How it started
It started with a car.
When I, as a Muslim in Sweden, tried to buy my first car without falling into riba I called three banks. Two said they "did not know of any halal alternative." The third said I could "pay cash or lease." I could not pay 280,000 SEK cash. And the leasing turned out to be interest-based at the core.
I called five mosques. Three could not give a clear answer. One said "ask your imam." One said "we do not have products to recommend."
I spoke to 40+ other Muslims in Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo who had the same problem. Three workarounds came up:
- Buy a worse, cheaper car for cash - most common
- Take the conventional loan and make istighfar - second most common, everyone felt bad about it
- Wait for years - third most common
None of these felt like the answer. So I decided to build it.