CITATION: Ruzian Markom and Hariati Ibrahim@Musa.

"Sustainable Development Through The Islamic Economics System", 5th Islamic Economics System Conference, Faculty Economics And Muamalat, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, 4-5th September 2013

to study the practice of gold trading in Malaysia and its compliance to the requirements of Shariah to provide the readers and the stakeholders in gold trading with the Shariah requirements that they must adhere in this business

Adopted a qualitative approach by describing and exploring the Shariah issues surrounding the gold trading and investment in Malaysia

A case study on the trading practice of selected companies and banks were conducted

Most of the gold trading companies in Malaysia do not have a Shariah panel. Many of them are operated by the non-Muslims. It explain why their operation are not scrutinized by the Shariah compliant gold trading. Thus, some of their practice are not in compliance with the requirements of Shariah. For gold investment account offer by banking institutions, only 2 banks in Malaysia (KFH and al-Rajhi) that comply with Shariah requirements, due to their validity of transactions (the existence of physical gold at the time of transaction). Shariah issues in the practice of gold trading mostly related to the buy and sell activities of gold from the gold trading company, such as the validity of lock-price system, online gold trading procedures, trade-in gold to buy gold and the practice of gold mortgage (ar-rahn) for the purpose of buying more gold. The current controversial issue of Genneva company is a good sample case for the Muslim in Malaysia to understand better on the importance of having a Shariah compliant process in gold trading and understand about true investment of gold.

JAKIM has taken good efforts by issuing the Gold Investment Parameters serve as guidelines to those involve in gold trading and investment.

Contents: 1) The abstract is concise and provide general ideas of the article very well, including the rationale of the study 2) The Introduction provide comprehensive information on the nature of the gold trading 3) Issues of riba in gold trading clearly have been discussed buying gold with fiat money/currency note; and buying gold with deferred payment 4) The definition, scope and Shariah requirements in gold trading have been mentioned in depth explanation, including the views from the jurists and fiqh Councils 5) The comprehensive citation of the primary sources i.e. AL-Quran and sunnah 6) The local study cases involved touched on the current issues as well as the discussion on parameters for gold investment by JAKIM 7) Using some diagrams and table to illustrate the processes of gold trading and facts & figures of the study Clarity of the Language Using a simple language but correct words to describe the issues. No difficulty to understand the terms of muamalat as it provides together the meaning of such terms Reference Used: Various updated and wide sources had been referred; Islamic books, articles, books, journals, websites (companies, banking institutions)

Contents: 1) The arrangement of the contents should be prioritise the sub-topics in order to ease the reader to understand the flow of the contents 2) It should be more gold trading companies to be case studies in this research 3) Some definition/meaning of muamalat terms are not been given 4) The citations from the Quran and Hadith have not been structured accordingly in paragraphs should be put in a new paragraph in order to make the articles understandable and avoid confusing sentences 5) Examples of current gold trading in practice should be illustrate more, especially pertaining to the investment scheme and mortgage (ar-rahn) Clarity of the Language None Reference Used: It could be interesting if there are some references from local Muslim scholars views as the issues taken are local in nature (waqie perspective)

This article is lengthy but very worth to read, especially to those who are finding the comprehensive reference regarding to the gold trading in Malaysia

The issues in the banking gold-based products should be explain more as some Muslims are so relying to the banking institutions to manage their gold investments
It is a big challenge nowadays to educate the community about the riba issues in gold trading, as the scheme or procedure in trading or investment become so complicated. This article is seems to be affordable to be an initial reference for any scholars/daie/legal practitioner to advise the people Further study on current gold trading activities must be done in order to expand the findings and contribute more solutions in muamalat perspective academically

Thank You

MOHD HAZIMIN HARUN P72895