Why this American chose to pursue her undergraduate degree in Malaysia 

Bayinnah Shah has just started her bachelor’s degree at 25 years of age. While others may be finding their way through their first job or earning a master’s degree, Shah is joining lectures at a university several thousand kilometres away from home. 

Born and raised in the US before moving to the Middle East, Bayinnah Shah and her family have always been strong proponents of education. But due to complications with her secondary education, which was done online while she was living in the Middle East, as well as her mother’s health, university had to take a backseat. 

“I just kept on trying to graduate on time. But all these things were happening and then once I graduated high school, I was already older. I was about 20 or 21 because of all the complications that were out of my hands,” she says. 

What’s worse, after she finished high school, she learned that most of the universities in the Middle East would not accept her high school certifications. She would have to go through their own school system physically. 

“I was like, absolutely not. I’m not doing that again. That was already rough the first time,” she says. 

Instead, she headed back to the States and completed her diploma before she could transfer to a university abroad. 

“I’m happy that it happened that way because if I came here when I was 18, I probably wouldn’t have as much experience with, you know, dealing with a different environment or different places,” she says. “I don’t regret it and I’m happy that it happened that way.” 

Shah is an older international student at the age of 25 years old. Source: Bayinnah Shah

Arriving on Malaysian shores  

Shah has long wanted to study in Malaysia. She enjoys Islamic finance and sees the Southeast Asian countries as one of the best financial hubs for it. 

But before she made her final decision, Shah did have several schools lined up — some in the States, some in the Middle East.  

“My father was telling me, didn’t you say that you always wanted to go to Malaysia? So why won’t you just go?” she recalls. 

Shah wasn’t sure at first, because she originally intended to consider Malaysia for a postgraduate degree. But with her father’s words, she realised that an undergraduate in Malaysia might just work well, too.  

Another big factor that piqued her interest in Malaysia was the food and culture. As a huge travel lover, Shah loves to understand a country’s culture and its people. And when it comes to food specifically, she loves trying out different fruits – something that Malaysia certainly isn’t lacking in.  

Management & Science University is located in Shah Alam, Malaysia, about half an hour outside of Kuala Lumpur. Source: Management & Science University

Where faith meets finance 

With that, Shah is now a full-time student at Management and Science University in Shah Alam, a city on the outskirts of Malaysia’s capital.  

Before choosing to study Islamic finance, she had been considering a food-related major too. But, she felt that she could probably learn about F&B in her own time, while Islamic finance might be better understood with guidance. 

Her interest in Islamic finance is rooted in her religion as well as her upbringing. Shah’s father is an accountant and would leave his finance-related books all over the house. Whenever bored, she would read those books and try to understand them. 

She also remembers watching a documentary about the gold standard and the financial history of the US.  

“And I just found that so fascinating,” she says, “And I loved what it was talking about — the history of currencies, what makes a currency, and more of the macroeconomic types of things. I was just very interested in that and investment.” 

But Shah would go on to discover that as a Muslim, there were a lot of elements of conventional finance that she could not use at all.  

To be Shariah-compliant, Islamic banks must follow several rules. For one, they cannot pay or charge interest, also known as “riba.” They cannot invest in businesses involved in activities that are forbidden (described as “haram”), cannot charge extra for late payment, and cannot encourage gambling and speculation as well. These are just some of the main tenets of Islamic finance. 

That’s when she decided: “I want to learn something that I could use and that led me to Islamic finance and the reason why I decided to pursue it as a degree.” 

With that knowledge, Shah would be able to apply her education to whatever businesses she may venture into, whether as an entrepreneur or an employee.  

Although Shah is still in her early days of her degree, her choice of Malaysia is a promising one, and not just for its fruits and its faith. Malaysia’s Islamic finance sector is projected to be a US$38.7billion industry by 2031. The nation has also earned the top ranking on the Global Islamic Fintech Index.  

Due to delays and detours, Shah may have arrived at university later than she planned, but perhaps right on time to study Islamic finance.