Safeguarding lineage and inheritance: Legal and Shariah foundations for a Muslim family registry system in Malaysia

Abstract

This article provides a comparative analysis of Muslim family data governance in Malaysia, Morocco, and Indonesia, with specific emphasis on the legal, administrative, and technological structures that regulate the recording, protection, and verification of family-related information. Despite the centrality of accurate family data to Islamic family law, inheritance distribution, welfare eligibility, and identity management, many Muslim-majority jurisdictions continue to grapple with fraud, forgery, and systemic gaps in data administration. Malaysia in particular faces challenges arising from a fragmented governance framework in which Muslim family events are registered separately by federal civil authorities and state-level Syariah institutions, creating vulnerabilities that enable data manipulation, concealment of heirs, forged documents, and inconsistent record-keeping. By contrast, Morocco and Indonesia provide useful comparative models of more integrated family and civil-status administration. Through doctrinal analysis, statutory comparison, and administrative review, this article identifies continuing shortcomings in Malaysia’s current framework, including jurisdictional overlap, non-uniform procedures across states, uneven interoperability between federal and State systems, and the exclusion of the Federal and State Governments from the Personal Data Protection Act 2010. The Data Sharing Act 2025 (Act 864) now provides an important federal framework for public-sector data sharing, but its direct application is confined principally to Federal public-sector agencies and Federal statutory bodies and does not, by itself, resolve the coordination of State Islamic family-law records. The findings therefore support a harmonised, technology-enabled Muslim family registry framework, supported by appropriate federal and State legal mechanisms, secure interoperability, and Syariah-compliant governance.