A Pilgrimage Financial Motives: Lessons to Be Drawn from Tabung Haji Malaysia

The Islamic pillar of pilgrimage (hajj) requires that millions of Muslims over the world must have a very good financial preparation for their expenses during the performance of this worship. Therefore, the pilgrimage financial motive can be an important consideration of Islamic financial institution that are offer related financial services. Meanwhile, in Malaysia, Tabung Haji (TH) is a well-known Islamic financial institution in term of managing the Malaysian Muslim depositors fund in addition to the overall aspects related to the pilgrimage preparation. Thus, this study aims to find out the main motives of savings by the Malaysian Muslims at Tabung Haji. From the survey conducted, it was revealed that 89% of Tabung Haji depositors have identified hajj preparation as the major reason of saving at TH. This is supported by the survey results whereby 95% of respondents agree on the importance of initial saving for future hajj preparation and 79.3% of them consider the ideal minimum age to start having the TH saving account should start from the earlier age of 1 - 10 years old. Meanwhile, the second and third most popular reasons for saving at TH is the shariah compliance features, and to gain dividend and bonus benefits which accounts 69.9% and 63.5% respectively. These are the main reasons of why 89.5% of respondents agree to maintain their saving account at TH even after performing the hajj. Regarding the challenges faced by TH, it was found that corruption and mismanagement are serious issues that negatively impact TH image. However, one of the best lessons that can be learnt from this institution is, the dedication of higher management in addressing any misconduct arising in TH and providing the relevant strategies to address any problems. In addition, the effective role taken by both government and central bank are the crucial points to recover the performance of TH in the Malaysian Islamic financial industry.