Islamic hire-purchase (Al-Ijūrah Thumma Al-Baiʿ or AITAB) is one of the innovative products of Islamic banks in Malaysia. Since its first inception more than 10 years ago, AITAB has been governed by the Hire- Purchase Act 1967 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the HPA’). Notwithstanding the surge in popularity of AITAB amongst the general public, the product has received much criticism due to its inherent limitations especially with regard to its regulatory framework. Critics of AITAB posit the inherent limitation of the HPA to effectively and efficiently govern AITAB transactions particularly when dealing with Sharîʿah issues. Consequently, Muʿāmalah Hire-Purchase Bill had been proposed to the Malaysian government to overcome certain limitations of the HPA. The issue was, whether AITAB would be best governed by having an independent regulation (known as Muʿāmalah Bill), or by simply incorporating Sharīʿah principles within the existing regulation (HPA). Unfortunately in recent years, the Attorney General has rejected the idea of an independent Muʿāmalah Bill due to certain factors. To better comprehend the rationale for this rejection, this paper discusses the overall regulatory framework of AITAB operations in Malaysia based on 46 expert interviews. In particular, the paper provides important insights into the advantages and disadvantages of implementing either a distinct Muʿāmalah Bill or harmonising the existing HPA with Sharīʿah principles of hire-purchase.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has caused a major transformation in the education system around the world. Due to the closure of schools and other learning institutions, the teaching and learning that were once face to face are now conducted online. Sudden change of education landscape has put educators and students in harrowing time. This paper reviews literature to find out the challenges faced by educators when teaching online. The results reveal that all educators around the world are facing intrinsic challenges, such as little or no knowledge, skills and experience in the implementation of online teaching, as well as extrinsic challenges such as students having no Internet access and coverage and own no proper gadgets. It is found out that the biggest challenge faced by most local educators as compared to their counterparts in some parts of the world is their lower level of readiness in facing the transition from teaching traditionally to online.

The emergence of Arabic language and Islamic religion in the Malay Archipelago which comprises the present day Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, part of the Philippines as well as southern Thailand gave birth to Islamic education through the medium of Arabic language. This was inevitable because of the mutual relationship between Arabic language and Islam. To have better understanding of the Quran as the primary source of Islam is to have mastery of Arabic language. Hence the Muslim scholars in the Malay Archipelago resorted to the writing of Arabic Malay dictionaries which could help in the proper understanding of Arabic texts such as the Quran and Hadith which were primarily in Arabic language. This effort continues from generation to another until modern times which gave rise to the production of different types of Arabic Malay bilingual dictionaries. Some of these dictionaries have contributed to the general education of the Malays for their precision in translation. This study however, is an attempt to examine and analyse the contributions of selected Malay Arabic dictionaries to the Malay world in order to determine their precision in translation from Arabic to Malay language with reference to their methodologies with the aim of suggesting standards by which an ideal and all-encompassing Arabic Malay bilingual dictionary could emerge.Keywords: Analysis, Impact, Arabic-Malay, Bilingual Dictionaries, Archipelago.