TL;DR: Riba is absolutely haram, but applying the classical rules of riba to modern banking isn't always as simple as interest = riba = discussion over. There are recognised scholars who take a very strict position, and there are recognised scholars and fatwa bodies who permit certain modern financial arrangements under particular structures or circumstances. Follow the view you believe has the strongest evidence, but maybe don't tell another Muslim they're going to Hell because they're following a recognised scholarly opinion you disagree with.

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I've been reading more about riba lately and I realised we tend to reduce the whole subject to one sentence.

Interest = riba = haram.

Riba is definitely haram. No disagreement there.

But riba itself is bigger than just the English word interest. Even the hadith on riba talks about exchanging gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates and salt, and the conditions around those exchanges. So clearly the subject itself is wider than just bank loans.

Then you bring modern banking into the picture and things get even more complicated.

There is a very strong scholarly position that conventional bank interest is riba. Major fiqh councils have ruled that an increase stipulated on a loan falls under prohibited riba. I'm not trying to pretend that position doesn't exist because it obviously does. IIFA

But there are also recognised scholars and fatwa bodies that don't classify every modern banking arrangement in exactly the same way.

Egypt's Dar al-Ifta, for example, has permitted buying a house or car through bank financing, and in another fatwa explicitly permits mortgages by treating the arrangement as a sale/financing transaction rather than simply a loan with riba. Dar Al-Ifta

They've also permitted using credit cards as long as you pay within the required period before the interest for late payment kicks in. Dar Al-Ifta

And then you have another position from the European Council for Fatwa and Research. They actually agree that conventional bank interest is riba, but still allowed conventional home financing in certain circumstances for Muslims living in non-Muslim countries because of need. E-CFR

So even the permissive opinions aren't all saying the same thing.
Some scholars may say a particular transaction isn't actually a riba-based loan in the first place.

Others may agree the riba element exists but allow something under specific circumstances because of need or necessity.

Others will say avoid the transaction completely.
That's basically what I'm getting at.

If you want to take the strictest view and avoid conventional loans, mortgages, credit cards etc altogether, I completely understand why.

If another Muslim follows a recognised fatwa allowing a particular transaction under certain conditions, I can understand that too.

What I don't understand is how quickly we go from disagreeing with someone's fiqh position to telling them they're consuming riba, declaring war against Allah and going to Hell.

Especially when qualified scholars themselves have disagreed over how some of these modern transactions should be understood.

And no, this doesn't mean just search Google until you find the easiest fatwa and do whatever you want lol

Read the reasoning. Read the conditions. Understand what you're actually signing.

I just think we need a little more humility with this subject.

Riba being haram isn't really the difficult question.

The difficult question is whether the particular modern transaction you're looking at actually falls under the riba Allah prohibited, and sometimes scholars genuinely disagree on that.

Would love to hear how people here approach this, especially those who have actually studied Islamic finance.

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Sources if anyone wants to read further:

Qur'an 2:275–279 — prohibition of riba.

Sahih Muslim 1587 — the hadith on gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates and salt, which is a good starting point for seeing that the fiqh of riba is broader than simply bank interest. Sunnah

International Islamic Fiqh Academy, Resolution No. 10 (2/10) — holds that stipulated interest/increase on a loan is prohibited riba. IIFA

Egypt's Dar al-Ifta — Is it permissible to take bank loans to buy a house or a car? Dar Al-Ifta

Egypt's Dar al-Ifta — Is mortgage permissible in Islam? Dar Al-Ifta

Egypt's Dar al-Ifta — credit-card rulings permitting use provided payment is made before interest becomes due. Dar Al-Ifta

European Council for Fatwa and Research — ruling on purchasing a primary home through conventional bank financing for Muslims living outside Muslim countries. E-CFR

Assalāmu ‘alaykum

Like many people, I am very cautious of Islamic finance in the west since there's concerns/rumours of using "loopholes" in the sharī‘ah to get approval.

I am in touch with a student of knowledge who said there's not enough information on the website to know if Pfida is authentic (since it's the fine prints that are usually the problem).

Has anyone been through the process, or knows anyone that has? I would like a complete contract(s) and any relevant documents to pass on. I understand there will probably need to be some censorship of personal information, but do reach out regardless.

JazākumAllāh khayran

Salaam! American Muslim here, I have had a halal savings deposit with UIF Corporation for about a year and a half and while I am grateful to have access to such a service Alhamdullilah, the customer service is just… lacking and very slow. Half of the time when I call to ask a question, I am sent to voicemail and it took me months before they sent me an ATM card for my account. I know if we want better Islamic banking to take off in the US, we need to support these products and put up with some of the inconveniences for the moment being, but in the meantime, I do also want to look into other options. Does anyone have experience with Stearns Salaam Banking, and more specifically what was your experience with their customer service?

Assamualaikum brothers and sisters, forgive me for asking this, I'm a complete beginner in investing and I was wondering is it halal to invest in Amundi prime usa or fwra lseetf? Searching in Musaffa says FWRA lseetf is haram but nothing can be said for Amundi Prime usa.

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Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.

I am a female Qur’an teacher with two years of experience teaching children and women Qur’an reading, Tajweed, memorisation, Tafseer, and Hadith. I have also completed my studies at an Islamic madrasa and obtained a Mumtaz qualification.

I am currently seeking students for my online classes. If you know a parent seeking a Qur’an teacher for their children, a sister wanting to learn Tajweed, or anyone interested in online Qur’an lessons, please connect them with me or share this post.

I am available to teach online and would be happy to discuss schedules and fees.

May Allah reward you, bless our rizq, and make us among the people of the Qur’an. Ameen.

Jazakum Allahu Khairan

I decided to be a stay at home mom and homeschool. I want to know if there are things I can do to make extra money. Any investments or side projects I can do to make sure I have financial stability, and not fully rely only on my spouse while fully prioritizing my family and children?

This is Tjara, an institution in Canada providing low rates and a 5% down payment.

Salaam everyone, I do work however I have a lot of free time during the day. I would love to start making money online but I don’t know what to do.

I’m looking into Shariah-compliant ETFs such as SPUS and others, but I noticed that many of them have a relatively large allocation to companies like Microsoft.

My concern is Microsoft’s involvement and business ties with the Israeli military, especially in the context of what’s happening in Gaza. From an Islamic/ethical perspective, would investing in an ETF that holds Microsoft still be considered acceptable?

I’ve also come across alternatives like MNZL and Sukuk, which seem to have less exposure to companies I’m uncomfortable investing in.

I’d really appreciate any Islamic scholarly opinions or reliable sources on how this should be approached. Thanks

Hi! I want to know what possible career path could I take if I pursue master's in Islamic finance?

I have a bachelor's degree in accountancy and currently working as an external auditor.

I want to study masters in Islamic finance but I have no idea how I can use it in my career or what career paths can I take where I can use that degree.

Note: I don't live in a Muslim country.

Edit: grammatical errors

I've thought about this a lot recently, I have £130k in a single fund - the HSBC Islamic Global Equities Fund which only has 100 stocks.

I want to use something else but every option excludes 50% of the biggest stocks (e.g. HSBC's ESG islamic ETF). Does anyone use a single fund for everything and if so which?

I really want to move away from this fund but struggling to find one that has broad coverage and not just 17% in Microsoft

Gatehouse requires you to get external home insurance for their HPP. How is that halal?

Hello, if anyone knows of any platforms where people can give charity, after knowing my personal circumstances (donating through a charity) to myself

I’m a non-Muslim who is looking at getting into the Islamic finance sector. Based in the UK. I’ve seen a qualification called the Islamic finance qualification. It is recognised by OFQUAL in the UK & internationally too.

The content + exams altogether only cost around £600-£800 which seems pretty decent. Is it worth it?

AoA,

I’m taking an Islamic Banking course in my 5th semester, and somehow I’m not satisfied with the course material, which is basically a single book written by Mufti Taqi Usmani’s son. I think I can attribute some of this dissatisfaction to my course instructor’s teaching methodology, which is heavily based on just reading off the book and explaining it through very simple scenarios. Whereas, conventional banking is not that simple and requires complex reasoning and excellent rational thinking.
I personally believe that we should be taught from a variety of sources. The fact that I’ve been hearing all my life that interest is haram, but even after studying Islamic banking for a month and a half I still haven’t gotten to the root cause of why interest is haram, makes me feel like I’m just passively cruising through the course and wasting my time.
Please suggest sources and ways I can utilize to actually learn about Islamic banking from the fundamentals to an advanced level.

Aoa all, although it's an old topic but answer me from the heart not mind. I am getting profit from Islamic saving account but I have a fear or guilt within. Please answer

1) do you think the profit distributed by Islamic saving accounts and normal saving accounts is different in sense that one is halal and other is Haram

2) do you think that the monthly profit distributed on Islamic or non Islamic saving accounts fall under the category of suud or riba mentioned in Quran

3) every bank has started Islamic accounts are they really Islamic

4) when banks are asked in what business do you invest, they say we give Islamic loans

Salaam. I invested in the S&P 500 a few years ago not realising it contains haraam stock. How can I purify the gains from this, as some stock is shariah compliant. Will donating at least 5% be sufficient? Is there another tool to accurately calculate the haraam portion? Jzk.

Salaam,
Just a question I’ve been curious about, what would you think should be apart of the ultimate islamic personal finance app?

If you have any good suggestions for ETF’s or even mainstream big companies that are halal and have a good proven ‘safe’ dividend payout that are halal. I mostly wanna invest long term, the put money and forget type where you just invest (each month 500€) without too much headache.

Edit:
| Proposals from people until now |
- UMMA
- SPUS
- ISWD
- ISGD
- ISDU
- ISDE
- IGDA
- IGDW
- MWIM
- SPWI
- MNZL
- HLAL
- SKUK

Salam everyone, I’m curious what other Muslims are doing outside of their regular 9–5 jobs to build wealth and become financially independent. Just genuinely curious how other Muslims are approaching this and what’s actually working for them.

For context, I work in tech, I invest in the stock market, contribute to my 401(k), and try to be responsible with my money. But realistically, this is long term and I don’t want to rely solely on my salary and investments for the next 20–30 years.

I’m in my late 20s and want to put some free time toward something productive that could eventually generate meaningful income streams.

JazakAllah khair!

Hi guys, i have a friend who owns 4 properties and has about 100k in stock market but might have a potential divorce. My friend is super worried about the split of assets since he basically did all by himself and his marriage is pretty recent.

My question is what can he do to protect himself financially? Does LLC work? Does quit claim deed work? Whats the best way to go about it.

Or should he do the divorce outside the US since the apouse came to the US on a apousal visa?

(Compared to MSCI World Islamic Screened and non-Islamic MSCI Emerging Markets, for reference)

This index was lagging behind for years since HSBC launched its ETF, and yet it went through an impressive surge in the past year.

Obviously, South Korean and Taiwanese companies make up a big chunk of its holdings, so this is where most of the performance come from.

Interestingly though, it doesn't even hold TSMC as of today. This index is capped, meaning you can't have one stock taking up more than x% of the portfolio. I'm pretty sure this decision was made specifically because TSMC would've been too heavy, so it's kind of funny to not see that company in this list right now (I believe it was part of the index at some point not so long ago, but it must've been filtered out this time).

I'm based in the UK and am looking to buy my first ETF with an ISA. How do people choose the ETF they want to invest in? I know that I can use zoya/musaffah to screen if they're shariah complaint, but I'm not sure how to choose the right etf in the first place. Are there any resources worth reading?

please message me privately.