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Nature is the single and most complex system that has been always studied, and no one can compete Mother Nature, but we can learn from her, by many new methodologies through biology. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

In this paper, being inspired by the mechanism through which our Mother Nature handling human taste, a proposed model for clustering and classification hand gesture is introduced based on human taste controlling strategy.

The model can extract information from measurement data and handling it as the structure of tongue and the nervous systems of human taste recognition.

The efficiency of proposed model is demonstrated experimentally on classifying the sign language data set; in the high recognition accuracy obtained for numbers of ASL was 95.52 percent.

This study aims to investigate the significant role of the Shariah Board (SB) in the innovation of digital finance products through SBs’ interaction with financial technology (FinTech).

By using semi-structured interviews, the paper examines 34 views and experiences of scholars and other practitioners from the FinTech and Islamic banking industries to gain an in-depth understanding of SBs’ Shariah compliance roles in FinTech inclusion in Malaysian Islamic banks (IBs).

Taking advantage of Malaysia’s comprehensive Shariah Governance Framework for IBs, the study highlighted the importance of SBs to better address the opportunities and challenges of financial innovation for the development of IBs with the inclusion of FinTech. The authors found that digital solutions and tools, such as Robo Advisory system and blockchain, enhance SBs’ roles by providing more effective and timely Shariah assurance regardless of the volume of data information and storage.

Given SBs significant roles in conforming to the Shariah, the study contributed significantly to assisting the regulatory and policy promulgation that enhance SBs’ integrity and credibility in response to the growth of IB infrastructures and financial innovation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the significant role of SBs in the innovation of digital finance products through their interaction with FinTech, while prior studies focused on the characteristics and structure of Islamic digital financial products.

The purpose of this paper is to draw a map of the general features of epistemological and critical concerns in contemporary Islamic philosophy. This study will not be confined to the domain of academic philosophy or to those who are professionals in the field of philosophy.

The paper adopted the critical rational approach in dealing with contemporary Islamic philosophy in the Arab world. The scope will include scholars from different fields of epistemology who tried to present a “vision” of the attitude that should be adopted in facing the challenges of the age and the problems of the nation on the epistemological level or the political, economic and social levels.

There is a need for a philosophy of action and progress rather than a philosophy that is based on abstract ideas and theories and of words/rhetoric. The ethics required to accomplish this ought to identify the attributes of the citizen who can reach self-actualization through legitimate means based on a progress agenda with theoretical and philosophical foundations.

Because a critical rational approach can be dealt with from different perspectives, this paper will adopt the classification of the principal intellectual trends: the reformist, secular and liberal.

This paper covers a long time span to determine whether the philosophical projects have been effective.

This paper, which criticizes the philosophic projects that are theoretically unsound and that do not address real social problems (like poverty), argues the need for a philosophy of progress and action. This will lead to devising an agenda that addresses the challenges the society is facing and to finding alternative and creative solutions resulting in development.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the factors that influence the use of Islamic banking (IB) services by religious leaders in Indonesia using the theory of reasoned action. Customers of sharia banks consist of Muslims and other religions. Based on this fact, this paper analyzes the influence of attitude (ATT), community influence (CI), religious obligation (RO) and subjective norms (SN) to predict the intentions of religious leaders in using IB services in Indonesia.

Data were randomly obtained from 119 religious’ leaders with the structural equation modeling technique used for analysis.

The empirical analysis data suggest that attitude (ATT) and religious obligations (RO) show a significant impact on the intentions of religious leaders to use IB services, while community influence and subjective norms have a negative impact on the intentions of Indonesian religious leaders in using IB services.

This study aims to assist Islamic bank managers in Indonesia to formulate appropriate Islamic marketing strategies and policies to increase customer trust through comprehensive socialization to religious communities. The strategy is a necessity, especially because the government is targeting a 10% growth by 2020. Furthermore, bank managers need to develop in-depth insights into their operations to attract religious leaders’ intentions. The fact shows that the stronger the understanding of individual religion, the greater their intention in using IB services.

Because of the increasing interest in adopting IB in Indonesia, this study claims three essential contributions. Firstly, it aims to examine the intention of religious leaders, namely, Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism, in assisting IB managers to design a strategy better than conventional banks. Secondly, the study findings are expected to benefit the development of literature in accordance with the economic conditions of certain religions. Thirdly, this study provides an insight into the inclusive attitude of religious leaders and their intention to adopt the economic structure of other religions.

The primary aim of the current study is to validate the theoretical model presented by Demir (2021a, b, c) via empirical evidence. In this respect, the study intends to offer a holistic pathway for obtaining both external and internal advantages from the implementation of ISO 9001, with a particular emphasis on developing countries.

The research utilized an empirical methodology to investigate the research objective. Data were collected from various sources, including employees and managers of the various companies. In this context, a model was developed, and 170 data points were collected from businesses in the Kurdistan region of Iraq in order to test the hypotheses in this model.

After the collected data passed the reliability and validity test, the hypotheses designed were tested by applying the partial least squares method. When the results were examined, it was observed that organizational culture and organizational learning variables were the two key antecedents that these factors would emerge after applying ISO 9001 practices with discipline for a certain period of time and that organizational benefits could be obtained only as a result of them. Detailed results and suggestions were given to managers and theorists as a result of the analysis.

This study contributes to the literature as an empirical application of the theoretical work written by Demir in 2021. Demir's work, which produced a theoretical concept based on many empirical and theoretical studies done before, still needs much more empirical work in developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors that influence people’s behaviour in paying zakat, explore their perceptions of the institutions, examine the factors that influence their trust and analyse the impact of trust on their behaviour in paying zakat to the institutions.

A questionnaire was distributed to 740 potential Zakat payers in the Federal Territory, Malaysia. In designing the questionnaire, a systematic literature review, focus group discussions and pilot study were conducted. Descriptive analysis and partial least squares structural equation model were used with SmartPLS software.

The result shows that trust, intention to pay zakat and age of the respondents have statistically significant impacts on people’s behaviour to pay zakat through institutions. Intention to pay zakat is influenced by attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. In addition, the main common concerns expressed were lack of awareness of the importance of paying zakat, lack of transparency in zakat administration, especially in collection and distribution, and inefficiency in administration and distribution. Moreover, trust in the institutions could be established if the institution is able to fulfil its mission of collecting and distributing zakat to the entitled Asnaf and improve their welfare, as trust not only has a direct impact on people’s behaviour, but also strengthens people’s intention and influences their behaviour to pay zakat to the institutions.

This study focuses on a specific geographical area and zakat institution; hence, the study’s generalisability is limited. The use of self-reported and cross-sectional data may introduce bias and fail to capture the dynamic change of trust, intention and behaviour across time. The proposed solution of leveraging digital platforms may provide numerous hurdles and obstacles for adoption by the zakat institution.

This study shows the significant role of trust in influencing people’s intentions and behaviour in supporting organisations. Therefore, it can serve as an indicator of the performance or success of a particular institution. Thus, there is a need to find strategies to gain people’s trust by improving their ability, integrity and benevolence in performing their tasks.

This paper aims to analyze the role of waqf in the socio-economic development of the organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries. Various projects currently use waqf as an instrument for socio-economic development, as reported in the scholarly literature. This study will investigate this literature to explore trends in waqf studies and the role of this Islamic form of endowment in the socio-economic development of OIC countries.

This systematic literature review focuses on peer-reviewed journals and data obtained from the Mendeley database using specific criteria to analyze the socio-economic developmental role of waqf in OIC countries from 2011‐2020.

The socio-economic developmental role of waqf in OIC countries has been widely studied. In total, 68 academic articles were found that are relevant to themes of poverty alleviation, social welfare, entrepreneurship, education, health services and religious facilities. They reveal that the role of waqf in social welfare was the most discussed topic in the research. In addition, the majority of studies used an interview method to study waqf institutions in nine OIC countries. Furthermore, the number of publications on the theme has increased significantly every year, although the largest proportion occurred in unindexed journals.

This study provides an overview of research trends in the socio-economic developmental role of waqf. Its results can provide practical input for waqf institutions as they encourage its practice in OIC countries, and for policymakers in formulating their management strategies to promote the role of waqf in the social and economic aspects of society.

This paper reviews the current development of the socio-economic role of waqf in OIC countries. It will help researchers improve their understanding of this role. It will also provide waqf managers in OIC countries with adequate information on waqf projects which they can implement to achieve socio-economic development in their countries.

This study aims to explore how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia display resilience in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A qualitative research design was used, which involved semi-structured interviews on five creative industry-based businesses in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. A narrative inquiry approach was used to obtain an in-depth understanding of SMEs’ resilience. The data obtained were analyzed using thematic analysis via MaxQDA 2020.

The Covid-19 pandemic triggered the emergence of both new opportunities and new constraints for SMEs. These, in turn, significantly interrupt their business model. SMEs are found to navigate survival, continuity and growth by drawing from their resourcefulness and firm-level strategies to cope with the new opportunities and constraints.

This study was conducted qualitatively based on five SMEs in the creative industry in Indonesia. This limits the ability to compare the findings across different economic sectors.

SMEs facing emergent constraints may need to find new ways to recombine existing resources and simultaneously seek to innovate their business model. Business owners and entrepreneurs should adopt a positive mindset such as optimism, perseverance and efficacy, to cope with adversity. Growth-oriented SMEs may make use of a competitive mindset such as flexibility, speed and innovation, to spot and exploit opportunities that emerge from the crisis.

SMEs’ resilience should be understood not only in terms of economic survival and continuity but, more deeply, about their social contribution to the localities where they operate.

This study illustrates the process of how adaptive resilience is adapted and executed by SMEs. It also contributes to entrepreneurial resilience and resourcefulness literature by explaining how entrepreneurs anticipate, respond to and leverage from the crisis.