SHAH ALAM – It is inappropriate to declare the hibah (discretionary dividend) distributed by the Tabung Haji (TH) during a certain period as haram (unlawful) solely based on claims that the payout exceeded the institution's financial capacity.
Penang Mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Sukki Othman said determining such a ruling requires careful examination of the facts, accounting principles, legal framework and the decisions made by the relevant authorities.
He also stressed that the haj performed through TH during that period remains valid, provided all the pillars, obligations and conditions of the pilgrimage were fulfilled.
"The haj performed is valid, God willing. There is no basis in Islamic law to claim that a person's haj is invalid merely because disputes arise over an institution's management of hibah," he said.
He said that if weaknesses in governance did exist, the sin or syariah responsibility lies with those who committed the wrongdoing.
"It does not automatically fall on depositors who received the hibah in good faith. Fundamentally, the hibah received by depositors is permissible and lawful as long as it was granted by the authorised body in accordance with the law and the institution's decisions," he said.
Sukki said that unless it is proven that the money came from unlawful sources or that the hibah itself clearly contravened Islamic law, it is inappropriate to declare the payments received by depositors as haram.
He said TH's financing and management of the haj is one matter, while the validity of the pilgrimage depends on whether its pillars, obligations and conditions have been properly fulfilled.
"If a person performs the haj using their own savings in TH and is unaware of any governance issues involving the institution, there is no reason to say that the pilgrimage is invalid.
"Even if mistakes occurred in the management of an institution, they do not automatically invalidate the acts of worship performed by depositors or pilgrims who were not involved in those decisions," he said.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on TH previously found that the institution's high hibah payments between 2014 and 2017 exceeded its financial capacity.
The report stated that profit distributions beyond TH's financial means during the period depleted its reserves, making it one of the main causes of the financial crisis that later affected the institution.
According to the report, the generous hibah rates also attracted more depositors seeking higher returns, causing TH to drift away from its original purpose as a savings institution for prospective haj pilgrims.