The Role of Halal Awareness on the Relationship between Religiosity and Halal Purchase Intention

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I. Introduction
The development of the halal food industry and the halal market has grown rapidly in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.About 87.2% of the 268 million Indonesian population are Muslims, constituting 13% of the entire Muslim population worldwide.The Guarantee of Halal Products proposed that "Products that enter, circulate, and trade in the territory of Indonesia must have halal certification."Thus, the Halal Product Assurance System is an integrated system, compiled, applied, and maintained to regulate halal materials, production processes, products, resources, and procedures to maintain the continuity of the halal production process.However, consumers of halal food in different countries appear to have different levels of trust in the halal certification label (Rios et al., 2014).In domestic and international markets, the growth and awareness of halal products are also accompanied by the proliferation of halal certification institutions worldwide.Nevertheless, not all perform their duties effectively due to weak expertise and poor understanding of Islamic precepts (Alserhan, 2010).In fact, halal certification is an important indicator for the Muslim community that complies with the consumption rules provided by Islam, especially in Islamic-majority countries (Rios et al., 2014;Setyaningsih & Marwansyah, 2019).
Halal products intention has become an important issue elaborated by numerous researchers in both developing and developed countries (Aziz et al., 2019;Elseidi, 2018;Golnaz et al., 2010;Lada et al., 2009).Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei are Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia with different perspectives compared to other countries concerning the labeling of the halal logo.Specifically, Indonesia, with a large Muslim-majority population, has enormous potential for developing the halal product industry (Riptiono, 2020).Nonetheless, the food and beverage industries still offer numerous products without the halal logo, which thus violates Article 4 of Law 33/2014 of the national food and beverage production process.It is exacerbated by the difficulty of consumers verifying the product's status, whether it is halal or haram (Ali et al,. 2018).This growing issue poses a challenge to research into the halal food industry.
Despite numerous past research carried out on the halal food market, the extent of the direct relationship between religiosity, halal awareness, and halal intention in the context of purchasing halal products is relatively little known and is largely theory-driven (Basri & Kurniawati, 2019;Farrag & Hassan, 2015;Memon et al., 2019).Similar studies in Indonesia have depended on perceived awareness, habit, and religious self-identity as predictors (Vanany et al., 2019).These studies employed several indicators and generally produced mixed findings.Studies on the halal principle and halal purchase intention among Malaysian Muslim consumers have also been performed.It was established through these studies that food safety, together with the hygienic and clean process, are significantly related to halal purchase intention (Ismail et al., 2018).In cognizance of this, it is thus relevant to investigate the direct effect of religiosity on halal awareness and the effect of halal awareness and religiosity on halal purchase intention.
Religiosity is a crucial factor influencing Muslim consumers' interest in buying halal products.Moreover, it has been extensively studied in human behavior, such as gender differences and psychiatric disorders (Lefkowitz et al., 2004;Stempel, 2005).The religiosity factor also plays an important role in transmitting religious values.In addition, religiosity is part of individuals' selfidentity acquired through applying religious norms, and its impact on individual values and behavior will depend on the strength of their incorporation.Farrag and Hassan (2015) suggested that religiosity influences one's beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, and feelings about consumption.Other studies proposed that religion is measured by internal and external dimensions, such as religious identity, goals for religious development, attitudes, values, and beliefs (Nurhayati & Hendar, 2019); it seems different dimensions adapted by Abou-Youssef et al., (2015), who used Islamic doctrinal, intrinsic religiosity, and extrinsic religiosity.Following Stark and Glock (1968) on religiosity dimensions and the empirical study of Soadin (2018), ideologies, ritual, experiential, intellectual, and consequential were used as the religiosity dimensions.The study focused on ritual, ideology, intellectual, passion, and consequential religiosity.Several empirical studies by Aisyah (2014) also put forward that consumers' religious behavior positively and significantly affected the intention to purchase halal products.Also, each individual's religiosity level positively influenced his attitude and halal product intention (Basri & Kurniawati, 2019;Mukhtar & Butt, 2012).The different results also found that religiosity had a positive but insignificant impact on purchase intention (Astuti & Asih, 2021).
Halal awareness has also become a vital indicator for Muslim consumers in deciding what they use or consume.Awareness is understanding, feeling, and becoming aware of events and objects.Awareness also implies an understanding and perception of an event or subject (Aziz & Vui, 2012).Halal awareness is based on understanding its concept, such as the correct animal slaughtering process and prioritizing halal food for consumption (Mutmainah, 2018).Besides, halal awareness is the Muslim knowledge consumers possess to identify halal products for consumption per Islamic law (Ismail et al., 2018;Shaari et al., 2013).Islamic law informs that a Muslim's awareness is characterized by animal slaughtering, food packaging, and hygiene knowledge.Several empirical studies conducted on halal awareness regarding halal food buying interest found that it had a significant effect on consumers' purchase interest in halal products (Setyaningsih & Marwansyah, 2019;Yunus et al., 2014).Several past studies, however, produced contradictory results (Setiawan & Mauluddi, 2019); for example, they showed that halal awareness had no significant effect on the intention to buy halal products.Halal awareness is, nevertheless, an important factor affecting the intention to purchase halal products.
Likewise, there were few empirical studies on the role of halal awareness in the relationship between religiosity and halal purchase intention apart from Indonesia or other countries such as Malaysia.The authors only found the study by Nurhayati and Hendar (2019), which showed that personal intrinsic religiosity significantly affected halal awareness and influenced halal product intention.The finding, thus, indicates that halal awareness is actually a partial mediation in these relationships.As such, this current study explored halal awareness as a mediating role in the relationship between religiosity and halal product intention.However, in terms of measurement contracts, this current study differs from Nurhayati and Hendar (2019), which used personal interreligiosity with six indicators only.Meanwhile, this current study used five dimensions and several indicators for each dimension and other variables.Therefore, the purpose of this study is twofold.The first is to investigate the direct effect of religiosity on halal awareness and halal purchase intention and the effect of halal awareness on halal purchase intention.The second examines the role of halal awareness on the relationship between religiosity and halal purchase intention.This study also focuses on the Aceh Province, known for its strict adherence to Islamic precepts, including halal food consumption.
The study is structured as follows: The second section is the literature review covering the Theory of Planned Behavior in the context of religiosity, halal awareness, and halal purchase intention.The third section is the methodology, which describes data analysis and adoption of the Confirmatory Analysis and Structure Equation (SEM).The results are in the fourth section, together with a discussion.The conclusion and implications are given in the final section.

II. Literature Review
Halal purchasing intentions have been recognized by many researchers in past studies, such as studies concerning religiosity and halal purchase intention (Aisyah, 2014;Mukhtar & Butt, 2012) and the factors affecting halal purchase intention (Ali et al., 2017;Awan et al., 2015;Elseidi, 2018), which focused the religiosity, halal awareness, and halal certification as the determinant factors (Basri & Kurniawati, 2019;Mutmainah, 2018).Moreover, limited past studies exist on the role of halal awareness in the relationship between religiosity and halal purchase intentions, such as a study proposed by Nurhayati and Hendar (2019).Additionally, a basic underpinning theory to support those relationships in the present study used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to predict human behavior according to the predicted framework, as Ajzen (1991) suggested.

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was developed to predict human behaviors, and it supports the relationship between religiosity, halal awareness, and intention to purchase halal products.TPB was also constructed based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen, 1991), which suggested that theory is used only for a behavior entirely under the control of the individual.TPB has become the dominant theory widely recognized and applied in related halal food studies (Ali et al., 2018;Aziz et al., 2019) and others, and the theory is used to predict a person's behavior.Referring to TPB, three main components explain the human attitude to perform: attitude, subjective norm, and behavioral control.TPB also assumes that behavior is determined by a person's desire to perform a behavior or vice versa.This Theory of Planned Behavior has also been applied to several contexts, such as halal transportation costs (Ngah et al., 2020).Likewise, this theory examines consumers' intention to buy halal products (Aziz et al., 2019;Memon et al., 2019).
In the context of this study, it predicts the occurrence of certain behaviors, provided that the behavior is intentional.The proposed framework for the study might not use the TPB component directly.Nevertheless, it was used to identify how and where to direct strategies for behavior change and explain each aspect of some human behavior, in which the individual intention to display the behavior is a combination of attitudes toward behavior.Individual attitudes toward behavior include beliefs that the product is halal and would lead consumers to have the intention to purchase (Aziz & Chok, 2013).

Halal Purchase Intention
Purchase intention is defined as the preference of consumers to buy products or services after evaluating various aspects of the products.Lada et al., (2009) proposed the Theory of Reasoned Action in predicting the intention of consumers to choose halal products.The results supported the theory, thus implying that attitude and subjective norms are important predictors in choosing halal products.Astuti and Asih (2021) further stated that purchase intention refers to the mental stage in the decision-making process.The Muslim consumer would carefully and thoroughly analyze the necessary process to ensure the product is halal before purchasing.In this regard, the purchase intention is the behavior of a person with the desire, before committing the action, to buy or choose a product based on his or her experience.Assael (2001) also explained that buying intention is a tendency of consumers to buy, which is measured by the degree of probability of the consumers making a purchase.
Further, the Planned Behavior Theory (TPB) relates to attitudes, norms, and subjective control of perceived behavior (Ajzen, 1991).The components of understanding intention indicate an individual's confidence in purchasing halal food products.Aziz and Chok (2013) used several indicators to measure HPI, i.e., 1) Choosing halal products, 2) People with halal products, 3) Most people who choose halal products, 4) Interest in halal food, 5) Purchase of halal food, and 6) Recommending halal food to others.Other measures of interest in buying halal products cover indicators in recommending halal products, sourcing information, regular use of halal products, continuous purchasing of halal products, and using halal products in the future.

Religiosity and Halal Awareness
Religiosity is an important attribute that imbues a person with commitment and obedience in believing in a religion that represents values, roles, and obligations, encouraging the person to behave and act in accordance with its teachings (Astuti & Asih, 2021).According to Stark and Glock (1968), religiosity is the degree of religious belief and commitment of the person toward his religion.Committing to his religion is the person's seriousness in applying religious beliefs in all aspects of life.Thus, an individual may express his religiosity (Weaver & Agle, 2002).Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (2014) defined religion as "a system of beliefs in a divine or superhuman power and practices of worship toward such a power."Hence, religiosity is the extent to which the individual is committed to his religious belief, which would affect him in making choices based on personal views.Most past studies documented several dimensions of religiosity, including internal and external.Internal dimensions include a religious identity for development, attitudes, values, and religious beliefs (Basri & Kurniawati, 2019;Donahue & Nielsen, 2005), whereas the external dimensions are ideology, ritual, experience, intellectual, and practices (Stark & Glock, 1968).
Accordingly, religious consumers prefer to be aware of selecting halal food for consumption.It should indicate that increasing religiosity would increase awareness of halal food.Ambali and Bakar (2014) related this awareness, in the context of human perception and cognitive reaction, to a condition of what they eat, drink, and use.Thus, different people have different levels of awareness about something, such as the specific awareness of halal food.However, empirical studies on the relationship between religiosity and halal awareness are still limited.Religious knowledge or belief is the source of awareness on consumption behavior since Islamic law imposes restrictions on consuming non-halal food and beverages.Nurhayati and Hendar (2019) proposed that religiosity positively and significantly affects halal product awareness.Based on these studies, the authors thus assume that halal awareness for the Muslim consumer is his religiosity.A hypothesis could then be derived as follows: H1: Religiosity positively affects halal awareness.

Religiosity and Halal Purchase Intention
Research on halal purchase intention is based on the TPB, explaining customer behavior toward halal perception (Lada et al., 2009;Suleman et al., 2021).Religious perception has also become an important factor affecting Muslim consumers' consumptive actions related to spiritual values that influence their behavior (Awan et al., 2015).Religious-conscious consumers will increasingly buy halal food nearest to their religious perception, in strict compliance with Islamic guidelines.Religiosity, a measure of the degree to which people hold and practice beliefs in certain religious values and ideas, is increasingly used to operationalize religious constructs.Some earlier studies used several dimensions to measure religiosity.These included religious, ideological, intellectual, and consequential dimensions (Stark & Glock, 1968).
Moreover, the influence of religion plays an important role in shaping customer behavior in selecting and purchasing halal products.Many previous studies have examined the relationship between religiosity with purchase intention.Awan et al., (2015), who investigated the factors affecting halal purchase intention (HPI) in Pakistan's halal food sector, discovered that religiosity had positive effects.Similarly, Astuti and Asih (2021) found positive but non-significant effects on the purchase intention of Korean food.Several studies explored the linear effect of religiosity on HPI involving food and other halal products (Aziz et al., 2019;Nurhayati & Hendar, 2019).In addition, Mutmainah (2018) established that religiosity positively affects the intention to halal food.In cognizance of these findings, the following hypothesis could be suggested: H2: Religiosity positively affects halal purchase intention.

Halal Awareness and Halal Purchase Intention
Halal awareness that emanates from Islamic law is an important factor in determining the purchase intention of halal products (Shaari & Arifin, 2009).
Islamic law guides Muslim consumers on halal slaughter, food packaging, and hygiene.Yunus et al., (2014) asserted that halal awareness of the Muslim consumer significantly affected product purchasing.Here, awareness is the ability to understand, feel, and be aware of events and objects.According to Aziz and Chok (2013), halal awareness is based on the understanding of a Muslim on what is halal and what is the correct animal slaughtering process and in prioritizing halal food for consumption.
The concept of halal products and foods is now widely discussed globally due to its recognition as an alternative benchmark for safety, hygiene, and quality assurance of what people consume or drink daily.Muslim consumers and non-Muslims increasingly accept products produced according to halal recipes.Ambali and Bakar (2014) stated that Muslim consumers understand the concept, principles, and halal processes, which ultimately prioritize their consumption.The more knowledgeable the Muslim consumers, the greater their tendency to be more selective in choosing halal products.Based on the above understanding, it can be concluded that halal awareness among Muslim consumers is their level of knowledge and understanding of halal and the halal process that should be considered in ensuring halal food.Some past studies have measured halal awareness using various dimensions and indicators comprising the following: 1) the process of slaughtering animals, 2) materials, 3) storage, and 4) cleanliness (Shaari & Arifin, 2009).The effect of halal awareness on HPI has also been elucidated in prior studies, which established the effect to be positive and significant (Muslichah et al., 2019;Aziz & Chok, 2013;Astuti & Asih, 2021).On this cognizance, the hypothesis on the relation between halal awareness and halal purchase intention was proposed as follows: H3: Halal awareness positively affects halal purchase intention.
Past empirical studies on the role of halal awareness as mediating effect on the relationship between religiosity and halal purchase intention are still limited and difficult to access.However, the study by Nurhayati and Hendar (2019) posited that the halal awareness level of consumers is shaped by religiosity and good knowledge of halal products, which increasingly guide their intentions.The relationship evidently had a positive effect as mediated through halal awareness.The hypothesis based on this evidence could thus be proposed as follows: H4: Religiosity mediated by halal awareness positively affects halal purchase intention.
Furthermore, the summary of the overview that supported the research framework of the relationship between each independent and dependent variable is presented in Table 1.

Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework describes the relationship between independent and dependent variables based on the relevant theories that justify the direct and indirect relationships.Accordingly, this study aims to examine the direct influence of religiosity on halal awareness and analyze the influence of both factors on halal purchase intention.The theoretical framework explains a positive relationship between religiosity and halal awareness, and both positively influence halal purchase intention.The framework of this study can be illustrated in Figure 1.The study population comprised Muslims who resided in 17 regencies and six cities in Aceh Province, Indonesia.Since the population was very large, the sampling adopted the cluster method or probability sampling, often used to study large populations with wide geographical spread.The sample size of 400 was taken from three districts: Banda Aceh, with 133 respondents; Aceh Timur, with 134 respondents; Aceh Tengah, with 133 respondents.The questionnaires were distributed to 400 respondents and collected as part of the face-to-face approach and easy to access, consisting of government employees, industry employees, entrepreneurs, students, and others from these three districts.The primary data were collected through in-depth interviews and questionnaires from preselected informants and respondents.The closed questionnaires were developed with five dimensions of religiosity and several indicators for three latent constructs in the proposed measurement model, with the respondent referring to the prepared questions.Each response was scored according to a Likert scale with the following scores: Strongly Disagree (1), Disagree (2), Neither Disagree nor Disagree (3), Agree (4), and Strongly Agree (5).

Model Development
This study consisted of three main variables: religiosity as the independent variable, halal awareness as a mediating variable, and halal purchase intention as the dependent variable.The authors could adopt religiosity as the faith level of someone, i.e., the reference for consumers interested in buying halal products.Religiosity measurement thus referred to several dimensions as followed by Stark and Glock (1968): ritual, ideology (belief), intellectual (religious knowledge), passion, and consequential dimension.Further, the measurement of halal awareness variables used indicators that included 1) the halal process of slaughtering animals, 2) materials, 3) storage, and 4) cleanliness (Shaari & Arifin, 2009).Then, several indicators used in past studies were adopted for halal purchase intentions: 1) recommending halal products, 2) obtaining information, 3) regular use of halal products, 4) continuous purchase of halal products, and 5) future use of halal products (Aziz & Chok, 2013).
Furthermore, Structure Equation Modeling (SEM) AMOS is a statistical method commonly used to predict a set of indicators of one or more predictors and generate factor scores.SEM allows these two components to be conducted simultaneously and test the relationships between observed and latent variables (Hoyle, 2012).To assess the conceptual models' accuracy, a two-stage method is commonly used: the measurement and the structural models (Civelek, 2018).In the SEM, there are four stages of assumptions: sample size, data normality, data outlier, and multicollinearity.

Method
Structural Equation Modeling Analysis was carried out with validity tests to determine the level of the instrument's ability to capture a construct, which is the main target of the study.For the instrument to be valid, it should be able to measure what was intended to be expressed.In SEM, validity testing was conducted using each construct's Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) by looking at the Loading Factor value of the indicator used.Civelek (2018) argued that for the indicator to be valid, the value of its loading factor must be greater than 0.60.In this case, construct reliability is a measure of the internal consistency of the indicators of a construct that measures the degree to which each indicator signifies a common latent factor, i.e., how specific things help each other explain a common phenomenon.Reliability tests were assessed in three ways: construct reliability (CR), variance extracted (VE), and discriminant validity (DV).

Results
The preliminary results of the demographic profile of respondents provided in Table 2 comprise gender, age, education, and occupation.The results showed that the majority of the highest respondents of gender, 268 (67 %), were male.
Regarding age, 37.8 % of respondents were between 31-40, and almost an equal number were between 20-30 and >40 years old.Followed by education level, about 188 respondents (47%) were in senior high school, and 25% were Bachelor graduates.Lastly, the most participated respondents, educational government employees, were about 37.8%, followed by private employees and self-employed at 12.5 and 11.8, respectively.
The results of descriptive statistics for all research variables are displayed in Table 3.In this study, the religiosity variable used five dimensions.First, the ritual was measured by four indicators, with a mean value of 3.84 and a standard deviation of 1.07.The ideology dimension was measured by five indicators with a mean value of 4.07.Then, the intellectual dimension used three indicators with a mean of 3.78.In addition, passion indicators obtained a mean of 3.90.Lastly, the consequential had a mean value of 3.87.As measured by five indicators, the mean of halal awareness was 4.24, and the mean of halal purchase intention was about 4.14.The authors could thus conclude from the mean scores for the last two measures that the respondents agreed (Likert scale of 4 to <5) with the survey questions.The validity tests were employed to assess the instruments for all research variables.Concerning the SEM, the validity test used in the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) for each construct gave a loading factor of about 0.60.This study's validity test for all dimensions and indicators provided valid loading factors for ritual, ideology, intellectual, and passion dimensions.However, the consequential dimension was invalid for the first indicator and was subsequently removed from the model.Halal awareness also showed similar results, where the two indicators were invalid.Lastly, for the HPI, one indicator was removed due to its invalid loading factor.In addition, reliability analysis was conducted for each construct.The finding revealed that the construct for the dimensions of religiosity, halal awareness, and HPI was reliable for the model, with the Construct Reliability (CR) value exceeding 0.70.It indicates that the internal reliability of the scale used was sufficient (Hoyle, 2012).
Further, the DV results demonstrated that indicators of theoretically separate contracts were not highly correlated (Hoyle, 2012).It can be seen from the DV values relative to the correlation between constructs (Kelloway, 1995) presented in Figure 2 and Table 3. Table 4 shows that all the latent constructs had DV values higher than the correlation values between constructs.For example, the DV value of ritual was 0.739, greater than the correlation for ideology (0.605), intellectual (0.727), passion (0.63), consequential (0.089), halal awareness (0.504), and purchase intention (0.62), as well as other latent constructs.
Before the fit indices test, the size of the sample (400 respondents) was determined, and a normality test was conducted for outlier data.Hence, the model suitability test used a flow chart in the full model equation involving all exogenous and endogenous variables.These variables were combined into one complete diagram (path) through a variant or covariant matrix.This study's model had a direct and indirect model, in which the first model explained the effect of religiosity and halal awareness (Y1) and the effect of religiosity on halal purchase intention (Y2).The second model investigated the moderating effect of halal awareness on the relationship between religiosity and halal purchase intention.Thus, the full model test was conducted over two stages: before and after modification.Full model analysis before modification determined the extent to which the basic model formulated in this study met the criteria for Goodness of Fit (GOF) to describe the research phenomenon without modification.The full model analysis after modification correlated the errors of each indicator based on the results of modification indices.This study repeated the modification eight times before finalizing the GOF value to ensure the model could make sufficiently accurate estimations.The results in Figure 3 reveal a significant increase in the GOF value, where the p-value of 0.147 exceeded the fault tolerance value (0.05), denoting that the model was acceptable for estimation.A summary of the GOF values after modification is presented in Table 4.  5 exhibits a significant change in the GOF criteria, and the value of Chi-Square (X2) =279.7,RMSEA = 0.027, TLI=0.985,CFI = 0.987, and each indices values were adequate goodness of fit values.Other fit indices were AGFI = 0.831 and GFI = 0.867, which also had values within acceptable limits or greater than 0.80 (Hair et al., 2014;Nair & Das, 2012;Uslu & Ergün, 2022;Zhu et al., 2022).Nonetheless, since the p-value was above 0.05 and other criteria values had generally moved close to fit, this model was thus acceptable and could be used for estimation.
The full model estimation after modification is presented in Table 6.The results demonstrate that religiosity had a positive and significant effect on halal awareness at a 1% significance level, with a coefficient of 0.854.It implies that an increase in religiosity would lead to an increase in halal awareness.The authors thus could conclude that the data supported the first hypothesis (H1).
Therefore, the study aligns with the previous findings by Nurhayati and Hendar (2019), which showed that religiosity had a positive and significant effect on halal awareness.The direct effect of religiosity on HPI was positive and significant at a 1% level, with a coefficient of 0.486.It denotes that an increase in halal awareness among Muslim consumers would accordingly lead to an increase in their intention to purchase halal products.The result thus reinforces the second hypothesis (H2) and aligns with past findings (Aziz et al., 2019;Mutmainah, 2018;Nurhayati & Hendar, 2019).Further, halal awareness was positively related to HPI and was significant at a 1% level, with a coefficient of 0.542.It indicates that an increase in halal awareness would lead to an increase in HPI.
Hence, the authors could conclude that the finding supported the third hypothesis (H3).This result is similar to those of past studies documented by Muslichah et al. (2019), Aziz and Chok (2013), and Astuti and Asih (2021).The results of the direct and indirect effects, including the total effect, are presented in Table 6.7 displays that the indirect effect of religiosity on HPI through halal awareness was about 0.277 or 27.7%.The total effects of religiosity on halal awareness and HPI were respectively 0.457 and 0.569.Furthermore, the effect of halal awareness on HPI was about 0.607.The hypothesis on the role of halal awareness on the relationship between religiosity and HPI is depicted in Figure 4. Findings in Baron and Kenny (1986) on mediation criteria showed that the coefficients a, b, and c of the direct path analysis were significant, with p = 0.035 for path c.It implies a partial mediation relationship, and the result thus accepted the fourth hypothesis (H4), proposing that halal awareness mediated the relationship between Islamic religiosity and the purchase intention of halal products.

Discussion
The SEM AMOS results of the direct effect estimation showed that religiosity positively and significantly affected halal awareness, indicating that religiosity is essential in determining a person's awareness of halal products.Religiosity, measured by ideologies, ritual, experiential, passion, intellectual, and consequential, signify a person's religious value and commitments toward his religion.Then, Muslim consumers who define themselves as religious and have high religiosity would have different behavior and consumption patterns and tend to be selective and concerned about consuming halal products (Khan et al., 2019).The positive coefficient also points out that an increase in religiosity tends to increase the number of Muslim consumers identifying the halal product for consumption (Ismail et al., 2018); however, different people thus have a different level of halal awareness.These results are consistent with the study proposed by (Nurhayati & Hendar, 2019).Other studies have also addressed the issue of the Muslim awareness level toward halal consumption in Malaysia, finding that religious belief directly affected the halal awareness level (Ambali & Bakar, 2014).
Moreover, the effect of religiosity on halal purchase intention was positive and significant, implying that a higher level of religiosity in consumers would lead to an increase in the Muslim community buying halal products.This finding aligns with prior studies (Aisyah, 2014;Basri & Kurniawati, 2019) and is similar to a study proposed by Mutmainah (2018).The recent empirical study proposed by Usman et al., (2022) also suggested that religiosity affected halalcertified food.Furthermore, Astuti and Asih (2021) found that religiosity had a positive but insignificant effect on halal purchase intention.At the same time, a comparison to a study of the effect of religiosity measured by intrinsic and extrinsic indicators on the intention of Muslim consumers to buy halalbranded food products in India uncovered that religiosity had an insignificant direct effect on buying intention (Khan et al., 2022).
Additionally, this finding also demonstrated that halal awareness had a significant effect on halal purchase intention.The results indicate that halal awareness is vital in choosing a halal product for consumption (Aziz & Chok, 2013).These findings are consistent with prior empirical studies (Astuti & Asih, 2021;Muslichah et al., 2019).The positive coefficient of this study is also similar to the past study conducted by Awan et al., (2015), which revealed positive but not significant evidence from Pakistan Halal Food Sector.Accordingly, halal awareness is an understanding of Muslim consumers towards halal, halal processes, and halal principles that prioritize eating halal foods.
Lastly, the indirect effect or mediating effect of halal awareness on the relationship between religiosity and halal purchase intention unveiled that the coefficient of the direct part analysis was significant, suggesting a partial mediation relationship.This finding denotes that halal awareness mediated the relationship between religiosity and the purchase intention of halal products.This study corroborates with a study conducted by Nurhayati and Hendar (2019), suggesting that halal awareness seems to have important partial mediation on the relationship between personal inter-religiosity and halal product intention.Despite that, the direct effect between halal awareness and halal product intention was positive and significant, indicating that purchasing halal products is highly associated with the religious beliefs of Muslim consumers (Aziz & Chok, 2013;Muslichah et al., 2019).The discovery of the strong relationship between religiosity with halal awareness and halal purchase intention at least completes the view of Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi (2014).Therefore, this study contributes to new empirical evidence on the direct and indirect effect of religiosity and halal awareness on halal purchase intention and the indirect effect between these relationships by using several dimensions of religious belief toward Muslim people purchase halal products.

Conclusion
This study aims to analyze the effect of religiosity and halal awareness on halal purchase intention and investigate the role of halal awareness as a mediating variable.The study established that the direct effect of religiosity on halal awareness was positive and significant.It indicates that higher religious knowledge, beliefs, passions, and consequences in religion lead to increased consumers' halal awareness.Similarly, the effect of religiosity on halal purchase intention has been shown to be positive and significant.It implies that religiosity affects the halal product intention of Muslim consumers in Aceh Province.Further, the influence of halal awareness on halal product intention was also positive and significant.It denotes that increasing halal awareness will also increase consumers' buying of halal products.Hence, it can be concluded that religiosity and halal awareness are crucial indicators explaining the increasing interest in purchasing halal products.Additionally, the mediating effect revealed a partial mediation role of halal awareness on the relationship between religiosity and halal product intention.In summary, as predictors, religiosity and halal awareness are essential in the relationship between halal product intention and awareness.The key contribution of this study is the finding posited, stating that halal awareness positively moderates the relationship between religiosity and halal purchase intentions.

Recommendation
The study's results will be useful not only in halal academic studies but also for Muslim consumers and practitioners regarding halal purchase intentions.The finding of direct effect indicates that religiosity and halal awareness is important factors affecting the halal purchase intention of Muslim consumers in Aceh Province.The current study also contributes to understanding halal awareness's roles in the relationship between religiosity and halal purchase intention.These findings further offer several implications for policymakers and the market to condition Muslim consumers' purchase intention.On this basis, it can be acknowledged that Muslim consumers are more willing to put considerable effort into obtaining halal food.Additionally, the results of this study can be suggested to stakeholders, such as the government and collaboration with related institutions, to supervise and control imported food traded in Aceh.Accordingly, some policy action is needed to establish halal governance based on Law Number 33 of 2014 regarding the Halal Product Guarantee, or JPH, as a basis for guaranteeing legal certainty in regulating the halalness of a product in Indonesia.In this case, most consumers in Aceh are Muslim and have high intentions to buy halal products.

Figure
Figure 1.Research Framework

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. Full Model After Modification

Table 1 .
Overview of Identified Conceptual Frameworks

Table 2 .
Demographic Profile of Respondents

Table 4 .
Correlation Value of Discriminant Validity

Table 5 .
Goodness of Fit for Full Model after Modification

Table 6 .
The Estimation Model Results The parentheses *** and ** are significant at 1% and 5% of significance.SE is the standard error, C.R is the critical ratio, and P is probability.The Role of Halal Awareness on the Relationship between Religiosity and Halal Purchase Intention

Table 7 .
Direct, Indirect, and Total Effect