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There is a debate between sound Shariah-compliant firms engaging in social good as a moral obligation and behaving ethically in terms of increasing corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and those firms that are not Shariah-compliant. The purpose of the present study is to contribute to this debate by empirically investigating the effect of the profitability of firms on CSR activities and shareholders’ dividends and the interaction effect of a firm’s Shariah compliance with religious and ethical principles.

The data used in this study were collected from the annual financial reports of 74 Pakistani listed companies over 2012-2016 (N = 370). An epistemological model of the unity of knowledge was applied to determine the contribution of Shariah-compliant enterprises to community well-being. Furthermore, the Tawhidi string relation methodology was used to establish the circular causal model. To check the robustness of our findings, we also analysed the data using fixed and random effects regression models to test the effect of firm profitability on CSR activities and dividends, whereas moderation regression analysis was applied to test the moderating effect of Shariah-compliant firms.

The results show that the profitability of firms has a significant impact on shareholders’ dividends in both Shariah and non-Shariah firms. Furthermore, the relationship between firm profitability and CSR is stronger for non-Shariah-compliant firms than Shariah-compliant firms. This indicates that Shariah firms are less involved in doing CSR activities than non-Shariah firms. This implies that Shariah status does not play an important role in ensuring managers’ ethical behaviour.

The results suggest that the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan should attach more importance to Shariah compliance by firms in developing their CSR policies to improve social development and human well-being. These findings have important implications for many Islamic countries irrespective of whether they are developed or developing.

The present study provides a new addition to the prior literature by investigating the relationship between profits and CSR activities and the interaction effect of Shariah-compliant firms. From an Islamic ethical perspective, this study can also contribute to the growing discussion on Shariah compliance and CSR activities.

THE object of industry is to supply the goods and services needed by the community, with the minimum consumption of real resources. The goods and services constitute our standard of living, which we can only improve if we minimise the use of our real resources and reduce the wastage in them. Productivity is thus the ratio between what you take out in the way of goods and services and what you put in as real resources. Higher productivity is getting the same or more goods and services from less resources. That is the problem which faces us both in relation to the immediate needs of the population and in respect to the drive to increase exports and so pay for the important imports which the country so badly needs.

This paper aims to examine the current practice in Singapore regarding an inheritance issue: disposal of the residual net estate to the bayt al-māl, which is identified as the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura, MUIS). The issue arises when the deceased leaves farḍ (fixed-share) heir(s) and/or dhawū al-arḥām (outer family members) but there is no ʿaṣabah (agnatic residuary heir by blood). Farḍ legal heirs are those beneficiaries for whom the Qurʾān prescribes inheritance of a pre-determined share. Disposal of the residual net estate to the bayt al-māl results in a reduction in the share due to the farḍ legal heir or worse, a total loss to the dhawū al-arḥām legal heirs.

A qualitative approach based on library and case study research has been adopted to elaborate practices that fall under the purview of the Administration of Muslim Law Acts (AMLA), Chapter 3.

The current practice seems biased against, especially, women and spouses. It creates high dissatisfaction in the community, especially those affected by such practices. This paper elaborates on the practice of residual net estate distribution in Singapore and the contemporary practices of the four Sunni madh-habs – the Ḥanafī, Mālikī, Shāfiʿī and Ḥanbalī jurisprudential schools – in other countries.

In Singapore, Muslim law is defined and implemented by the civil court, not the Syariah Court or MUIS. The recommendation to change from the current classical practice by the Syariah Court and MUIS to the contemporary practice that is relevant to today’s context lies with the civil court and Government of Singapore. The choice for the Syariah Court and MUIS to adopt the contemporary practice as per Ḥanafī School by rule of the court or the government is beyond this research. Zayd ibn Thābit, Caliph Abū Bakr and a small number of companions held the view that the residue net estate asset must go to the bayt al-māl, the current classical practice. The contemporary practice adopted by Sayyidina ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, Jābir ibn Zayd and majority of the companions’ view, is not in favour of the residue net estate asset to go to the bayt al-māl; rather they view that it must be returned to the legal heirs.

Awareness in the community in the current controversial practice in Singapore when the residue net estate through the farāʾiḍ law was giving to bayt al-māl instead of returning to farḍ or dhawū al-arḥām in the absence of the ʿaṣabah legal heir as stated in the Inheritance Certificate issued by Syariah Court.

To understand the contemporary Muslim law and the practical and just application in today’s Singapore context as supported by the AMLA, Chapter 3.

This is the first study that challenges the current practice by the Syariah Court and MUIS in Singapore, thereby endeavouring to restore justice to the community.

Politics has three contingent aspects, viz. a role‐play, a Majestic Art and a human social science. We may talk of the first aspect as just politicking. The second aspect was delineated by Aristotle as an art of doing vis‐a‐vis the art of making: He meant by the former a behavioural art and by the latter a productive art; and the third aspect represents a comprehensive analytical study of human social behaviour.

Outlines the evolution of the idea of private property in the West and in early Islamic states; and its practical translation into property rights in land in the UK, Islamic territories and South Asia. Provides a glossary of terms which may be unfamiliar to Western readers and argues that the East India Company’s Permanent Settlement Regulation in South Asia recognized existing rights and did not create new ones. Believes that understanding this is important for any evolutionary theory of the South Asian economy.

SOCIAL scientists have not yet been able to formulate any general laws about behaviour in industry that are capable of broad application. In recent years, however, they have made many useful case studies of which the one just published by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is typical. It is an approach to the problem which can do much to increase the understanding of the way in which people react to common industrial situations.

THERE have been official links for the past twelve years between the Institute of Incorporated Work Study Technologists and Time and Motion Study. Many of its members have been valued contributors to our pages and the Institute has had editorial space for its news.

PROJECTS launched early in National Productivity Year are still producing useful results. One of the most commendable of these was the circulation of a questionnaire which reached manufacturing firms in Monmouthshire. It was the idea of No. 3 sub‐committee of the country's Productivity Study Group.

MISS ANNE SHAW's presence on the platform at the annual general meeting of the Management Consultants Association was a solid assurance that work study still lies within its scope. The initial impression was weakened, however, when the chairman, Mr. D. J. Nicolson, mentioned that the bulk of consultancy work was no longer concerned with work study. Instead, it gave more than half its attention to policymaking and the broad aspects of organising financial, manufacturing and marketing resources.

FIVE years ago a score or so of Work Study enthusiasts met in Holland to consider the desirability of creating an organic link between their national bodies. The following year, slightly increased in numbers, they gathered in Germany to create what is now the European Work Study Federation. Since then, through an annual Congress in Stockholm, London and Zurich, it has established itself as an international body.