The past few days have been unsettling for Malaysians following the sudden increase of COVID-19 cases. It significantly jumped from a base of 25 cases to above 100 within 9 days. Days ahead are uncertain as the numbers keeps on increasing with no sign of this global calamity slowing down. In Malaysia particularly, the COVID-19 ‘panic-demic’ (as it is yet to be declared pandemic despite over hundred thousand cases infected worldwide – higher than SARS, MERS or Ebola in the recent years) was against a backdrop of a political ‘turnover’ that caught everyone by surprise, which have brought to where...
On a lazy and laid back Sunday, let’s touch on something a bit lighter, personally closer and hopefully (and logically) everyone could relate to (unless you decide not to). The subject randomly came out during a session by Dr. Ashraf as a “by the way” thing, but to me it was so important that I decided to share it here. The issue has always been there, he just helped to frame and summarize it for easier understanding and remembrance. Practically, everyone knows about it, whether we realize it or want to admit it is separate thing altogether. It’s something most of...
The lead facilitator for CIIF’s Chartered and Fellowship Masterclass (CFM) was a man by the name of Dr Mohamed Ashraf Iqbal – a man with many skills and knowledge. While spending the early part of his career as a mechanical engineer and a consultant, he then joined the Islamic Finance scene as a Board and Shariah Committee member of an Islamic Bank, backed by a Ph.D in Islamic Finance from INCEIF. He is a walking knowledge house for sure, with the amount of books he read and his ability to connect so many implicit parts of the world, naturally connecting them to the...
Today was the last day of CIIF’s Chartered and Fellowship Masterclass (CFM) [also my one and only brother’s birthday – woot woot!]. To close off the 3.5 days masterclass, we had a panel of industry experts talking about the various aspects of Islamic finance against the backdrop of IR 4.0 – the digital era. It was good line up of speakers who brought in practical yet deep thoughts to the table: Fellow CIIF Grand Council Member, Azleena Idris (seated in the middle) who was an ex-regulator, ex-banker and now with the leading payment system PayNet.Representing takaful we had Zainal Kassim...
It’s been an interesting and I must say rejuvenating 3 days of learning as I sit through CIIF’s Chartered and Fellowship Masterclass (CFM). While revisiting the fundamental bits and forming a helicopter-view of Islamic finance remained the core objective of the masterclass, it was the indirect yet basic lessons that really caught my attention. Among the pleasant reminder was on the foundational humanity need to be socially responsible. This should be the anchoring objective in whatever we do, including (obviously not limited to) shaping the Islamic finance industry – to help human beings regardless who they are live a better...
