The Scholars

AAOIFI: a Murabaha requires genuine ownership and possession

"AAOIFI's Shariah Standard on Murabaha (Standard No. 8) requires that the institution actually acquire and own the asset, taking either physical or constructive possession and thereby bearing genuine ownership risk, befor…"

AAOIFI Shari'ah Standard No. (1): Trading in Currencies

"AAOIFI Shari'ah Standard No. 1 governs the exchange (sarf) of currencies, requiring that exchanges of currency take place on a spot, hand-to-hand basis and barring deferred or interest-bearing currency dealings. It was i…"

On the limits of the necessity argument

"The maxim of necessity (ḍarūrah) does not transform the prohibited into the permissible at the level of preference. A house to own is not a necessity in the fiqh-technical sense; shelter is. Renting, downsizing, relocati…"

Bank Negara Malaysia Shariah Advisory Council — Tawarruq ruling

"The Shariah Advisory Council of Bank Negara Malaysia (the highest Shari'ah authority for Islamic finance in Malaysia, established May 1997) has issued rulings on tawarruq and bai' inah. At its 199th meeting (26 November …"

ECFR 1999: a contested necessity allowance for home mortgages in the West

"In 1999 the European Council for Fatwa and Research issued a fatwa permitting Muslims in Europe, on the basis of need (hajah) treated in the place of necessity (darurah), to purchase a first home with a conventional inte…"

OIC Islamic Fiqh Academy: bank interest is riba (Resolution 10/2, 1985)

"Any increase or interest on a matured debt in exchange for an extension of the maturity date, where the borrower is unable to pay, and the increase (or interest) on a loan at the inception of its agreement, are both form…"

On the truth about interest-based mortgages

"The question is not whether interest-based mortgages are riba. They are. The question is whether a Muslim is willing to live with the consequences of that fact — and whether their scholars are willing to tell them the tr…"

On Murābaḥah in conventional clothing

"A Murābaḥah whose price is calibrated to LIBOR, whose payment schedule mirrors amortization, whose default mechanism penalizes time-value-of-money, and whose customer relationship is identical to a conventional mortgage …"

On evaluating contemporary Islamic finance structures

"The test of a contemporary Islamic finance product is not whether it carries a Shariah board's approval — though that is necessary — but whether the underlying economic substance corresponds to its legal form. A Murābaḥa…"

On hijrah as a real instruction

"If a believer cannot, in a given land, structure their life around what God has permitted — and they have a viable destination — then hijrah is not a romantic notion. It is a real instruction of our tradition, given to t…"

On scholarly consensus on the prohibition of riba

"The prohibition of riba is one of the few areas of fiqh on which all four Sunni schools, the Shīʿah schools, and the consensus of every recognized scholar across fourteen centuries are in complete agreement. Disagreement…"

On the shariah-compliant label as a beginning

"The shariah-compliant label is a beginning, not an end. The question every Muslim must ask of any modern product is: what is the actual underlying contract, and does it transfer real economic risk in a way that makes the…"

On negotiating with God about riba

"When God says 'fear Me and leave what remains of riba' — and we say 'but the mortgage' — we are not asking a fiqh question. We are negotiating. And the surrounding āyāt make clear that there is nothing to negotiate."

On trust and provision

"The riba-free life is not first an economic project. It is first a project of trusting that the One who forbade it also provided. Our community has lost the second half of that sentence."

Allah accepts charity from lawful earnings (Sahih al-Bukhari 1410)

"A narration that Allah accepts charity (sadaqah) given from lawful earnings and causes it to grow for the giver - a counterpoint to riba, which the Qur'an says Allah destroys while He increases charity."

The gravity of devouring riba (Sahih al-Bukhari 2086)

"A narration in Sahih al-Bukhari on the gravity of devouring riba, underscoring the severity with which dealing in interest is treated."

Āl ʿImrān 3:130 — Do not consume usury doubled and multiplied

"O you who have believed, do not consume usury, doubled and multiplied, but fear Allah that you may be successful."

Al-Baqarah 2:188 — Do not consume one another's wealth unjustly

"A prohibition on consuming one another's wealth unjustly (akl al-mal bil-batil) and on using it to bribe authorities in order to wrongfully seize a portion of others' property knowingly."

On consumerism and the modern self

"The riba economy is not only a violation of law; it is a deformation of the soul. To owe perpetually, to plan a life around debt-service, to defer real ownership for decades in exchange for the appearance of present poss…"

On Muslim entrepreneurship as the alternative to debt-based wealth

"The Prophetic alternative to riba was never "work harder at your job to pay the interest faster." It was "trade" — taking real risk, producing real value, building real wealth without the middleman of debt. The contempor…"

On the discipline of riba avoidance as spiritual practice

"Our forebears understood that the prohibition of riba is not an arbitrary rule but a protection — of the rich from the disease of accumulation without effort, of the poor from the disease of indebtedness, of the society …"

On women's financial agency in classical Islam

"In classical Islam, a woman's wealth is hers alone. Her mahr is her property, not her family's. Her earnings are her own — she has no obligation to spend them on the household; that duty falls on the husband. Her inherit…"

On the prohibition of conventional banking interest

"The interest charged or paid by conventional banks is riba al-nasīʾa in its purest contemporary form. There is no scholarly opening to permit it for the buyer of a home or the holder of a savings account. The classical c…"

On the four conditions of tawbah when the sin involves others

"Tawbah from a sin against God requires three conditions: stop the sin, regret it sincerely, resolve never to return. But when the sin involves the rights of others — including the rights of one's own family in a riba con…"

On the staged exit framework

"The framework is this: stop entering new riba contracts immediately. Begin exiting existing ones as soon as your circumstances allow. The exit does not need to be reckless to be sincere. A staged exit over two to five ye…"

On ḥājah-based exceptions for Western Muslims

"The believer who lives in a society where riba is woven into the basic transactions of life is in genuine difficulty. The fiqh of minorities (fiqh al-aqalliyyāt) must recognise this without collapsing the prohibition. Ne…"

On housing and the necessity argument

"He who seeks to permit conventional housing finance under the rubric of necessity has misunderstood the classical concept of ḍarūra. Necessity in the Shariah refers to that which prevents the perishing of life, religion,…"

On obedience over comfort

"When the only argument for permissibility is the difficulty of the alternative, the issue is not the alternative — it is our willingness to accept difficulty in obedience. Our predecessors crossed deserts for less than t…"

On wealth, the soul, and the discipline of trade

"Wealth is neither praised nor blamed in itself; its blame belongs to the manner of its earning and its spending. The Companions ﷺ were among the wealthiest of merchants and the most ascetic of worshippers — there is no c…"

On the preservation of wealth as a maqṣid

"Among the five universals of the Shariah is the preservation of wealth — and this preservation is not merely the protection of property from theft, but the protection of the economic order from corruption. Riba corrupts …"

On the two categories of riba

"Riba is of two kinds: riba al-nasīʾa, which is the increase taken in exchange for the deferment of a debt, and riba al-faḍl, which is the excess taken in the immediate exchange of one commodity for the same commodity in …"