The Relationship of Halal Food and Ibadah among Muslim Community in Malaysia

Abstract

Community has put the exclusive requirements for Halal food by planning the rules of manufacturing practice, in particular known as Islamic Manufacturing Practice (IMP). Many Islamic scholars mentioned the importance of Halal food to Muslim behavior, including in the practice of both Fardhu Ain and Fardu Kifayah Ibadah. This paper aims to identify the relationship of Halal food and Ibadah between the Muslim community in Malaysia. Through a questionnaire survey and systematic literature review, this study designed a set of a questionnaire survey that has passed a reliability test through a pilot study on 15 respondents with a Cronbach Alpha value 0.78. The actual data collection consisted of 115 respondents from a random sample, which focuses only on Peninsular Malaysia. The study found that the Muslim community in Malaysia is ensuring the food intake with a Halal logo from an authorised body like JAKIM and Halal food has a weak positive relationship with Ibadah among the Muslim community in Malaysia. Unfortunately, some of the Muslim communities in Malaysia have difficulties in identifying the originality of authorized Halal logo. Therefore, this paper suggests the authorized bodies in Halal products to make a campaign in educating the Malaysian Muslim community.