A premarital course is a two-day course which is made compulsory to Muslims in Malaysia. This study attempts to examine significant weaknesses in the governance of such pre-marital course. Qualitative method is used in which the legal and administrative aspects are studied and analysed to investigate the loopholes of the existing system. This research also employed a semi structured interviews conducted on several respondents from the related institutions. Findings of this research show some significant weaknesses in the present governance of premarital course and propose important recommendations for the betterment of Muslim families in Malaysia. The findings provide on how the legal and administrative mechanism relating to premarital course can be improved and subsequently aid the relevant authorities or institutions involved in policy making pertaining to family matters and its implementation.

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Background The practice of wet nursing or breastfeeding another woman’s child in Malaysia, especially among Muslim mothers, is on the rise. This is due to the emergence of public awareness of the benefits of breast milk to children. However, it is claimed that some mothers do not have a clear understanding of the Islamic rulings concerning wet nursing, especially those related to mahram (prohibition to marry), nasab (lineage) and inheritance. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine the level of understanding of the legal implications of wet nursing and the factors influencing the practice among Muslim mothers who have practiced breastfeeding. Methods This was a cross-sectional descriptive study that was conducted between January and July 2019. This study was conducted with 100 Muslim mothers who had breastfed others’ child(ren) in Selangor. Data were obtained using a validated questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.8) and processed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results The results show that the majority of the respondents understand the basic Islamic rulings on wet nursing, especially on the persons prohibited to marry, conditions and feeding method. However, the respondents need to further understand the rulings related to nasab (lineage), guardianship and inheritance involving the milk child. Various factors that have influenced wet nursing in society were also found. Conclusions This study has significant implications for the need to have more activities to create awareness and enhance the understanding related to wet nursing among Muslim women in society. Therefore, more research studies related to wet nursing and the impact of the practice should be conducted to offer better solutions to society.

Muslim families traditionally maintain the conservative role of mothers being at home to manage family matters including bringing up children and juggling up with house-chores. Nevertheless, it is now becoming phenomenon in Malaysia where wives work to assist their husbands financially. The main aim is to ease the financial burden of the family as the present cost of living is increasing and financially demanding. This phenomenon however, may affect the family well-being as the time spent by the wives at home is limited hence disturbing the normal routine of managing the household chores, educating the children and taking care of them. The children might be somewhat neglected while the household chores might be out of control. In fact, there were also cases where financially independent working wives resulted in the husband being negligent in spending for the family needs, causing the wives to take care of almost all of the expenses of the household. This has led to many cases of marital problem. Hence, this study aims to examine the well-being of families where the wives are mostly working. There are several dimensions of maintaining family well-being such as the income and spending aspects of working spouses, time spent with family, conflicts encountered, health of family members and balance of savings at month end. This study only focused on the income and spending aspects of working spouses. The study adopts quantitative method through survey. Finding of the study implied that sharing of income by the wives would contribute to the sustainability and happiness of a marriage. This study is expected to add to the new frontier of knowledge in understanding the importance of income sharing between working husband and wife including the challenges they might encounter.

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