The Muslim Community's Understanding of the Basic Laws of Qurban Distribution

Abstract

By adopting a quantitative research approach, the study examined the level of understanding of the Muslim community in Malaysia with regard to the fundamental aspects of Shariah or Islamic laws pertaining to Qurban and its distribution. The findings are significant for the religious authority in assessing the level of knowledge of the Muslims and identifying the specific laws that are subject to potential misunderstanding. On a 4-scale of classifications i.e., poor, weak, satisfactory and strong level, the study revealed that the respondents merely have a satisfactory level of understanding of the relevant Qurban laws. A majority of the respondents had wrongly assumed that the Qurban ritual can be performed on behalf of a deceased person, and incorrectly perceived that the Qurban meat could be given to the slaughterer and the committee members in charge for the management of Qurban. There was also a lack of understanding with regard to the laws of performing Qurban by those who have vowed to do it as well as the distribution of Qurban meat to the different categories of beneficiary.