Still confused about halal certification? Try this board game

KUALA LUMPUR - A professor in Malaysia believes his board games can help would-be or still-confused halal executives raise their level of understanding of certification.

Dr. Azman Ab Rahman from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) started making board games in 2017 and in September last year launched the Global Halal Game (GHG), which has sold around 1,000 units, he said.

Global Halal Game comes in two sets: one for school students and the other for halal executives.

"The student set is based on the Islamic syllabus in national schools while the executive set is based on the Malaysian halal procedures," Rahman told Salaam Gateway in a phone interview. 

The board games are designed by Global Islamic Games (GIG), which Rahman said is a “non-profit academic team” that he leads.

"The game is optimized when played by two to four players. Players will roll the dice and answer three levels of Uji Halal (halal test) questions. The first Uji Halal is a yes-or-no, the second is multiple choice and the third is in a subjective format,” Rahman explained.

"Players will have to collect 15 cards (five for each halal test) to get the halal logo, thus securing the win," added Rahman, who is also Deputy Director of USIM's World Fatwa Management and Research Institute.

Rahman believes there isn’t enough interactive and educational games and platforms that are focused on Islam and halal, both in Malaysia and globally.  

"We chose to create the halal edition because in Malaysia, halal has become a contentious topic in recent years.

“We want to have more halal executives that can educate people on the matter," said Azman. 

Global Islamic Games is also behind other products including Global Zakat Game, Global Faraid Game and Global Arabic Game. These were designed as teaching aids for students and practitioners in the respective Islamic fields.

"Other than educational institutions and private buyers, we also managed to produce a number of customized sets of the Zakat edition to a certain government agency, with their logo printed on the board.

"For the halal edition, we are looking forward to corporate partnerships, we could print their brand and they can use this as a method to train their executives," Azman said. 

The price for each edition starts at 150 Malaysian ringgit ($36.60).

Global Islamic Games will focus on waqf and haj for upcoming editions.

The team is working on apps for the zakat and halal games that it hopes can be launched this year.

(Reporting by Ahmad Mustakim Zulkifli; Editing by Emmy Abdul Alim emmy.alim@refinitiv.com)