this paper is to review the concept and paradigm of Islamic economic system and the position of Islamic social finance. It also reviews the product development and innovation of this mechanism. The methodology used for this is qualitative in nature, namely content analysis of the secondary sources of similar themes. It was found that there is very limited discussion on product development in Islamic social finance.