Ulum Islamiyyah - The Malaysian journal of Islamic sciences
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Lockdown during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Psychological Responses and Coping Strategies among Medical Students in a Public University in Malaysia
Full text linkWorld Health Organization (WHO) had promulgated Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic in the early year 2020. Following that, the National Security Council of Malaysia had announced the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020 to curb the disease. This social distancing measure had inevitably induced undesirable psychological responses among the public, including medical students. In this study, we aim to determine the psychological responses of medical students during the MCO period and their coping strategies. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 245 medical students of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) from 24th to 30th April 2020, using an online questionnaire comprising demographic data, Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21), and Brief COPE questionnaire. Nearly 30% of medical students experienced stress, anxiety, or depression. Among all, 9.4% had reported severe anxiety. There were significant differences between avoidance coping strategies and negative psychological responses. In general, the medical students preferred approach coping strategies (M = 29.19, SD = 9.27). Religion (M= 5.62, SD =2.10) was the most favored coping strategy while the least had abused substance (M=2.16, SD.77). A significant statistical difference was revealed in the choice of coping between the genders, for positive reframing, religion, humour, and substance abuse. Pre-clinical students were noted to have significant stress and anxiety levels and more inclined to use avoidance coping strategies. Psychological interventions are essential to address the mental health problems among university students during current and future disasters based on the understanding of their coping strategies
Extracting al-Razi’s Quranic Notion on Epidemic from His Magnum Opus Mafatih al-Ghayb
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic that struck the world has changed the landscape of human life post-21st century. The existence of such epidemic diseases has also been recorded in the world history of human civilization. Interestingly, the Quran, which was revealed fifteen centuries ago, also touches on the issue of pandemic or epidemic diseases that occurred to the previous generations and provides a reminder for the future generations. The Quran explains that epidemic diseases are one of the forms of worldly azab or punishment sent by Allah as a reminder of the damage and tyranny committed by human beings. The interpretation of epidemic diseases in the Quran has been parsed by a famous exegesis scholar, Imam al-Razi in his magnum opus, The Exegesis of Mafatih al-Ghayb. His masterpiece has brought a new dimension in understanding epidemic diseases through the combination of naqli and aqli approaches. Nonetheless, the collection of epidemic verses in The Exegesis of Mafatih al-Ghayb has been less frequently discussed. Therefore, this paper presents a study that identified and analyzed the verses related to epidemic diseases based on the views of Imam al-Razi. This study employed the qualitative method based on the text analysis approach using the Quran and The Exegesis of Mafatih al-Ghayb. This study found that the words rijz, rijs, and azab are synonymous with epidemics. These three words have certain characteristics that lead to the spread of the epidemic as stated by Imam al-Razi. Additionally, there are several holistic approaches stated by al-Razi in understanding epidemics and how to avoid them at present time and in the future. This approach needs to be understood by every layer of the society in order for the message of the Quran on epidemic diseases to be understood well and to curb the spread of epidemics
The Benefits and Limitations of an Online Qualitative Tracer Study
Full text linkA qualitative tracer study of USIM medical graduates’ performance in the workplace was conducted by performing face-to-face and focus group interviews to evaluate the effectiveness of the current curriculum. This paper discusses the challenges during the data collection stage and the needs to improve data collection strategies in response to the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) by the Malaysian Government. It will also analyse the benefits and limitations when adjusting the data collection strategies. In the beginning, data collection was administered via face-to-face (individual) and focus group interviews. When the MCO was enforced, the interviews were shifted to online methodology. This online adaptation provided the convenience of scheduling interviews and also comfort to the graduates to participate in their homes that normally had better internet access than in the hospitals. The risk of exposure to COVID-19 through face-to-face interactions was therefore reduced. Although the usage of Microsoft Teams was conducive to online recording, some graduates were not able to access the application during their scheduled interviews. As such, Google Meet was employed instead, and the interviews were recorded by using a voice recorder. Besides, the saving in travelling costs for data collection was significant as the extra budget could be allocated for other research expenditure. In this study, Microsoft Teams licence was provided by the university and Google Meet was free of charge. Hence, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented an opportunity for the adoption of an online data collection method that was not reckoned with at the beginning of this study. Online data collection can therefore be considered for both qualitative and quantitative studies in the future.  
Women Empowerment through Training of Face Shield Making from Unused Materials as COVID-19 Prevention Effort
Full text linkCOVID-19 is a viral infectious disease with relatively high death rate, especially in Indonesia. The government program, the large-scale social restrictions impacts on all aspects of human life, including the economy, due to which, people’s purchasing power decreases. This condition forces people to think creatively to protect themselves against COVID-19. This study aimed to describe the role of women’s groups in the prevention effort of COVID-19 through training of face shields making, utilizing unused materials. This is an interventional study, describing a training programme for a group of women in Indonesia (n=15 women). Participants of the women empowerment program were women in Ngingas Village, Waru District, Sidoarjo. The programme took place from July to August 2020 for four weeks, and included evaluating knowledge levels, health education about COVID-19, and training of making face shields. The results showed that the participants’ knowledge of COVID-19 significantly improved after training, in which the pre-test score was 57.67 ± 13.07, and the post-test score was 72 ± 7.97. Although the participants appreciated this training, they were less enthusiastic about production management and marketing. The participants cared for their families and community health. In addition, they were able to think creatively to make face shields from unused materials to protect themselves and their families. Thus, women could be role models for their families and communities to maintain health protocols in the new adaptation era of the COVID-19
Attitudes and Experience of Malaysian Parents towards School Closure during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Full text linkIn 2020, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had triggered the lockdown in many countries around the world. School closure was no exception as a measure to limit the spread of the disease. This step was expected to bring some impact on parents, especially if both of them were working. In this study, we aimed to investigate Malaysian parental attitudes and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted an online cross-sectional survey by using a structured questionnaire, between May and June 2020. A total of 273 parents with children aged below 18 years old were involved. Descriptive analysis was done to determine the sociodemographic data of the respondents, their attitudes, and their experiences associated with the school closure during the outbreak. 97.4 % of parents agreed with the school closure. The majority of them believed the outbreak was serious and the school dismissal was appropriate to protect their children and the community. However, only 54.9 % were well prepared for the measure. 11.4 % of parents had difficulty arranging childcare. During the outbreak, 85.7 % experienced missing work and 71.4 % felt at risk of losing their jobs. The school closure also indirectly incurred additional costs for 88.6% of the parents and partially contributed to 75.5% of the parents losing income. Unexpected long-term school closure might cause some adverse outcomes to the employed parents during a pandemic, therefore, the health authority and education department should take this into consideration when mitigating this issue
Understanding the Impacts of Lockdown during COVID-19 Pandemic on Financial Threat and Psychological Response among Sarawak Adults
Full text linkThe Malaysian government announced the lockdown measures following the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in mid-March 2020. This action unavoidably led to economic instability and negative psychological effects. The present study examines perceived financial threats and psychological impacts on Sarawak adults during lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from 336 respondents were collected from all divisions in Sarawak using an online self-reported questionnaire that included sociodemographic, the Financial Threat Scale (FTS), and the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales 21 (DASS-21). Results showed that perceived financial threat was associated with the employment sector, the number of children, and the change in income during the lockdown period. Almost half (47.9%) of the respondents perceived moderate-to-severe financial threat, particularly self-employed persons and those who had reduced income during the lockdown. Negative psychological effects were found to be associated with the employment sector, marital status, number of children, and number of liabilities. In general, people who perceived severe financial threats were significantly associated with severe levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. The study provided some insights into the urgent need to build on strategic plans to mitigate the economic and psychological crisis for the affected communities
An Insight into Motivational Factors of Integrating Edu-Tech in Learning Arabic During COVID-19 Outbreak
Full text linkThe employment of instructional technology in teaching and learning has becoming a crucial requirement among teachers and educators especially in the 21st century education. Moreover, the current global emergence situation of COVID-19 pandemic has been forcing educators towards using various online platforms and technologies In Malaysia, universities have scrambled to move the program to an electronic platform to tackle the proliferation of COVID-19 under the national Movement Control Order (MCO). Malaysia’s 20 public universities including Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia was to encourage or mandate online learning for various major languages including Arabic. During this difficult period, Arabic lecturers might need more training to allow them to have an in-depth understanding of how technology can improve learning and motivate their students to learn. The researchers employed responsive semi-structured interviews, which allowed the respondents to share about their teaching practices and how technology motivated them to be more creative in their teaching practices during MCO. The result indicates that online learning can be a solution for the Arabic language educators and practitioners to share their knowledge by using e-Learning or other platforms as education needs to be conducted during MCO. One of the online learning benefits is lecturers become motivated and students become active when they learn using online learning as they are the ones who take responsibility for their learning
Conceptual Framework Related to the Impact of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) on Malaysian Private Entity Reporting Standard (MPERS) adoption by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia
Full text linkMalaysian Private Entity Reporting Standard (MPERS) serves as a new reporting framework to private entities and significant milestones to the capital market. This enables the entities to assert the financial statements with full compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS). Thus, the focus of this paper is to discuss the conceptual framework on the impact of external pressure and environmental uncertainty on the quality of financial reporting by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on environmental uncertainty has an impact on the quality of financial reporting. It is expected that the Malaysia’s authority and regulator will anticipate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, given the outbreak has created disruption in all business chains including the SMEs in Malaysia
Towards the Compilation of the Global Twilight Pattern
Full text linkThis paper summarizes ISRN’s 3-years research on the occurrence of dawn and dusk to mark the timings of the Fajr and Isha prayers. We acquired the astronomical data not only in Indonesia but also in Malaysia, the US, Egypt, and Turkey. It will be an attempt to compile a global twilight pattern in the future. The main instrument used is a Sky Quality Meter (SQM) that records the sky brightness data. For quality assurance, ISRN-UHAMKA employed dozens of imaging sensors ranging from an All Sky Camera, different types of DSLR, and gadget cameras. From hundreds of astronomical data, we have collected; it seems that the occurrence of the real twilight to mark the Fajr prayer throughout the world is the same. That is when the sun is at its depression angle of around 120-130. Likewise, the dusk to mark the end of the Maghrib prayer also occurs when the sun is at a solar depression angle around 120-130. Meanwhile, Muslims in the world use different solar depression angles ranging from -150 to -200.fields
An Evaluation on Dental Students’ Performance during the First Year of Covid-19 Pandemic
Full text linkAs with other university programs, dental school has been affected during the Covid-19 pandemic due to physical distancing and clinical restriction. Covid-19 pandemic changes the original method of study with the swift shift to online learning, which may affect students’ performance. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of online learning methods on the final examination performance for dental undergraduate students in their clinical years in a public university in Malaysia. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc Tukey tests were conducted to compare the effect of learning methods on the mean examination score, by comparing clinical students from the year of 2018 and 2019 face-to-face (f2f) learning method as compared to fully online learning in 2020. The analysis shows that there is a statistically significant difference on final exam performance at p < 0.05 for Year 3 [F (2, 102) = 11.68] and Year 5 [F(2, 95) = 22.32]. Post-hoc Tukey HSD test indicates that the mean examination result for 2019 is significantly different from 2020 and 2018 even though the same learning method was employed for the latter. There was also no statistically significant difference for when the 2020 cohort is compared to the 2018 cohort for both Year 3 and Year 5. There was no statistically significant difference in mean examination score across all cohorts for Year 4 students. Although limited in scope, the conclusion of this study was that, f2f learning method has no significant difference with online learning in terms of final examination performance