Seven working teams have been appointed to make a study on Syariah Index in the implementation of the Islamic law-based state administration agenda before being finalised in mid-January next year.

Syariah Index Project leader Prof Dr Zaleha Kamaruddin said after the study, researchers could see whether Malaysia had implemented national governance based on Islamic law.

"We cannot just assume that the administration of Malaysia is based on Islamic law without an index study. Besides that, we will also make comparisons with other Islamic countries to see where Malaysia is as an Islamic state," she said.

 

Zaleha, who is also the Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (UIAM) rector, was speaking after a receiving her letter of appointment as head of the Syariah Index Project from Jamil Khir Baharom, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

The Shariah Index is a metric to measure the commitment and implementation transformation agenda of a country's administration based on Maqasid Al-Syariah (Islamic law).

Zaleha said the research project would be carried out by local and international experts who included leading consultants, indexing specialists, discipline specialists, syariah expert, policy specialists, independent experts and the secretariat.

"This index will be implemented as a smart partnership between IIUM as the principal consultant, Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (Yadim), and the Malaysia Islamic Development Department (Jakim)," she said.

Meanwhile, Yadim president Senator Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said after the completion of the study, measurements of the index would enter the Syariah audit phase.

This is a normal process, adding that the Syariah Index would also look into all aspects of administration in the country, such as jurisprudence, knowledge, education and economy

.

Prime Minister Najib Razak had earlier announced the implementation of Syariah Index to measure a country's achievements in implementing syariah requirements and would be applied beginning January next year.

- Bernama