We have been hearing about Islamic finance and banking services for many years now. For those of us living in Muslim countries this may not be big news. However, for those of us living in western countries, Islamic banking services are still not available commonly. However, some of us may not realize that Islamic banking industry’s assets have reached to $500 billion today. Middle Eastern countries and Malaysia are at the forefront of offering Islamic financial services. Net profits, total assets and equity of most banks offering Islamic banking services are increasing yearly by an astounding rate.
(See Crystal Mosque in Malaysia)
The trend now has picked up even in western countries. Within the UK, three banks have the licenses to run Islamic banking and an Islamic insurance company is about to open as well. Certain western banks such as HSBC have been offering Islamic banking services for more than a decade and continue to expand in many countries of the world. The New York Times reported this month that “Big banks, including Citigroup, HSBC and Deutsche Bank, as well as financial capitals like London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, are all going into the Islamic banking business. An estimated 300 Islamic financial institutions hold at least $500 billion in assets, an amount that is increasing more than 10 percent a year.” That is indeed tremendous growth for a sector that until a few years ago had more doubters than hopefuls. Besides Islamic loans, Islamic bonds, Islamic credit cards and Islamic derivatives are all available part of the Islamic banking services. The trends definitely point to a very near future where most Muslims, whether living in the west or elsewhere will easily be able to deal in such services. If you are already using those services, please share your experiences with others who have yet to explore the Islamic banking and finance front.
— End
Here is a Dua asking for wealth
This is real fantastic. I would like to leran more about islamic banking and also eager to find some software regarding it
I am a Chinese Muslim from mainland of China, I have been in Malaysia for 8 years
and have experenced Islamic banking system and serveces here a lot. My intention is to
establish such system in China and bring the mercy of Allah to Muslims there, if it happened
in China and I think it would bring a lot of benifits for Chinese people both Muslims and
non-Muslims.
I am muslim living in Nigeria. Though the idea of islamic banking is not strange to Nigerians, but it is not
pacticed here on a wide scale. It is my hope and prayers that, wealthy muslims take up the challenge of
establishing more islamic banking outlets to benefit the large muslim population as well as non-muslims alike.
I want to use this oppportunity to appeal to muslims all over the world, especially the notable islamic countries
such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and Indonesia to engage more in diplomacy as a tool for spreading Islam around the
world. This will make the West respect Islam more as against what is happening at the moment, whereby the west have
become islamophobic due to the activities of what they call (islamic extremists, terrorists, etc).
The west succeeded in spreading their ideas largely as a result of the methods they used such as missionary activities,
establishment of schools, hospitals and churches around the world. Notable islamic countries including the ones
mentioned above should start thinking in this direction. These countries are blessed by Allah with the black gold
(oil) which can be used as a tool to spread islam across the globe.
Masalam.
Islam is a full way of living, only that we (muslims) normally we forget ourselves and eventually leave what is right for us but instead forming alliances to those agaist us.I recommend it because it was there since the reighn of the Khulafaa-rashedee(The Succsessors of Rusulullah SAW).
Salaamu Alaikum,
This is indeed very good news, Finally, Islamic Financial Institutions and Practices are becoming popular and in few years to come it is going to dominate insha Allah.
More people will be running away from interest oriented Banks to legally profitable Islamic Banks.
I urge powerful Muslim nations to strive to ensure these type of institutions are setup all over the world to help Muslims improve their lives. Besides, it will also strenghten various Islamic communities and surely move the religion forward.
Thank you.
May God Bless all Muslims throughout the world.
I realy hope that islamic banking is going to increase, and keep helping muslims with their finances all over the world.
Insha-alah.
This piece is an eye opener, while your site as a whole is good source of
Islamic awareness. I hope you will keep up the good work. I love
it, so i will keep recommending it to all.
Assalamualaikum wr.wb, I do have good experience dealing with one of the islamic banks in Indonesia, where I am from. In year 2000, my husband and I had a serious problem with our cash balance, because the office where my husband worked for cut out the department of marketing. That effected my husband’s job. As you may all know, in Indonesia its rather hard to have a house, so we had a house’s loan with one of the Islamic bank. During the time when my husband was jobless, we could not fulfill our payment to the bank. The greatest thing that the bank did is they understood our situation and found a solution, finding a buyer for our house and we had moved to our parent’s house.The process took about 6 months and finally we had a buyer of our house and fulfilled our payment to the bank. They really worked with heart, and I have faith Alhamdulillah in islamic banks in the world.