StructureEQRAZ uses a renewable 'monthly murābaḥa' in which the financier sells halal assets it owns to the customer at a disclosed cost-plus price; the customer then sells those assets into the open market, generating funds for the home purchase. Terms are renewable and the client can close by paying the remaining principal plus any prepayment charges. Profit is fixed/disclosed rather than interest-based.
A fintech mortgage provider with a four-scholar Shariah board chaired by Mufti Irshad Ahmad Aijaz and certified/audited by Bahrain's Shariyah Review Bureau. Funded via a wakāla arrangement with a Schedule 1 Canadian bank; AAOIFI-certified. Not covered in the AMJA resolution. Verify the commodity flow and whether you bear price risk on the resale leg.
Read the contract →Contract-grade public documents were read directly (e.g. a full Terms & Conditions or a scholar-reviewed contract). This rates our certainty, not the provider’s compliance.
Established & regulatory standing
The verifiable facts
Established
Launched halal home mortgages across several Canadian provinces; raised ~CAD $25M initial funding via a Shariah-compliant wakāla arrangement with a Schedule 1 Canadian bank. Currently issuing in ON, MB, AB and BC.
Regulatory standing
A fintech mortgage provider funded via a wakāla agreement with a Schedule 1 Canadian bank; not a deposit-taking, OSFI-insured institution itself. Shariah-certified under AAOIFI standards.
Shariah board
Who certifies it
A Shariah Supervisory Board of four scholars chaired by Mufti Irshad Ahmad Aijaz (Chairman, Shariah Advisory Committee, State Bank of Pakistan). Fatwas also from Mufti Mirza Zain Baig (Montreal) and Mufti Faisal Al Mahmoudi (Edmonton). Certified/audited by the Bahrain-based Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB).
A named, credentialled board is a real signal — but a provider’s own board certifying its own product is not the same as arm’s-length review. Weigh it alongside the independent commentary below.
Independent scholarly review
What independent scholars have said
No named independent scholar/body outside EQRAZ's own SSB and the SRB certifier was verifiable; EQRAZ was explicitly NOT covered in the AMJA Canadian resolution.
Independent commentary is weighed, not treated as a final personal ruling. A body that rules one way is one respected voice, not a universal consensus — and rulings can lag changes to a live contract.
How the structure works
The mechanics, in principle
EQRAZ uses a renewable 'monthly murābaḥa' in which the financier sells halal assets it owns to the customer at a disclosed cost-plus price; the customer then sells those assets into the open market, generating funds for the home purchase. Terms are renewable and the client can close by paying the remaining principal plus any prepayment charges. Profit is fixed/disclosed rather than interest-based.
This describes the structure in principle — it is not a verdict on the executed contract. Canada’s halal-finance market is young, so confirm each provider’s current executed terms before committing; the checklist below is what tests the fiqh.
From the public documents
How the contract actually works
Read from EQRAZ’s own public materials — white papers, product pages, FAQs and fatāwā — not its executed contract, which is generally not published. Where a point is undisclosed, it is said plainly rather than guessed. Sources are listed below.
EQRAZ runs a commodity-based 'monthly Murābaḥa': the financier uses a Shariah-compliant commodity (not the home) as the underlying asset, sells it to the customer who on-sells it to the open market, generating cash to acquire the home — marketed as solving the Canadian double-tax/lock-in problem of classical upfront murābaḥa. On title, the EQRAZ FAQ states the customer is 'the legal and beneficial owner of the property,' keeping all appreciation and absorbing any loss; the borrower signs exactly two agreements — 'The Murabaha Agreement' and 'The Legal Mortgage Charge.' EQRAZ itself cannot be the financier for provincial-licensing reasons, so the mortgage is with a wholly-owned funding-vehicle subsidiary (e.g. 'EFV001 Inc.', funded from Canadian investors/banks via a Wakāla agreement). Pricing is a posted profit rate on up-to-5-year renewable terms 'each at its respective rate' (i.e. repriced at renewal), expressed semi-annually compounded only to satisfy Canadian disclosure law ('does NOT mean that your mortgage is compounded'). Each monthly payment splits into a principal/equity portion plus a Murābaḥa profit portion; prepayment is allowed (partial/full) but cancellation before term triggers a penalty of the higher of (a) three months' profit or (b) a profit-rate differential; late-payment profit is donated to charity. Shariah: an appointed board with fatwas from Mufti Mirza Zain Baig (CCIRI Montreal) and Mufti Faisal Al-Mahmoudi (Edmonton), audited annually; a CAD 2,500 non-refundable fee applies on accepting the pre-approval and a 2.0% commitment fee is in the effective APR. Honest limit: the executed contract text, the actual commodity-broker counterparty, the live posted rate, and the full default/foreclosure escalation path (the 'Security' FAQ on default/negative-equity sale could not be captured) are not public.
The Six-Pillar test
The questions that decide it
This is the universal lens this site applies to every home-finance contract, anywhere. Read each pillar as a question to put to EQRAZ’s executed contract — not its brochure.
- 1
Real ownership
Does the financier genuinely take ownership of the asset — even briefly — and bear a real owner's risk, rather than only ever holding a debt secured against it?
- 2
Risk-sharing
If the asset is destroyed or its value collapses, does the financier share that loss in proportion to its stake, or is the customer left bearing it alone?
- 3
Rent vs interest
In a lease/co-ownership, is the rent benchmarked to a genuine market rent for the property — or is it calibrated to an interest rate (a base-rate + margin) in disguise?
- 4
Default mechanism
On default, does the contract behave like the end of a real lease/partnership — or does it accelerate like a loan, demanding the full outstanding 'principal' plus charges?
- 5
No guaranteed pre-fixed return
Is the financier's return tied to real ownership and risk, or is it a pre-fixed, guaranteed sum that arrives regardless of what happens to the asset?
- 6
Substance over form
Strip away the Arabic labels: does the cashflow, risk, and outcome differ from a conventional loan — or is it the same economics wearing a compliant name (ḥiyal)?
Before you sign
What to ask EQRAZ, in writing
Put these to the provider in writing and keep the answers. The reply — not the marketing — is what tells you whether the structure holds.
Walk me through the 'monthly murābaḥa' commodity flow step-by-step — what asset is bought/sold, and do I bear any market price risk on the resale leg?
Since funding comes via a wakāla with a Schedule 1 bank, how is the chain kept interest-free end-to-end?
What are the renewal repricing terms — can my profit rate change at each renewal?
Can I see the SRB certificate and the fatwas from your named muftis?
Whose name is on title throughout, and what protections exist if EQRAZ or its bank partner fails?
The honest gap
What we have not verified
- Whether EQRAZ holds any direct provincial/federal lending licence or relies entirely on its bank partner's regulatory status.
- Whether the 'sell to open market' leg exposes clients to genuine commodity price risk or is a same-day pass-through.
- The current full four-member SSB roster (only the chair and two fatwa-issuers were clearly verifiable).
The reasoning
Why this verdict, and not another
A verdict is only as honest as the reasoning behind it. Here is why EQRAZ sits where it does — what keeps it off a clean pass, and what keeps it off an outright avoid.
Not a clean pass because
EQRAZ's profit is repriced at each renewable term and the commodity-resale leg's broker counterparty, the live posted rate and the full default/negative-equity escalation path are not public; it relies on a funding-vehicle subsidiary rather than holding a deposit-taking licence itself.
Not an outright avoid because
Its FAQ documents the customer as legal and beneficial owner signing just two contracts, a four-scholar board with AAOIFI certification and SRB audit, late-fee profit donated to charity, and a clearly disclosed prepayment-penalty formula — a transparent monthly-murābaḥa, not a disguised loan.
Sources
What this read is built on
The verifiable references behind this page — provider documents and independent scholarly resolutions. Read them yourself; do not take our summary on trust.