Determining the indicators for Islamic personal wellbeing index from Muslim perspectives / Sharifah Adlina Tuan Sayed Amran

Wellbeing is defined as a situation of positive feeling (happiness and satisfaction) and also
positive functioning elements (engagement and self-acceptance). Wellbeing derived from
a combination of what a person has, what a person can do with what they have and how
they think about what they have and can do. From an Islamic perspective, wellbeing is
explained through inside and outer fulfillment, driving towards a peaceful life, named as
Hayat-e-Tayyaba. The maqasid al-shariah principles are normally used by scholars to
explain wellbeing from the Islamic perspective. Wellbeing is an example of the condition
of households, society and the people of a nation generally. Main aim of the study is to
develop an Islamic personal wellbeing index incorporating maqasid al-shariah indicators,
namely protection of religion, protection of life, protection of knowledge, protection of
posterity and protection of wealth. The respondents of this cross-sectional study were the
individuals in Alor Gajah, Malacca. This present study involved two main phases which
are the development of the questionnaire as the research instrument and the data collection
stage. An expert review was conducted in developing the questionnaire and the data
collection was carried out through a survey aided which is through a structured
questionnaire on individual using the non-probability sampling which is purposive
sampling technique for the district of Alor Gajah, Malacca. Therefore, in achieving the
objectives of the study, data collected from 160 respondents were analysed using various
statistical methods namely descriptive statistics (frequency tables) and one-way ANOVA.
Islamic Personal Wellbeing Index are formd based on maqasid al-shariah principles.
There were five dimensions of with eleventh indicators of maqasid al-shariah principles
where religion is the highest weightage dimensions whuch consist of five time prayer,
fasting and recite Al-Quran while the lowest is wealth which consist of having a job and
spending some of the money on societies’ benefits. The results shows that the number of
households have significant difference to religion, life, posterity and wealth. In addition, in
term of dimension, life dimension is significant towards the age, income per month, level
of education and number of households. As overall index, the number of households have
a significant relationship with IPWI. Besides the theoretical and methodological
contributions, the results of this study hold several practical implications for the
government, zakat institutions and the households. Theoretically, this study has added to
the body of knowledge in the area of measuring wellbeing, according to the Islamic
principles which is five dimensions of maqasid al-shariah.