Leadership Succession in the Syariah Court – Ustaz Irwan Hadi Mohd Shuhaimy appointed as new Senior President

31 January 2025 – Senior President of the Syariah Court, Mdm Guy Ghazali, will complete her term in the Syariah Court on 31 January 2025 and will be assuming another role within the Singapore Legal Service with effect from 1 February 2025. She will be succeeded by Ustaz Irwan Hadi Mohd Shuhaimy, currently a President of the Syariah Court.

2.           Mdm Guy Ghazali, 42, a Legal Service Officer from the Singapore Legal Service, was appointed Senior President of the Syariah Court in October 2020. She spearheaded numerous initiatives at the Syariah Court. Under her guidance, the Syariah Court not only contributed to external legal education engagements and events, but also established its own platforms for thought leadership, including the SYC65 Conference in 2023, held in celebration of its 65th anniversary, and the inaugural SYC Practice Forum in 2024. These events facilitated interdisciplinary learning among legal, social science and religious professionals towards the common goal of supporting Muslim families undergoing divorce.

3.           Recognising the importance of a multi-disciplinary approach to resolving family disputes, Mdm Guy oversaw the establishment of the Syariah Court’s in-house court counselling unit and court counselling framework in 2022. To ensure the well-being of children in divorce proceedings, the Syariah Court implemented the Joint Child Interview process in 2022, where child interviews are conducted jointly by the President and a court counsellor. In addition, the Child Representative scheme, introduced in 2023, provided for social science professionals empanelled by the Syariah Court to be appointed by the Court to assist children in expressing views to the Court.

4.           The multi-disciplinary approach is extended to the training and support of marital conciliators, or hakam, through the launch of the HIKMAH (stands for Hakam’s Ideals: Knowledge, Methodology, Application, Heart) training and assessment framework in 2023. This initiative aimed to equip the Syariah Court’s panel of hakam, made up of asatizah (religious scholars), with the necessary skills to facilitate reconciliation or an amicable divorce.

5.           Under Mdm Guy’s leadership, the Syariah Court continued to drive the advancement of Muslim family law jurisprudence through the publication of the Singapore Syariah Appeal Reports (SSARs), with Volumes 8 and 9 released in 2022 and 2024, respectively. These volumes addressed emerging legal issues, including the powers of the Syariah Court.

6.           The new Senior President, Ustaz Irwan Hadi, 40, was seconded from the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (Muis) and appointed President of the Syariah Court in May 2023. Before joining the Syariah Court, he held the appointment of Deputy Director (Religious Policy and Research) in the Office of the Mufti at Muis. Ustaz Irwan Hadi graduated from the Al-Azhar University with a Degree in Syariah (Honours) in 2007. In 2010, he obtained a Master of Laws (Distinction) from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He subsequently obtained a Juris Doctor degree from the Singapore University of Social Sciences in 2022 and was called to the Singapore Bar in 2023. Ustaz Irwan Hadi has been an Associate Member of the Muis Fatwa Committee since 2021.

7.           Since joining the Syariah Court, Ustaz Irwan Hadi has been instrumental in leading a pilot initiative aimed at enhancing engagement with the asatizah community. The Syariah Court facilitated engagements with pre-university madrasah students and mosque officers on the Syariah Court’s role in the administration of Muslim family justice.

8.            Ustaz Irwan Hadi also played a key role in developing and conducting a training module titled “Islam in Singapore’s context”, which focused on the role of Syariah Court. The module is part of the Post-Graduate Certificate in Islam in Contemporary Societies (PCICS) curriculum for new religious graduates. He has also contributed to the Syariah Court’s thought leadership on Muslim divorces. He has presented at various legal education platforms, covering topics such as the different types of talak under Muslim law, the grounds of divorce under the Administration of Muslim Law Act 1966 (AMLA), and the ethics of talak pronouncement.

10.            As at 1 February 2025, there will be three full-time Presidents in the Syariah Court. Apart from the Senior President, the other Presidents are Ustaz Muhammad Fazalee Ja’afar and Ustaz Dr Feirul Maliq Intajalle, who are also seconded officers from Muis. The biodata of Ustaz Irwan Hadi and Mdm Guy Ghazali can be found in Annex A and B while the full list of presidents and ad-hoc presidents of the Syariah Court can be found in Annex C.