Mohd Fariz Bin Zainal Abdullah – Head of Human Resource Division

Mohd Fariz Bin Zainal Abdullah is now Head of Human Resource Division at IAIS–Malaysia since April 2010, and first joined IAIS as Research Assistant in 2008. Born in Lipis, Pahang in 1981, he earned his Bachelor’s degree (2004) in Islamic Revealed Knowledge & Heritage, specialization in Islamic Thought & Psychology, from the International Islamic University Malaysia. During 2005—2007 he served as Graduate Assistant at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC–IIUM) specializing in textual research in classical Islamic thought, contemporary discourse of Islamic renewal movements, and book and journal publications.

Activities & Experience In July 2007 Fariz was appointed ‘Lecturer of Islamic Studies’ at IKIP International College, Pahang, where he taught Arabic language, Islamic Jurisprudence and Hadith at the Diploma level; and as Assistant Program Director tutored graduate level courses in the sciences of Hadith and Islamic Creed. / Over the past five years Mohd Fariz helped organize and participated in several international, regional and national conferences. He represented IIUM in Abu Dhabi in April 2006 for a Muslim–Danish Youth Dialogue, in the wake of the controversy over the caricature of the Prophet Muhammad(S); and in 2004 served as Coordinator for a tuition centre responsible for secondary school teaching in Pahang.

Current Interests His interests include research into human resource management and labour laws, Islam and public religiosity, heresiology, semantics of Qur’an and Hadith, history and development of Islamic thought in the Malay Archipelago, as well as metaphysical issues in history and philosophy of science. / Fariz translates books from English to Malay, supervises the Malay language IAIS website, acquires Arabic materials for IAIS library, and serves on the Website, Library and the Finance committees.