Putrajaya, November 10-11, 2010 – Muzakarah Cendekiawan Shari’ah Nusantara (Regional Shari’ah Scholars Dialogue) is an annual event that gathers prominent Shari`ah scholars from ASEAN region comprising Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and Thailand.

This year, the 4th Muzakarah Cendekiawan Shari’ah Nusantara (MCSN) was organized by the International Shari’ah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA) under the patronage of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) on the 10-11th November at Putrajaya International Convention Centre, Malaysia. The objective of the dialogue is to enhance the existing collaborative efforts on Shari`ah matters and strengthen the framework for cooperation and harmonisation amongst Shari`ah scholars. The event was attended by 150 invited delegates, including academicians, representative of Islamic finance institutionsand others.

The theme of the 4th Muzakarah Cendekiawan Shari’ah Nusantara was ‘Hiyal and Makharij: Towards Transparency in the Operations of Islamic Banking’. This year around MCSN was a two-day event and was officiated by the deputy governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, Dato’ Muhammad Ibrahim.

There was one session on the first day, while the second was conducted on the second day. The presentations and the discussions were conducted in Malay language. This dialogue aims to refine the financial operations of banking in practice, particularly in understanding the concept of hiyal and makharij in Islamic finance. In addition, the issues that have been identified include the practice of ijarah from the context of application-and the legal and Shari’ah framework.

The first session discussed the adaptation of the concept of hiyal (legal trick) in Islamic finance. The first paper is entitled ‘Parameter of Hiyal in Islamic Finance’. It was presented by Mohamed Fairooz Abdul Khir, an associate researcher at ISRA and Prof. Dr. Ashraf Mohd Hashim, a senior researcher at ISRA. The second paper titled- “Hiyal and Makharij in Islamic Banking (Indonesian experience)” was presented by Dr. Hasanuddin of Majlis Ulama’ Indonesia. These papers was reviewed and commented by Dr. Isamael Ali of Prince of Songkhla University, Mr. Zamerey Abdul Razak of Asian Finance Bank, Prof. Dr. Abdul Aziz Hanafi of Kolej Universiti Insaniah, Mr. Shamsun Anwar Hussain of CIMB and Mr. Musa Abdul Malek of Bank Muamalat Malaysia.

The second session on the second day discussed the concept of ijarah from the context of application-and the legal and Shari’ah framework. The first presenter was Dr. Aida Othman of Zaid Ibrahim & Co, the second presenter was Ustaz Ahmad Suhaimi Yahya of Kuwait Finance House (Malaysia) Bhd and the third presenter was Dr. Setiawan Budi Utomo of Bank of Indonesia. These papers was reviewed by Ustaz Suhaimi Yusof of Bank Negara Malaysia, Shamsiah Abdul Karim of Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nurdianawati Abdullah of IIUM and Dr. Maroning Salaming of Prince of Songkhla University.

Conference Papers & Resolution