Bitcoin spearheaded the rise of cryptocurrencies since it was first launched in 2009. The concept of bitcoin as digital currency was first published publicly in the 2008 well-known whitepaper by pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. The whitepaper outlined a self-serving peer-to-peer transaction network concept based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party such as financial institutions. Since then, thousands of cryptocurrencies have been launched mostly through token offerings as an alternative approach of raising funds for blockchain, technology projects, and start-ups. People are holding cryptocurrencies mostly as digital asset investments. Some individuals made huge profits from buying cryptocurrencies at their initial offerings and sold later when the prices increased. Some crypto millionaires were born from such trades. However, many people lost their investment as well due to many factors. Some were due to bad investment decisions, and some fall into scams and investment programs run by dishonest people with promises of highly lucrative returns. As trading and owning cryptocurrencies are becoming common, governments and policymakers around the world are coming up with proper and comprehensive regulations for cryptocurrencies. In the context of Malaysia, in which zakat collections and distributions are of state matters, this paper discusses the implementation of zakat payment platform for cryptocurrencies at zakat institutions. This paper seeks to contribute to the academic development, blockchain technology, and zakat management.

Laman sosial Facebook merupakan sebahagian rangkaian media sosial yang mempunyai peranan besar dan semakin mendapat sambutan yang sangat menggalakkan dari kalangan rakyat Malaysia. Dari kalangan pengguna Facebook, terdapat istilah khusus bagi pengguna yang dilihat mempunyai pengaruh yang ramai, iaitu Social Influencer (pengguna media sosial berpengaruh). Isitilah ini merujuk kepada seseorang yang mampu menggunakan media sosial untuk menjana perbincangan atau mempengaruhi pengikut-pengikut mereka. Biasanya mereka adalah orang yang berbakat, berpengetahuan, dan mempunyai pengalaman yang memberi inspirasi kepada orang-orang di sekeliling mereka sama ada keluarga, rakan-rakan atau dari kalangan pengikut (follower) mereka. Dari kalangan mereka pula, ada yang sangat terkehadapan dari sudut kebajikan sosial dengan menghulurkan bantuan dan sumbangan, sehingga memberi inspirasi kepada ramai orang. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji strategi komunikasi efektif para pengguna media sosial Facebook yang berpengaruh ini bagi membudayakan sikap kedermawanan (filantropi) di Malaysia. Kajian ini menggunakan kaedah kajian kualitatif iaitu kaedah dokumentasi dan observasi, iaitu melakukan pengamatan langsung terhadap media sosial terpilih, iaitu Facebook. Hasil dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa penggunaan media sosial, khususnya Facebook dengan strategi komunikasi yang berkesan, sangat berperanan dalam membentuk budaya kedermawanan dalam kalangan rakyat Malaysia.

As one of the most popular financial instruments under Islamic finance, Sukuk can easily create and ensure economic empowerment if properly mobilized and structured. That is what the Islamic finance theory has shown; Sukuk has a considerable ability to playing a notable role in curbing poverty and creating a proper environment for vulnerable populations, thus, enabling them to shift from being a social burden to a development booster. Sukuk offers viable alternative funding sources to deliver and provide critical infrastructures. Concretely, governments cannot fully fulfill their socio-economic role and create the appropriate necessary environment for economic activity. This situation implies, theoretically, that Sukuk can be used to fulfill governments needs and supply the needed funds to create a good environment and a better livelihood. However, their use as an effective means of economic empowerment is still shyly expanding and widening. This paper studies to what extent does Sukuk issuance serve the objectives of Islamic finance and insures its empowering and financial equality and support goals, through a theoretical overview regarding the scope of their use as an economic empowerment tool and an overview of the multiple experiences of Southeast Asian countries (Malaysia and Indonesia) and international financial institutions in using Sukuk for this role. We will present an overview of actual international cases in which Sukuk has been successfully mobilized to accomplish economic empowerment. Then we will face the impact of these experiences on the effect in combing poverty and empowering vulnerable populations that are awaited from Sukuk issuances. Our study will be completed by an investigation of the various barriers and key challenges impeding and obstructing a larger issuance, capable of bringing more enhanced empowering effect and of setting Sukuk and Islamic finance in general in its natural position: leading the economy for better achievements and bettering the livelihoods of the population.

Providing clean water and sanitation for developing countries presents its problems mainly related to peoples unhealthy behavior and funding that needed to build clean water facilities and infrastructure. Various attempts were made by both the government and the private sector to provide proper sanitation, particularly for the poor. It also aims to give one of the most significant service delivery challenges related to poverty alleviation and sustainable living. This article presents new sanitation developments focused on community-led total sanitation (CLTS) approach and zakat as a funding solution. The researchers used the Miles and Huberman (1992) research model consisting of data reduction, data display, and verification. The result is LAZ Harfa with the CLTS approach could increase the number of houses with latrines by 40.19 percent in Banten from 2006 to 2019, also coaching schools in building 25 latrines, the number of beneficiaries increased significantly to 47,174 from 14,461 individuals. The article closes by arguing that zakat as possible alternative funding by seeing the potential that can improve the sustainability of sanitation service interventions.

This study aims to investigate and identify the main factors that influence the acceptance of the Home-Based Accounting Services (HBAS) concept from the perspective of postgraduate students. A well-structured survey questionnaire was distributed to all postgraduate students from the Faculty of Accountancy, University Teknologi MARA (UiTM) between 1 November 2018 and 30 November 2018. The research findings revealed that factors that influence the acceptance of HBAS, the ability of HBAS to provide comprehensive reporting on performance, and increasing the efficiency of owner-clients to manage accounting information were ranked as top priorities. The respondents also expect that HBAS could save time required for their involvement, from the recording to the reporting stages. Additionally, the owner clients convenience at the location while the HBAS team operates on-site and the securing of documents that must not be taken out from the site are other contributing factors. This paper contributes to the existing literature and broadens the provision of accounting services to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), also known as Micro-Entrepreneurs. The concept of HBAS could encourage Micro-Entrepreneurs to be more proactive, and issues related to the low percentage of SME business enterprises that keep proper accounting records could be reduced. HBAS is a new concept that aims to assist Micro-Entrepreneurs to keep proper accounting records. Consequently, this could help improve their financial position, as they would be able to review their business financial statements regularly.

Kajian ini adalah tinjauan terhadap aspek pengetahuan dan kesedaran menunaikan kewajiban berzakat di kalangan suku kaum Bajau-Sama di kawasan Pantai Barat, negeri Sabah. Empat Kawasan yang terlibat ialah Kota Belud, Tuaran, Kota Kinabalu dan papar melibatkan 324 responden. Kajian ini menggunakan borang soal selidik sebagai instrumen kutipan data primer manakala bagi sumber sekunder data yang diperolehi adalah melalui rujukan ke perpustakaan dengan melihat hasil kajian-kajian lepas mengenai zakat dari segenap aspek. Hukum-hukum mengenai zakat dan kepentingannya adalah diambil berdasarkan kepada sumber utama iaitu Al-Quran dan As-Sunnah. Memandangkan kajian ini merupakan tinjauan awal, maka analisa deskriptif dilaksanakan dalam membincangkan hasil dapatan kajian ini bagi memberikan justifikasi terhadap tanggapan bahawa kutipan zakat di negeri Sabah adalah kurang memuaskan. Dapatan tinjauan mendapati secara keseluruhannya tahap pemahaman responden tentang zakat secara adalah rendah, manakala pemahaman tentang zakat fitrah pula adalah pada tahap yang tinggi. Isu utama dalam kajian ini mendapati responden tidak pasti jenis zakat yang perlu ditunaikan. Manakala sebahagian besar tidak memahami peranan institusi yang bertanggungjawab tentang zakat seperti Pusat Zakat Sabah dan Baitul Mal.

This study aims to develop a modern zakat management model by analyzing the zakat payment method using marketable securities and their impact on zakat fund fluctuations managed by a modern amil zakat institution in Indonesia. Zakat institutions have never implemented the zakat payment transactions like this in other Islamic countries such as Malaysia, Pakistan, and Middle Eastern countries. The studys focus is on The National Zakat Board of Indonesia as a modern amil zakat institution that has made this transaction to accommodate muzakki investors goodwill to pay zakat obligation in the form of shares that are still traded. According to fiqh, the payment of zakat using marketable securities in the form of traded shares is still in debate. According to fiqh scholars, Imam Hanafi does not allow the zakat fund investment. While Imam Maliki, Imam Syafie, and Imam Hambali, including Yusuf Al-Qardhawi, allow some arguments. From a financial analysis point of views, to reduce the risk of decreasing zakat funds due to stock price volatility, a linkage between zakat funds in the form of shares traded with general Islamic insurance is needed, which in this case, the researcher refer to as zakat linked takaful under wakalah-waqf contract. This research used literature and empirical study to compare zakat management practices in various Muslim countries, to develop a modern zakat management model collaborated with digital Islamic financial institutions in the banking and non-banking sectors.

Zakat institutions in Malaysia oversee the obligatory Islamic donations, which have improved the poor and needys socio-economic conditions through innovative programs. These income-generating programs, which zakat recipients participate in, have enabled people to improve their livelihoods. These programs allow zakat recipients to become business owners with the ultimate goal of becoming zakat payers themselves. However, despite all assistance extended, the number of entrepreneurial failures among asnaf entrepreneurs is quite alarmingly high. Inadvertently, the fulfillment of Maqasid Syariah, the goals or objectives of Islamic law, is still lacking since identifying the rightful recipients from potential recipients is quite challenging. A successful entrepreneur requires motivation, so recipients should be motivated. If the best recipients are not identified, then there must be flaws in the system, so pinpointing those areas for improvement becomes critical. Not only that, once motivated recipients are found, which of these recipients will follow Maqasid Syariah to become zakat payers? In view of these issues, this paper proposes three main pre-selection areas for asnaf entrepreneurs, including a look at the three participants, namely, the zakat recipients, the zakat institutions, and the zakat payers. A thorough understanding of these participants, for future successful zakat process implementation, is crucial. However, the main areas discussed are based on a participants pre-selection which (1) measures their entrepreneurial intent, or motivation, by using an entrepreneurship index to identify true potential asnaf entrepreneurs, (2) a proposal to appoint village headmen who collaborate with local imams to verify potential recipients for better zakat management, and (3) an allocation of capital for targeted Millennial Asnaf who would use the money to initiate their entrepreneurial ventures on a small scale so they can increase the success of the Islamic zakat system.

Pada masa ini, seluruh umat manusia sedang menghadapi wabak COVID-19 yang telah merebak ke lebih dari 200 negara, menyebabkan lebih dari 28 juta orang terjangkit dan kematian lebih dari 900,000 orang di seluruh dunia. Wakaf jika diuruskan dengan betul dan profesional serta disokong oleh semua lapisan masyarakat, akan dapat memainkan peranan yang sangat penting dalam menjaga kesihatan umat, terutama dalam menghadapi wabak COVID-19. Kajian ini adalah kajian kualitatif yang menggunakan kaedah analisis kandungan. Data dikumpulkan dari pelbagai rujukan seperti artikel dan buku yang berkaitan dengan wakaf dan kesihatan, dan kemudian dianalisis untuk menentukan sejauh mana peranan yang dapat dimainkan oleh wakaf kesihatan dalam menangani COVID-19. Hasil kajian ini mendapati bahawa terdapat potensi yang sangat tinggi untuk memaksimumkan peranan wakaf kesihatan dalam menghadapi wabak COVID-19 yang menular dengan begitu cepat ke seluruh dunia.

The purpose of this study is to explore the opportunities of integrating Islamic Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility Management (CSRM) with Brand Personality concept for enhancing Mudarabah Family Takaful Model. The application of CSRM with the best practice in Islamic Philanthropy has been circulating in recent years. Since Takaful services are only provided to those, who have affordability with a good health condition. But supposedly those have inadequate and suffering from a variety of chronic illnesses, and health problems need more medical and health services. The current practice of this study is to review a practical approach in establishing Islamic Philanthropy and Social Responsibility Concept to Enhance Mudarabah Family Takaful Model in Malaysia. This study is called upon to examine how these marginalized groups can enjoy the same facilities as those who are qualified to get the services and benefits of the Takaful. The CSR Theories refer to the implementation of this model in Malaysian Takaful Industry. It is used to establish the conceptual framework of this study. Theoretically, the current study is perhaps one of the first to explore Islamic Philanthropy and Social Responsibility concept to improve the Mudarabah Family Takaful Model. Practically the study proposes to develop a new model and plan based on the dimensions of the Halal brand personality concept of Purity, Secure, Quality, Beneficial and Religious Compliance for beneficial to all people in Malaysia.