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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 examines social reporting by Islamic banks with special emphasis on themes related to social justice. By using critical theory and “immanent critique”, the study attempts to explain and delineate reasons for disclosures and silences in Islamic banks ' annual reports and web sites vis-à-vis social justice.

The approach taken was a content analysis of annual reports and web sites of 19 Islamic banks.

Islamic banks ' disclosures emphasise their religious character through claims that they adhere to Sharia ' s teachings. Their disclosures, however, lack specific or detailed information regarding schemes or initiatives vis-à-vis poverty eradication or enhancing social justice.

Limitations associated with content analysis of annual reports and internet web sites apply. This study focuses on Islamic banks ' social roles. Further studies of banks ' social roles in society in general are of interest.

Drawing attention of Islamic banks and other stakeholders to the gap between the rhetorical religious and ethical claims of Islamic banks and their activities (as depicted through their disclosures) opens up the possibility of a positive change in Islamic banks ' actual social roles.

The study fills a gap in both social accounting and Islamic accounting literatures with its emphasis on social justice and poverty eradication. The study contributes to the very scarce literature linking religion (especially Islam), critical theory, social accounting and Islamic accounting. It goes beyond previous research in Islamic accounting literature by exposing contradictions in the Islamic banking industry ' s rhetoric regarding their social role in society.

This paper aims to examine the Islamic accounting research. In particular, the paper extensively investigates the literature on Islamic accounting to understand the issues, contexts, methods and theoretical paradigms thereof.

The study has adopted a literature review approach. It has examined the key journal publications for 30 years in accounting discipline and systematically identified the Islamic accounting papers during 1990–2020. In total, 95 papers were identified until June 2020, and they were thoroughly reviewed to identify the relevant issues, contexts, methods and theoretical paradigms.

The study has found that Islamic accounting papers covered issues of both Islamic organizations (e.g. Islamic financial institutions) and of Muslim countries. The key issues include the regulation and regulatory compliance, annual report disclosures, corporate and Islamic governance, accounting profession, gender, accountability matters, management accounting and control, waqf accounting and zakat management. The study has also observed various normative guidelines from the academics on how the teaching of Islam is enacted in accounting, accountability and governance matters to attain the maqasid al-shari'a, i.e. human welfare, social justice and equity.

The study is not empirical. Hence, the limitations of literature review papers are applicable in this case. Moreover, it is possible that this study could not identify some of the important literature on Islamic accounting (such as the papers published in Arabic by the academicians and professionals of Arab world).

The study enables both Islamic accounting academics and practitioners to identify the main Islamic accounting issues and realize the importance of Islamic accounting.

When the author considers Islamic accounting as a social construction and tries to understand the phenomenon through social theories, the author acknowledges the relevance of Islamic accounting in the society in which it operates. It can be noticed from the discussion that Islamic accounting emphasizes on social welfare, balance, equity and providing relevant information to follow the commandments of God.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to provide a synoptic view on the issues, context, methods and theoretical paradigms of Islamic accounting, while covering major accounting journals in 30 years.

This paper aims to examine the compliance status of Islamic banks in Bangladesh with Shari’ah-based accounting standards named Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) standard-4 and its association with corporate governance.

The six years of secondary data, including the annual reports of 2013–2018, were collected from the websites of all the seven listed Islamic banks, i.e. 100% of the population available during the period of study. The study used a content analysis approach for systematically categorizing and analysing the contents disclosed in the annual report. A total compliance score based on 133 reporting items of IFSB standard-4 were considered for content analysis. Furthermore, this study applied the ordinary least square to investigate the impact of corporate governance on IFSB standard-4.

This study found that the level of compliance with the IFSB standard by the Islamic banks in Bangladesh is poor, as the overall compliance status is 44.83%. Further, this study observed a significant and positive influence of the Shari’ah supervisory committee, the board size, accounting experts on the board, foreign ownership and institutional ownership on the level of compliance with IFSB standard-4. On the other hand, this study found a negative effect of directors’ ownership on the level of compliance with IFSB standard-4.

This study provides the management of Islamic banks an insight into developing their governance characteristics to comply with Islamic accounting and reporting standards. Moreover, this study expects to facilitate the management of Islamic banks in designing their accounting and reporting outlines to enhance the level of compliance with the IFSB standards.

This pioneering study on IFSB standards opens an avenue to the researchers exploring the accounting and reporting status of Islamic banks considering the requirements of the IFSB standards.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the need of Islamic Accounting Standards – a review of the literature – for Islamic financial institutions (IFIs).

The basis of the paper was stakeholder theory to analyse the need of accounting standards and to design the conceptual framework as evidenced from Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). The evidence reviewed suggests the need for Islamic accounting standards to fill the gap in accounting practice among Islamic financial institutions.

The AAOIFI accounting standards serve as a guideline that may reflect the unique characteristics of IFIs and become a useful tool to meet the various needs of IFIs. Currently, one of the major challenges facing IFIs lies in the preparation of the financial statements under different accounting standards and which may lead to problems of comparability, reliability and compliance level measurement. This has resulted in a heated debate among scholars which has hitherto translated to the evolving existing literature surrounding the interpretation of the level of compliance with the Islamic accounting standards. The paper concludes with various recommendations for future research, the most important of which is the need for future studies on how AAOIFI accounting standards can be made mandatory in all Muslim countries.

This paper contributes towards a better understanding and acceptability of the need of Islamic Accounting Standards.

This study aims to explore the Islamic accounting literature and attempts to identify the worldwide research trends of accounting for Islamic financial institutions.

This study adopts a mixed review approach combining the bibliometric method with content analysis. Consulting Scopus database, the authors collect 195 documents (articles and reviews) relative to the Islamic accounting field from 1982 to 2020. VOSviewer, RStudio (biblioshiny) and Excel analysed the data.

The study revealed the influential scientific actors in the Islamic accounting field, categorising the intellectual structure into seven streams: accounting for Waqf, accounting for Zakat, Shariah auditing, corporate Shariah governance and screening, accounting for different modes of Islamic financing, education and ethics. The study further provides future research directions for researchers.

The findings highlight the efforts of academicians, researchers and practitioners in this emerging field. This effort provides awareness to different stakeholders on Islamic accounting, which will lead to better stewardship, accountability and information-based decision in line with Islamic economic principles.

This study is among the first Islamic accounting bibliometric papers that would help researchers stand on a firm basis concerning the development of the literature in this scientific domain.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of voluntary disclosure (EVD) (i.e. overall, conventional, and Islamic disclosure) in the annual reports of Shariah Approved Companies (ShAC) listed on Bursa Malaysia.

A disclosure index was developed, which consists of 59 items (including items related to the Shariah, i.e. Islamic items), to measure the EVD in the annual reports of ShAC. Secondary data from annual reports were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t‐test.

ShAC disclosed on average 19, 21 and 17 percent of overall, conventional, and Islamic items, respectively. The EVD of conventional items is comparable to prior studies, and higher than Islamic items.

The paper only used one‐year annual reports for the year 2003, but it provides a starting point for future research on the issue of voluntary disclosure by ShAC.

The findings provide evidence that ShAC still lack voluntary disclosure, especially, Islamic disclosure items. Such findings could be useful to regulation authorities in Malaysia for the improvement of overall disclosure practices by ShAC.

The paper is the first empirical study to investigate the EVD, both Islamic and conventional, in the annual reports of ShAC.

The moral credibility of accountants has been battered for over two decades because of a seemingly unending series of accounting scandals. The inclusion of ethics education in the accounting curricula has been advocated as one option through which a new generation of morally competent accountants can be produced. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that sought to determine the success of this strategy by measuring the moral competencies of 160 final-year Muslim accounting students enrolled in two Islamic-university accounting programs.

An open-ended, scenario-based, accounting-specific instrument was developed in collaboration with five Islamic accounting scholars to survey and measure the students’ moral competencies from an Islamic perspective.

The results revealed that the students had glaring weaknesses in their moral competencies, particularly in selecting an Islamically appropriate organization to work for after graduation and the importance of diligence in completing one’s task as an accountant. The implication of these results is that these accounting programs have to critically assess the ethical content of their curricula to ensure that it is capable of developing the moral competencies of these students to an excellent level.

The implication of these results is that these accounting programs have to critically assess the ethical content of their curricula to ensure that it is capable of developing the moral competencies of these students to an excellent level.

This paper is one of the few moral competence studies that consider the source of moral values of the respondents in measuring their moral competencies. Additionally, it provides much-needed insight into the effectiveness of a policy to address a pressing problem in the accounting profession.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of Audit and Governance Committee (AGC) for internal Shariah auditing's effectiveness in Bahrain's Islamic banks.

This paper employed two-stage approach, i.e. collecting and analysis of data. In this paper, the interviews and literature review on AGC and internal Shariah auditor were conducted as these respondents are considered vital to Islamic banks.

This paper posited that in building internal Shariah audit effectiveness' conceptual framework, the Islamic worldview theory may be employed as the theoretical foundation. Based on the theory, it was suggested that the Islamic bank's auditors and governance committees may enhance the internal Shariah auditors' effectiveness.

In view of the roles of AGC on internal Shariah audit effectiveness, the current exploratory research contribute to enhance the limited knowledge about AGC by describing the practices of Bahraini Islamic banks in terms of composition, roles/duties and responsibilities and operations. This study also adds to the body literature of AGC effectiveness by identifying roles, duties and responsibilities of characterizing more active AGC and suggesting that these AGC could have a positive impact on internal Shariah audit effectiveness in Bahraini Islamic banks. Overall, this paper provides important insights for Board of Director's member can refer to AGC roles, duties and responsibilities to conduct a self-diagnosis of current practice.

This paper uniquely seized Islamic world view for Islamic banks' AGC.