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...

“Analysis leading to paralysis”.  This was a phrase I heard from a discussion involving two experienced professionals who probably have twice the amount of experience I have (or probably quadruple if I were to combine them both). Actually this statement is so true, be it in work or everyday life.  Over-analyzing or in simpler terms, overthinking is probably the main reason stopping people from moving forward and taking action. At work, this sight is quite common when we try to do something new as we try to find the safest, risk-free, next step. In order to satisfy our internal worry...

The past few days (or probably weeks), I had discussions with some of the closest people to me on the importance of ensuring that we do the right thing in whatever we do. Along the discussion, I was introduced to the term “Moral Compass”, which I found to be an accurate way of summarizing this fundamental act of doing the right thing. If I were to summarize the concept of moral compass in my own words: If your decision fits well and is in the right direction of your moral compass, then you are probably on the right track. However,...