# International Islamic University Malaysia

The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) is a public university in Malaysia. Headquartered in Gombak, Selangor, IIUM has six other campuses all over Malaysia: two medical-centric campuses and a Centre for Foundation Studies in Gambang, Pahang, two city campuses in Kuala Lumpur, and a language and tourism campus in Pagoh, Johor.
The university is sponsored by eight governments and the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It is distinct from the International Islamic University, Indonesia and International Islamic University Chittagong, Bangladesh.
The university was established on 23 May 1983 and founded upon Islamic principles. Islamic values are inculcated into all disciplines. IIUM offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees courses at its 14 faculties or "Kulliyyah" ("Kulliyyat", in plural).
Since 1987, IIUM has produced more than 70,000 graduates and undergraduates from more than 100 countries around the world. Most of them were from Malaysia.

## History

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad conceived the idea for an international institution of Islamic education in 1982 during a meeting between OIC leaders about the Islamization of knowledge. The idea was shared with the then-minister of education, Sulaiman Daud; the then-director-general of education, Murad Mohamed Nor; and two others. Mohamed Kamal Hassan, then of the National University of Malaysia, along with a senior academic official who attended the meeting, produced the first working paper on the concept of the university.
Ismail al-Faruqi, a prominent scholar, played a significant role in this movement. He advised political leaders in the Muslim world, including Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan and Mahathir Mohamad. During Zia-ul-Haq’s administration, al-Faruqi contributed to the establishment of the International Islamic University in Islamabad in 1980, which aimed to integrate Islamic values with contemporary academic disciplines. In Malaysia, al-Faruqi's advisory role was instrumental in the foundation of the university in 1983. These institutions were part of broader efforts to develop educational systems that combined religious and secular knowledge, fostering intellectual and cultural development in the Muslim world.
The university would be the first Islamic university in the world to conceptualize the "integration of knowledge with morals," a concept adopted at the International Convention of Islamic Education in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 1976.
IIUM was once a private university. As the university's language of instruction was not to be Malay but instead English and Arabic, which was initially prohibited by Malaysian law, IIUM was initially incorporated under the currently repealed Companies Act 1965. However, IIUM was officially made a public university on 23 May 1983, by Section 5A (2) of the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971, when the university received its establishment order from the then King, Ahmad Shah of Pahang, after an exchange of diplomatic notes of co-sponsorship between the government of Malaysia, seven other governments and OIC.
A batch of 153 students from Malaysia and abroad were enrolled for the first academic session, which started on 8 July 1983. Courses were conducted under the Faculty of Economics, the Faculty of Laws, the Centre for Fundamental Knowledge, and the Centre for Languages. The members of this first batch received their degrees and diplomas during the first convocation held on 10 October 1987. 68 graduates were conferred the degree of Bachelor of Economics, 56 other graduates received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and 29 Qadhis were conferred Diploma in Law and Administration of Islamic Judiciary.

## Governance

Ahmad Shah of Pahang was the founding constitutional head since 1 July 1983. Before his death, he was replaced by his daughter-in-law, the current Tengku Ampuan of Pahang, Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah. She was made the constitutional head on 12 April 2019 for a five-year term, ending her father-in-law's chancellery in IIUM for 36 years, but the instrument of appointment was only presented to her by the federal government on 17 June 2019.
Mohd. Daud Bakar, an Islamic finance expert in Malaysia, sits as the eighth and current president since 1 July 2019.

### Leaders since 1983

| # | Name | Term start | Term-end |
| Constitutional Head ||||
| 1 | Ahmad Shah of Pahang | 1 July 1983 | 11 April 2019 |
| 2 | Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah | 12 April 2019 | Present |
| President ||||
| 1 | Hussein Onn | 1983 | 1987 |
| 2 | Anwar Ibrahim | 1988 | 1998 |
| 3 | Najib Razak | 1998 | 1999 |
| 4 | Sanusi Junid | February 2000 | 1 June 2008 |
| 5 | Mohd Sidek Hassan | 2 June 2008 | 1 June 2013 |
| 6 | Rais Yatim | 2 June 2013 | 1 June 2018 |
| 7 | Maszlee Malik | 5 September 2018 | 9 November 2018 |
| 8 | Mohd Daud Bakar | 1 July 2019 | 30 June 2022 |
| 9 | Samsudin Osman | 1 July 2022 | Present |
| Rector ||||
| 1 | Muhammad M. Abdul Rauf | 1984 | 1989 |
| 2 | Abdul Hamid AbuSulayman | 1989 | 1998 |
| 3 | Mohd Kamal Hassan | 5 April 1998 | 31 May 2006 |
| 4 | Syed Arabi Idid | 1 June 2006 | 1 June 2011 |
| 5 | Zaleha Kamarudin | 2 August 2011 | 31 July 2018 |
| 6 | Dzulkifli Abdul Razak | 1 August 2018 | 31 July 2024 |
| 7 | Osman Bakar | 21 September 2024 | present |

## Campus

IIUM is headquartered at a 700-acre (2.8 km²) campus at Gombak, Selangor and has six other campuses. Three of campuses are in Kuantan, Pahang, with the Centre for Foundation Studies situated at Gambang, medical-centric campus situated at Bandar Indera Mahkota and clinical campus situated near Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital. Two city campuses are located at Persiaran Duta and Jalan Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, and another campus is located at Bandar Universiti Pagoh, Johor.

### Centres of studies

IIUM has 14 following faculties. Each of them is, in Arabic, called "Kulliyyah" ("Kulliyyat" in plural):
* Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws (AIKOL) – Gombak
* Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences (KENMS) - Gombak
* AbdulHamid AbuSulayman Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences (AHAS KIRKHS) - Gombak
* Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design (KAED) – Gombak
* Kulliyyah of Engineering (KOE) - Gombak
* Kulliyyah of Education (KOE) - Gombak
* Kulliyyah of Information and Communication Technology (KICT) - Gombak
* Kulliyyah of Medicine (KOM) – Kuantan
* Kulliyyah of Dentistry (KOD) - Kuantan
* Kulliyyah of Allied Health Sciences (KAHS) - Kuantan
* Kulliyyah of Science (KOS) - Kuantan
* Kulliyyah of Nursing (KON) - Kuantan
* Kulliyyah of Sustainable Tourism and Contemporary Language (KSTCL) - Pagoh
* IIUM facilities
* Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Mosque, Gombak Campus (outside view)
* Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Mosque, Gombak Campus (inside view)
* Cultural Centre (at left side) and Azman Hashim Complex (at right side)
* Library at Gombak Campus
* Mahallah al-Faruq, one of 17 residential colleges existed in Gombak Campus
* Sayyidina Hamzah Stadium
* Football field

## Academics
### Usrah

IIUM is the only public university in Malaysia that requires all of its foundation and undergraduate students to attend Usrah, i.e. Islamic study circle held weekly for the purpose of social, spiritual and intellectual enhancement. Since the establishment of IIUM, Usrah has been a requirement for students to graduate from IIUM. Since 2014, a separate Usrah has been held at residential colleges in addition to centralised Usrah, which is also compulsory to intermediate undergraduate students living in campus.

## Achievements
### Awards and recognition

In 2014, IIUM was ranked tenth out of 440 teams participated in the 35th World Universities Debating Championship. In 2016, IIUM won the United Asian Debating Championship, the Australasian Intervarsity Debate Championship, and the Asian British Parliamentary Championship. In 2017, IIUM was made the runner-up of World Universities Arabic Debating Championship.
In the field of research, IIUM have received recognition at regional and international level by winning gold, silver and bronze medals at exhibitions and expos, including PENCIPTA, INPEX, ITEX Geneva and KIPA. IIUM entered the inaugural Proton Green Mobility Challenge 2012 (PGMC) when the University's entry, an electric powered Proton Saga BLM named "Smart Mobility" became the overall champion and also took "Farthest Distance" and "Fastest Two Laps Challenge" award.
IIUM was involved in the creation of the Malaysian Shariah Index with collaboration from JAKIM and YADIM which Malaysia will be the first country in the world to adopt it. The index will measure the compliance of eight fields – judiciary, politics, economics, health, education, culture, infrastructure and environment, and social – with "maqasid syariah", or the intentions of Shariah. The Malaysian Shariah Index was officially launched by the Prime Minister of Malaysia on 10 February 2015.

## Notable alumni

IIUM has been known to be the most influential Islamic tertiary education institute in the country as well as one of the leading Islamic universities in the Muslim world.
* Notable International Islamic University Malaysia Alumni
* Pritam Singh, Leader of the Opposition for Singapore
* Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, Vice President of the Maldives
* Zambry Abdul Kadir, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malaysia
* Koutoub Moustapha Sano, Minister of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Guinea
* Pengiran Mohammad Tashim, Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs of Brunei
* Syed Saddiq, President of the Malaysian United Democratic Alliance
* Azalina Othman Said, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department for Law and Institutional Reforms of Malaysia
* Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, Chairman of the Majlis Amanah Rakyat
* Khalid Abu Bakar, Inspector-General of the Royal Malaysian Police
* Asri Zainul Abidin, Mufti of Perlis
* Hassan Saeed, Attorney General of the Republic of Maldives

## Notable faculty members
### Current faculty members

* Abdul Rashid Moten, professor of KIRKHS, political scientist
* Abdullah al-Ahsan, professor of KIRKHS, contemporary Muslim historian
* Shamrahayu Abdul Aziz, associate professor of AIKOL, constitutional expert
* Syed Arabi Syed Abdullah Idid, senior professor of KIRKHS, media and communication expert and Rector of IIUM (2006–2011)
* Zaleha Kamarudin, professor of AIKOL, family law expert and Rector of IIUM (2011–2018)

### Former faculty members

* Abdul Aziz Bari, lecturer and professor of AIKOL (1989–2011), MLA for Tebing Tinggi, Perak and member of Perak State Executive Council, Malaysia (since 2018)
* Abdul Hamid Ahmad Abu Sulayman, Rector of IIUM (1988–1998)
* Ahmad Mohamed Ibrahim, founding Dean of AIKOL, Attorney-General of Singapore (1959–1967)
* Ahmet Davutoğlu, lecturer of political science at KIRKHS (1993–1996), Prime Minister of Turkey (2014–2016)
* Maszlee Malik, lecturer of KIRKHS (2002–2018), MP for Simpang Renggam, President of IIUM and Minister of Education, Malaysia (since 2018)
* Mohammad Hashim Kamali, professor of Islamic law at AIKOL and ISTAC (1985–2007), CEO of International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (since 2007)
* Mohd. Kamal Hassan, Rector of IIUM (1999–2006)
* Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, founder of ISTAC, then visiting professor at UTM
* Ismawi bin Zen, Former Deputy Rector (1999–2005), Head Panelist for the expansion of MasjidilHaram, Tokoh Maal Hijrah Sarawak 2010