Preservation of Life in Tandem with Shariah Compliances Regarding Covid-19 Vaccines

The preservation of life (hifz al-nafs) is, from the Islamic standpoint, the second most important after the preservation of faith (hifz al-din). Islam will not compromise any act that violates the objectives of Shariah. Health presents mankind a great responsibility, for which human beings are accountable to God on the day of judgement. Thus, vaccination is necessary as it upholds the principles of the sanctity of human life and the avoidance of harm (mafsadah), such as death from the effects of the virulent coronavirus. On the other hand, seeking halal is obligatory and the term ‘Shariah compliance’, not only means that the thing should be lawful (halal), but also wholesome (tayyiban). Therefore, scientists struggle to produce not only halal vaccines for Covid-19, but the treatment is also ensured to made up of safe, efficacious, and adverse effect free. The Almighty says in the Qur’an: “And whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely.” (Al-Maidah, 5:32).

Covid-19 Pandemic: A Blessing In Disguise

The year 2020 was taken over by a global pandemic with a newly identified coronavirus 2019-nCoV (now known as COVID-19 virus) sweeping across continents since its emergence in December 2019 (Letchumanan et al., 2019). The first COVID-19 case was reported in Wuhan, one of the districts in the People’s Republic of China. It most probably had originated from a market selling and serving exotic and endangered animal species such as bats, snakes, rats, etc. The genome sequence of this novel coronavirus has been deposited in the GenBank as reported by Letchumanan et al. (2019).

Inbound Halal Logistics Practices: A Case of Local Mosques

The involvement of multiple supply chain players across the mosque food supply chain has led to halal problems, particularly cross-contamination between halal and haram of raw materials during inbound logistics. This study aims to determine factors that influence inbound halal logistics practices among local mosques. Stratified random sampling was used to select the target local mosques in Peninsular Malaysia. Responses from the mosque management committees were obtained through self-administrated questionnaires. Descriptive analysis, mean score analysis, factor analysis, and logistic regression analysis were performed to analyze the data and to determine the factors that mostly influenced inbound halal logistics practices among local mosques. The findings showed that knowledge, dedicated facilities, religious responsibility, management support, financial resources, course and training, and trust were the factors that influenced inbound halal logistics practices among local mosques. This study recommends continuous course and training on halal logistics should be held by the local mosques and specific guidelines on halal logistics should be made available to ensure inbound halal logistics practices could be performed well by the local mosques.

Detection of Edible Bird’s Nest Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) Combined with Principle Component Analysis (PCA)

Edible bird’s nest (EBN) is rich in nutrients and health benefits; making it one of the Chinese delicacies over the centuries. However, due to the overpriced and limited supply of EBN, it is being adulterated with other cheaper versions. Therefore, the aim of this study is to establish a method of detecting adulterants in EBN using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) as the spectrum fingerprinting analysis together with principal component analysis (PCA). Spiked samples have been developed for Tremella fungus and porcine gelatine at the concentrations of 1%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 30% (w/w). The FTIR method combined with PCA analysis was able to detect the adulteration of porcine gelatine and Tremella fungus in the sample of adulterated EBNs at low concentration of 1% (w/w). The simple approach employing FTIR combined with PCA may provide a useful tool for EBN detection.

Knowledge and Attitude on Halal Food and Islamic Eating Practices among Students of Universiti Malaysia Sabah

The preservation of future generation and the protection of consumer welfare is a priority in view of the incremental negative behaviours existing in today’s societies at large. The study involved 414 respondents through convenience sampling by using questionnaires. The data was analyzed by using SPSS version 25. This study highlighted that family is the main reference for source of information on halal food products followed with the internet and lecturer. All faculties at UMS has high level of knowledge about the concept of Halal and Haram in halal food, followed with Islamic law on halal food and beverages. This is maybe due to courses on halal and haram foods being offered at various faculties in UMS. Although the majority of respondents has high level of knowledge on halal food but the practices of respondents consuming the sunnah food is low. This happens because the fruits such as dates, pomegranates and figs are quite expensive and not easily accessible in the city of Kota Kinabalu. The study found that the Muslim respondents have positive attitude towards halal food and eating practices whereby they will always choose halal and tayyib food whenever they want to eat and they will eat in a congregation (with friends or family) when they want to eat. The respondents have satisfactory level on Islamic eating practices such as washing hands before and after eating, saying “Bismillah” before eating and sharing food with friends, but not because it is encouraged by Islam, but because it has become a custom or a part of their daily eating practices. This happens because the Malaysian public is not familiar with eating food from Arab countries where it was a way of life for the Prophet s.a.w. Results also showed that knowledge on Halal food was significantly correlated with attitude (r=0.217; p<0.05) and practices (r=0.085; p<0.05) of the UMS students showing positive linear correlations which confirms that better knowledge can lead to positive attitude and subsequently in good practices.

Factors Influencing of Malaysian Muslim Women Consumers in Choosing Non-Certified Halal Foreign Brand Makeup Products in Mid Valley Megamall Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia placed second among the top 10 of Halal Cosmetics country. Even though Malaysia is a halal hub, the awareness on halal products tends to be focusing on food products. In this millennial era, Malaysian Muslim women prefer foreign brand makeup products without halal certificate. Hence, this study attempts to identify factors influencing Malaysian Muslim Women Consumers towards choosing foreign brand makeup products and level of Halal understanding on choosing the products. It is significant because foreign brand makeup products are favoured by most of the consumers. Global brands seem to capture the developing countries consumers’ hearts because of the promised better standards of living and lifestyle. To begin with, a face -to- face interview has been conducted among 20 Malaysian Muslim Women consumer. The conversations were recorded and transcribed into a qualitative content analysis. Based on the findings, the factors influencing Malaysian Muslim Women in choosing foreign makeup products are divided into internal and external factors. Internal factors include quality, trust, loyalty, effectiveness, brand, price, safety, ingredients, confident and wide range of products while for the external factor is solely the influencer. While, the levels of halal awareness among Malaysian Muslim Women were categorized into basic, intermediate and advanced. This present work will be beneficial to the producer and manufacturer of halal market in promoting halal cosmetics to fulfil the demands especially for makeup products because Muslim consumers will purchase halal products if it is available in the market.Keywords: Halal Cosmetics, Makeup products, Malaysian Muslim Women, and Halal Beauty Industry

Relationship Between Awareness, Knowledge, and Attitude Towards Behavioural Intention of Halal Jobs Among Muslim University Students

In the emergence of global halal market, developing halal human capital with provisions of knowledge and skills are indispensable for professional efficiency in management and implementation, especially for Malaysia as the world’s leader in the halal industry. Therefore, it is important to determine the awareness among Muslim university students on job opportunities and their intentions to choose career paths in halal industry. The objectives of this study were to determine the level of Muslim university students’ awareness, knowledge, and attitude of halal jobs; and to determine the relationship between awareness, knowledge, and attitude towards behavioural intention of halal jobs. A structured questionnaire was used as a research instrument to collect responses from 1,454 final year Muslim university students in public and private universities located in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. Data were analysed using descriptive analysis and Pearson correlation. Results revealed that the Muslim university students have a high level of awareness, adequate level of knowledge, and high level of behavioural intention of halal jobs. There was also a significant but weak relationship between knowledge and attitude towards halal jobs. In addition, there was a moderate relationship observed between awareness and attitudes among Muslim university students. The present study concluded that the positive awareness, knowledge, and attitude towards halal jobs influenced significantly on their behavioural intention towards halal jobs.

Halal antimicrobials in food: A review on prospects and challenges of antimicrobials from animal sources

Food antimicrobial agents (FAA) provide the first food defence system against pathogens for processed food products. In addition, they function as an antioxidant in preventing colour and taste changes for food safety and quality. Muslim consumers are concerned about the source of FAA which may contain non-permissible ingredients according to Islam including pig and unslaughtered permissible animal sources. They also raise concerns about the increasing risk of toxicity when the FAA is consumed and the possibility of the FAA rendering organoleptic effect on the food. The application of the FAA protects the food from microbial contamination and indirectly combats emerging devastating diseases. Hence, halal FAA (HFAA) can be introduced so that Muslim consumers can accept FAA usage. Generally, HFAA is categorised according to ingredient sources such as animal, plant, bacteria, or synthetic origins. There are doubts on the halal status of animal-origin FAA as the source might be originating from pig, unslaughtered animal, human, or origins which are filthy. The animal-origin FAA shows strong antimicrobial properties against Gram-positive and negative pathogens, as well as toxicity and organoleptic issues. Thus, the FAA should be used within the allowable range. HFAA has become one of the most studied FAAs due to these issues. Many HFAAs are produced from animals without the full verification of halal status. This review presents an overview of the origins and challenges of HFAA production. Furthermore, this study also highlights how FAA could be verified as halal which is the theme of future research in HFAA development.

A Critical Analysis of Halal Marketing in Malaysia’s Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) Industry

The concept of Halalan Toyyiban is very important in Muslims’ lives in their servitude to Allah. The business itself is broken down into many different kinds, one of those which has become nowadays the trend is Multi-Level Marketing (MLM). MLM business is a business model that involves selling and recruitment of new distributors inside the company. Multi-Level Marketing is seen to be good as it helps many people to achieve their dreams, but ,on the contrary, it is observed as a medium of cheating. With its players reaching 2 million in Malaysia since its establishment in the early 1990s, MLM’s presence in the business industry should not be taken lightly. This research attempts to analyse the current MLM system and its factors that can be categorized as Halalan Toyyiban, as well as the factors which lead to the destruction. This factor includes the system itself, manufacturing, the distribution channels, the after-sales service, and the long-run vision of the company. By doing this, it is aimed that the doubtful (Syubhah) or even the impermissible (Haram) practice of MLM can be eliminated and abstained by the Muslim players, and it is expected that better MLM companies can be established, using proper S.O.P and guidelines. The purposes of the research are gained through a qualitative approach from the library and interviews. Keywords: Multi-Level Marketing, Halalan Toyyiban, Halal Industry, Syubhah, Haram practice, Opportunity, Ethic

Determinants of Intention to Purchase Halal Cosmetic Products: A Study on Muslim Women in West Malaysia

The demand on global halal cosmetics market is anticipated to reach USD 53 billion by the end of 2023. In fact, the rising awareness about percutaneous essence of conventional cosmetic products has made consumers shift to “halal” cosmetics. Malaysia is one of the country in providing full support to promote “halal” certification process on halal cosmetic products. Products certified “halal” by JAKIM are Halal products as it is safe to consume, nutritious and also the products are quality controlled. In accordance to it, the purpose of this research conducted is to identify the intention in consuming halal cosmetic products among Muslim females in West Malaysia. As aforementioned, this study has identified five factors that influence consumers’ intention in consuming halal cosmetic products. These factors served as independent variables namely functional value, conditional value, social value, epistemic value and emotional value which is extracted from the Theory of Consumption Value (TCV). This research employed a structured online survey targeting approximately 400 Muslim females from the age 16 to 60 years old in West Malaysia. Data obtained was analysed using Partial Least Square- Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The findings revealed that conditional value, emotional value and epistemic value has positively contributed significantly on the intention in purchasing halal cosmetic products. On the other hand, functional value and social value has revealed being insignificant on intention to purchase halal cosmetic products. This study further contributed by providing a comprehensive theoretical framework on the intention to purchase halal cosmetic products.