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Started humbly in 2010 as a modest publishing outlet catering to the growing interest in Islamic-based accounting and business research, the Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research (JIABR) is now a focal reference for literature with a unique niche of shari’ah and tawheedic essence. The purpose of this paper is to explore the path through which JIABR has evolved to achieve its status today.

The commonly applied bibliometric analysis is conducted on all 377 published papers since the JIABR’s inception up to September 2021.

The JIABR’s more than a decade of service in educating the ummah is visibly characterized by the increasing breadth of research scope within the realm of shari’ah- and tawheedic-based accounting and business. The commendable shift in the research quality frontier systematically positions the journal at par with other comparable publishing outlets.

This paper drew on data collected from a single journal, creating a stand-alone analysis.

The paper accentuates JIABR’s critical attributes, which gradually developed to serve the Islamic-based accounting and business research fraternity. Such attributes are arguably relevant for researchers framing their future academic research trajectory.

This paper represents an extensive analysis of all published papers in the JIABR, showcasing its excellent contributions to providing a strategic publishing platform for Islamic-based accounting and business-related research.

The purpose of this paper is to review, understand and document the contemporary waqf-S management, financial accounting and reporting practices and to understand relevant drivers behind the current accountability culture in waqf-S, aiming at exploring the intertwined nature of accounting, reporting and the religion of Islam. The accountability literature has been relatively scant on the role played by accounting and reporting in not-for-profit, religious-based organizations and its implications for accountability discourse. Three accountability drivers of regulatory, stakeholders and religious image are tested. It is interesting to research how management, accounting and reporting are being practiced in an Islamic organization setting in a non-Islamic country.

Consistent with the established research objectives, this study adopts the qualitative research approach of a single case study research involving semi-structured interviews and archival documentation review and analyses. Sample is chosen using purposive sampling to suit the research objectives.

The paper finds that waqf-S is a very successful awqaf manager. The administration and management are carried out in the most effective manner with comprehensive rules, guidelines and procedures. The awqaf financial reporting and management are impressive as annual financial reports are published on time and available for the public online. The paper proposes three lenses to examine the accountability drivers of waqf-S: Regulatory, Stakeholders and Religious image of Islamic organization and, it turns out that all three are equally important in driving the organization accountability practices.

The sample is an Islamic organization in a non-Islamic country; therefore, the results are unique and may not be generalised to organizations in Islamic nations, as it will be a different setting with different variables. Secondly, the paper only focuses on awqaf financial accounting, awqaf reporting and investigating the driving factors for the institution’s accountability culture.

This paper is important as it shows that the management and administration of awqaf, which has been plague by mismanagement, embezzlements and lack of talents, can be improved and managed systematically, although there is a clear evidence of the lack of capable or talented human resources. It is compensated by the significant use of technology.

Focusing on a single awqaf institution (waqf-S) operating in a non-Islamic Southeast Asian country, our analysis allows us to observe the influence of multiple factors influencing its organizational wide accountability policy. We consider this as a contribution to the literature, as it generates knowledge on how management, accounting and reporting are being devised as strategic tools in the institution’s accountability policy framework, beyond the normal office management, financial data recording and disclosure per se. Multiple factors drive the structured and transparent reporting by waqf-S, transcending beyond the traditional financial accounting and reporting boundary of meeting regulatory requirements; it reaches the concerned while ensuring that the necessary accountability towards stakeholders is observed and upheld.

The purpose of this study is to examine a state-owned enterprise corporate governance model in an Asian emerging market. Corporate governance has attracted much attention and is still a hot topic among shareholders, directors and company regulators. Failure of large corporations in the past decades not only affected the shareholders and investors, rather it adversely affects all the stakeholders. Good corporate governance practices are argued to curb company’s failures due to fraudulent activities, collusion schemes and mismanagement.

The study took the qualitative approach. It utilized case study method. The company is designated as Company R, as the study is not allowed to reveal the company’s real name.

The study found that the corporate governance structure of the board is of unitary or one-tier board, which is common in the Anglo-American settings. The board members are selected and appointed by the government. They are chosen from highly capable and trustworthy government officers to represent and safeguard the government’s interest in the company. As for the ownership structure, it is a typical company with the other Asian state-owned enterprises where the state has full ownership and control of the company.

The study fills the gap in the corporate governance model literature, especially in the context of Asian emerging economies’ state-owned companies. Furthermore, the authors believe that this study is among the first to examine the corporate governance model in this country. It shed lights on the corporate governance model in terms of governance structure, the ownership and shareholders’ right, roles of the board, regulatory framework and control mechanism and, finally, disclosure and transparency.

The concept of accountability has long been argued in the academic and public policy debate to have been contextually ingrained in the technical processes of accounting and reporting. Both processes provide lenses through which the extent of managerial accountability in the corporate context could be objectively examined. The sacred religion of Islam as a social order with a complete code of life classifies accountability as being dual; in line with the duality concept in life – in this temporal world and eternal hereafter, necessitating for accountability concept in accounting and reporting from the Islamic worldview to transcend beyond the point of worldly objectives. Parallel to this line of reasoning, the purpose of this paper is to undertake a preliminary empirical investigation with respect to accounting, reporting and accountability practices of a Malaysian cash awqaf (Islamic endowment) management institution over a six‐year period, from 2000 to 2005.

The paper uses triangulation research approach, consisting of case study method and archival documentation review and analysis.

The preliminary findings indicate that, while the root of accountability in the management, accounting and reporting practices seems to exist in the awqaf entity studied, significant improvements remain necessary to ensure accountability could be continuously enhanced and uphold.

Debating accountability concept in the context of management, accounting and reporting as practiced by faith‐based institution of awqaf from the Islamic perspective inevitably directs this study to highlight the notion of Islamic accounting and reporting commonly and extensively discussed in the realm of Islamic finance and banking. The study's conjecture is that, by debunking the myth of Islamic accounting and reporting as only serving the acute domain of transactions reflecting the Islamic financial products in banking environment, it helps to reshape, broaden and emphasize the all encompassing relevance of Islamic accounting and reporting to that of not‐for‐profits, religiously grounded entities such as awqaf institutions. The study further contributes to the accountability and financial reporting literature in Islamic not‐for‐profit organizations by studying the importance of sound accounting practices and reporting transparency in ensuring accountability.

This study aims to examine whether the financial reporting practices of organisations managing waqf (Islamic endowed trust funds) are Sharia-compliant.

This paper reports on a case study of two Islamic-based organisations that manage waqf. The financial statements of these organisations are analysed using content analysis to assess their compliance with the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) Sharia Standard No. 33 (SS 33) on waqf.

The authors found that both Islamic-based organisations use different sets of accounting procedures and practices, but that these accounting practices do not contradict the Sharia requirements prescribed in the SS 33 on waqf. However, the SS 33 on waqf requires that waqf funds to be utilised as stipulated by the waqif (donor) and that the accounting practices of both organisations do not adequately address this disclosure requirement. This study also found that the existing accounting practices adopted by organisations that manage waqf need to incorporate more disclosure on their Sharia-based financing and their investment of waqf funds.

This study found that the AAOIFI’s SS33 on waqf is a useful guide for identifying the gap between Sharia principles and conventional financial reporting practices for non-profit organisations, and that there are aspects of Sharia-based disclosure practices that are not adequately implemented in financial reporting practices of institutions managing waqf.

This study proposes two essential Sharia-based disclosure practices for Islamic-based organisations that manage Islamic-based funds such as waqf. These two aspects are the disclosure on whether waqf funds are adequately utilised as stipulated by the waqif (donor) and what modifications to their existing financial reporting of their Sharia-based financing and investments are required to comply with the unique nature of waqf.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how Sharia principles can be incorporated into the financial reporting practices of organisations that manage Islamic-based funds such as waqf.

This paper aims to analyse the implementation of istibdal waqf property in several states of Peninsular Malaysia. To achieve this objective, this study identified the amount of waqf property ‘am (general) and waqf property khas (special) which were involved in the process of istibdal in each state, the factors that have caused the istibdal to be implemented, the rate of istibdal involved for each lot of waqf lands and the type of property replacement performed.

This study used the qualitative method, whereby the researchers had collected secondary data consisting of documents related to waqf from the State Islamic Religious Council (MAIN). The type of documents obtained were public records. The data collected were analysed using the content analysis techniques.

The results showed that there are several factors involved in the implementation of istibdal, namely, the acquisition of waqf land by the State Authority, applications by external parties for a particular interest and the initiatives taken by the MAIN on waqf property which is problematic and uneconomical to generate waqf fund. This study also found some Shariah and management issues, which were identified in the implementations of istibdal, whereas some cases of istibdal were only carried out on a small part of the waqf lands and there were also cases of the implementation of istibdal which have not been replaced with fixed assets as authorised by the istibdal parameter. This study suggests some improvements to the issues identified in the implementation of istibdal for waqf managers in Malaysia.

The limitation of this study is that it analyses only the documents that record the implementation of istibdal in the states managed by MAIN. Thus, the analysis performed was limited to the documents obtained without involving empirical data.

This study suggests some improvements to the implementation of istibdal waqf in the states studied. Therefore, these recommendations can be used by waqf property managers to improve the process of implementing waqf property istibdal so that it can be used to its maximum potential.

If the recommendations in this study can be implemented, the Muslim community will benefit greatly from the waqf property because it is being developed through the method of istibdal. This impact can increase the confidence of the Muslim community towards MAIN in managing waqf property and encouraging the Muslim community to contribute to waqf property for the welfare of the ummah.

This study involved data on a larger waqf istibdal implementations that involved several states in Peninsular Malaysia, which to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the analysis involving such large research data have not been implemented before.

The existence of internal control for Sharīʿah-compliance promotes reasonable assurance that the Islamic financial institution’s (IFI’s) objectives are achieved in the following categories, namely, the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, the reliability of financial reporting and the level of compliance with applicable laws and regulations, as well as accounting and auditing standards. Sharīʿah non-compliant income (SNCI) is an important issue in IFIs’ operations. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify issues related to governance and internal control of SNCI in selected IFIs in Malaysia.

This research uses a case study approach to gather data on the measures of governance and risk management in relation to the internal control for SNCI in IFIs. Interviews were conducted with officers of the Sharīʿah and internal audit departments on internal control practices regarding SNCI.

Regulator’s guidelines on SNCI are simple and brief, lacking rigour in terms of governance, risk management and audit procedures. The section on SNCI is only a brief statement within the Bank Negara Malaysia’s Guidelines on Financial Reporting for Islamic Banking Institutions and also in the Operational Risk Integrated Online Network system operated by IFIs. Most of the respondents in the interviews suggested that there should be a proper guideline in determining the classification of SNCI. Second, although IFIs have established the purification account to manage SNCI, the real practice varies from one IFI to another. Third, although there are supposedly documented procedures established in relation to management and administration of SNCI, the following events still occur in practice, namely, no authorisation from the Sharīʿah Committee (SC) on various types of income channelled to the SNCI account; unauthorised use of SNCI for other purposes; SNCI not being reported in the annual financial reports; and distribution of SNCI prior to obtaining the SC’s consent. Fourth, there is an absence of Sharīʿah risk assessment conducted on operational risk by IFIs to identify any potential Sharīʿah non-compliant event.

This research contributes to the importance of Islamic corporate governance theory and Sharīʿah risk management, as well as strengthening the case for reporting SNCI to shareholders. It also contributes to the body of knowledge on the capability of the management in managing the internal control system of IFIs’ SNCI.

A new internal control assessment matrix is proposed for Sharīʿah-compliance in IFIs.

This study aims to explain the justification behind the current weak waqf reporting practices in waqf institutions in Malaysia and also investigates the factors affecting the good waqf reporting practices.

A series of interviews with four waqf officers who are involved with waqf reporting process from four different waqf institutions in Malaysia were conducted.

The findings show a number of reasons for the current weak waqf reporting practices including the absence of standardised waqf reporting standards, no reporting or disclosure awareness by the waqf management, limited reporting channels from the state authorities to the national authorities, diversification in the governance structure and reluctance of waqf administration to disclose waqf reporting. The findings also identified several factors contributing to good waqf reporting practices. This includes leadership, good cultural setting within the institution, political will as a push factor, limited qualified personnel as well as sustainability issues and finally, the visibility of the waqf report itself.

The study findings and recommendations are useful for the State Islamic Religious Councils and waqf institutions in Malaysia to enhance the waqf reporting practices in Malaysia.

This study is among the few studies that identify the reasons and factors affecting the good waqf reporting practices in Malaysia.

This study aims to explore and identify potential challenges and prospects for conducting the professional shariah audit training programme via an e-learning approach during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Questionnaires were administered to 296 participants who were enrolled in the professional shariah audit training programme via e-learning during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in 2020. These participants were final-year students from selected Malaysian public universities.

Findings show that several main challenges are faced in adopting an e-learning approach for conducting the professional shariah audit training programme such as the inability to do more hands-on, group and physical activities, different understandings based on academic backgrounds, difficulty in learning practical and technical topics, technical issues and problems during e-learning sessions. These lead to the unsuitability of conducting professional training via the e-learning approach. In terms of prospects of knowledge learnt via the e-learning approach, participants showed that they are able to master all six modules covered in the professional shariah audit training programme via the e-learning approach. These include (1) shariah principles; (2) shariah governance; (3) Islamic financial transactions; (4) shariah risk management; (5) shariah audit planning and programme; and (6) shariah audit fieldwork and communication.

Based on the findings, it is suggested to have more time spent and earlier preparation on the learning contents and sessions, more discussion on actual contents and practical exercises and competency of the trainers in delivering e-learning sessions.

This study is believed to be one among the pioneering studies on the potential challenges and prospects in adopting e-learning for conducting the professional shariah audit training programme due to COVID-19.