The purpose of this study is to compare the performance of a full-fledged takaful operator versus shared or outsourced operators in Malaysia. Currently in Malaysia, there is only one full-fledged takaful company which bases its operation on the Shariah principles without conventional counterparts. In this paper, full-fledged takaful company refers to a takaful operator with no conventional parent or subsidiary. The paper uses the maqasid index approach which implements certain ratios based on the objectives of Shariah. The objectives of Shariah are threefold; first is to educate the individual, second is to establish justice and third is to maintain public interest. These objectives are well-suited to and consistent with the sustainable development goals (SGDs) within the financial institutions (FIs) to enhance a healthier economic system. The study used a maqasid index approach on six takaful operators in Malaysia to see whether there are any differences among the operators which are full-fledged takaful companies and those having shared or outsourced functions. The result showed that being a full-fledged takaful operator does not hinder financial institutions to have an acceptable Maqasid index figure by using the approach in this study. In fact, from the findings, a full-fledged takaful operator showed the highest Maqasid index compared to other types of takaful operators in Malaysia. Due to the limited data availability, the study only focuses on selected companies and variables in order to implement the use of ratios. This paper reflects the importance of the study to enhance that Islamic financial institutions should grow in achieving Malaysia’s goal to become an Islamic financial hub.This paper fulfils a gap towards the area of Islamic insurance, which is still very new compared to other topics in Islamic finance.

Higher educational centres with significant numbers of young people will become acute disease hubs during a pandemic. Owing to the sizeable population of young adults, more direct social interaction, and unrestricted boundaries, universities have the capacity to become volatile, centrifugal outbreak hubs. This research examines the university student’s knowledge, attitude, and practice towards the COVID-19 pandemic in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), Nilai. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to obtain the data and analysed utilising SPSS software with a sample size of 2061 USIM students. Descriptive statistics, Likert scale analysis, multiple linear regression, as well as Pearson correlation, were used to identify the relationship between KAP. It was discovered that most of the USIM’s students have an excellent knowledge (85%) and attitude (73.8%) towards COVID-19. However, they moderately practice the right steps to prevent themselves from virus infection. This is very likely due to unpreparedness in responding to a critical situation such as this pandemic. In other words, it can be said that although students have a pretty good knowledge on the matter, still, attitude and practice have much room for improvement. The study finds significant relationship between practice and both knowledge and attitude.

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The emergence of COVID-19 has affected people worldwide from all angles, from the aspects of health, wealth, emotional and also human interactions. This study aimed to look at the attributes such as positive behaviour, awareness, preparedness and relationships among Malaysians during the implementation of movement control order (MCO), and the predictors of preparedness in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted online involving 317 respondents above the age of 18 years old. A self-administered questionnaire was developed in both Malay and English languages to assess the level of positive behaviour, awareness, preparedness and relationships, as well as their main source of information retrieval regarding COVID-19. Overall, the measured attributes in this study showed the highest level in behaviour (84.2%), followed by awareness (73.5%), preparedness (62.5%) and relationships (60.6%). Multiple regression on preparedness revealed that all variables (behaviour, awareness, and relationships) are significant (p<0.05), while gender is not. The top two sources of information the respondents refer to during the MCO are social and broadcast media. This marks the influence of social and broadcast media in an Industrial Revolution 4.0 era. Despite having good awareness and positive behaviour, the MCO may also have caused relationship issues as well as lower preparation levels in facing a deadly pandemic. It is suggested that future research to look into whether this would have any association with the mental health of Malaysians facing the pandemic. By understanding the attributes related to the MCO during the COVID-19 pandemic, it would help the government in the implementation of policies and procedures in any future pandemic.

The study aims to look at macroeconomic variables’ impact on volatility of exchange rate in both short and long run. The relationship between real effective exchange rate volatility and macroeconomic variables such as gross domestic product deflator, total export in percentage of GDP, inflation rate, coefficient of inflation rate and lending interest rate have been analyzed with the help of statistical tool. This research is based on secondary data obtained from World Bank website, International Monetary Fund website and Statistical Department of Malaysia. The study uses a sample of 35 observations, starting from 1980 to 2014 annually. Unit root test is used to determine the stationarity of the variables. The existence of the stationary data will lead to a long run relationship of macroeconomic determinants, while the techniques of co-integration model are used to determine the long run relationship of some macroeconomic variables on the volatility of exchange rate. The error correction model is used to generate a short run model on this study by generating residual or error correction term. The findings revealed that the coefficient of the gross domestic product deflator, total export in percentage of GDP, and inflation rate are significant toward the volatility of real effective exchange rate in the long run. On the other hand, only the coefficient of inflation rate, and lending interest rate have significant relationship with the real effective exchange rate volatility in the short run.