Welcome to the first issue of Aceh International Journal of Social Sciences (AIJSS). As a quarterly published journal, the AIJSS promotes dialogue and scholarship about social issues, particularly in the context of Aceh. After the 2004 tsunami gravely devastated the coastal region of Aceh that killed more than 225,000 people, Aceh has been the focus of discussion by scholars from various perspectives globally. There has been increasing emphasis worldwide on the issues of rehabilitation, reconstruction and re-development of Aceh post-tsunami, 2004. Thus, the AIJSS provides an avenue for the researchers, academia and practitioners to present and share the findings of their researches and thoughts, specifically on Aceh- related social issues. However, any other social-related topics on the global issues are welcome.

Five papers make up the first issue of the AIJSS at hand. The first one, titled “Student Engagement at the Higher Learning Institutions: The Case of Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates”, by Nurahimah Mohd. Yusoff investigates the level of academic challenge provided to students at the Universiti Utara Malaysia and Ajman University of Science and Technology (AUST) of United Arab Emirates (UAE). He found that the student engagement seemed to differ between the two institutions. The second paper “Linguistic Impoliteness: A Small Corpus Analysis from an Islamic (Qur’anic) perspective. They found that affective and coercive impoliteness are presented in the stories book of children, contradicting the linguistic politeness principles in the Holy Qur’an, i.e., Qaulan Ma’rufa (speaking nicely), Qaulan Karima (speaking honorably), and Qaulan Layyina (speaking softly). The third paper under the title of: “Time-Varying Integration among ASEAN-5 Economies”, by Salina H. Kassim and M. Shabri Abd. Majid explores the economic integration among the ASEAN-5 economies during the pre-crisis period (1990 to 1996) and post-crisis period (2000 to 2006). Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), they study found that the crisis has a deep imprint on the degree of economic integration among these countries. The next fourth paper “Examining Accounting and Accountability Issues in Religious Context: Insights from Literature” by Hasan Basri and Siti Nabiha Abdul Khalid discuss the insights from the literature on the issues of accounting and accountability in the religious-based organizations, especially the Islamic religious organisations. They conclude that, in the context of Islamic religious organizations, it is well documented in the literature that Islamic societies have a rich heritage of philanthropic institutions, a heritage that reflects the central place of philanthropy within Islam. Many other Islamic charitable institutions have emerged as a new form of Islamic philanthropic organization and played a very important role in delivering social services, especially in the countries where the majority of their population are Muslim. The last paper under the title of: “A Critical Evaluation of the Compatibility between Traditional and Contemporary Applications of Murabahah Transactions”, by Olorogun Lukman Ayinde explores the extent of conceptual resemblance between traditional and contemporary murabahah contracts.  The results of his study affirm that the critique raised against contemporary contracts is indeed justified. The comparative analysis of the conceptual differences between traditional and contemporary murabahah contracts leads to the conclusion that the contemporary murabahah contract is in inverse relation to the traditional murabahah contract.

Without a good teamwork from the journal crews, the first issues of the AIJSS which consists of five above-mentioned papers would not be accomplished.  The support from a dedicated advisory board and editorial board were excellent. Special thanks to our appointed referees who took time to blindly review the articles, and to the authors that put their work forward for consideration. These include Dr. Salina Hj. Kassim, Dr. Muhammad Abubakar, Dr. Muslim Amin, Dr. Hasan Basri, Dr. Said Musnadi, Dr. Muhammad Nasir, Dr. Sofyan Syahnur, Dr. Nurahimah Mohd. Yusoff, Dr. Sofyan A. Gani, Dr. Usman Kasim, and Dr. Noraini Mohd. Ariffin, to name a few. Without their hard work, the first of AIJSS would not have become reality. Perhaps the hardest working member of our team is our assistants, Bro. Zulkiram and Bro. Achmad Muhadjier. Members of Quality Assurance Unit (Satuan Jaminan Mutu), Graduate School of Syiah Kuala University, Dr. Abrar Muslim, Dr. Saiful, and Dr. Hesti Meilina deserve a big thumb up for their admirable support. Their organizational skills, focus, and dedication have made this process much easier for all of us, and we are sincerely thankful. Of course, these individuals have been instrumental in producing this inaugural issue and volume of the AIJSS.

In addition, we want to give special thanks to the Director, Graduate Schools of Syiah Kuala University, Prof. Dr. Syamsul Rizal, Deputy Directors: Dr. Alfiansyah Yulianur, Dr. Said Musnadi, Dr. Sugianto, Dr. Adwani, and Secretary of Graduate School: Dr. Muhammad Nasir, for their generous support and cooperation.  I hope that each of you will take pleasure in reading the first issue of the AIJSS. We look forward to your supports, contribution and cooperation for the forthcoming issues of the AIJSS. Might Almighty God grant you a proper reward for your contribution thus far.

Dr. M. Shabri Abd. Majid
Editor-in-Chief