Reposted from the web

Summary: This Kuala Lumpur halal food guide issue 3 maps Malay, Chinese, and international halal restaurants, including Arabic grilled meat, laksa, Hakka cuisine, Cantonese-style tea food, seafood, French food, Japanese ramen, hot pot, Chinese dishes, and Paris Baguette.

Kuala Lumpur has a surprising number of halal restaurants. If you do not know where to start, you can choose from the three categories I have divided them into. The first category is Malay food, or Southeast Asian cuisine, which includes Thai food. Malay people are spread widely across Southeast Asia; they live not only in Malaysia but also in Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, and Thailand. The second category is Chinese food, or Chinese cuisine. This is mainly halal food made by Chinese people who moved south to Southeast Asia, based on Fujian and Guangdong styles with some improvements. The third category is foreign restaurants. The most common ones here are Japanese and Korean food, followed by Western food, South Asian restaurants, and Middle Eastern restaurants. There might be some niche halal restaurants, but they basically fall into these three categories. The number of halal restaurants here definitely exceeds that of Beijing, but in terms of variety, it is still not as diverse as Beijing. Beijing's halal Chinese food and foreign restaurant categories still lead the world.

The restaurant information for this issue is as follows:

1. WRAP'NROLL (Arabian grilled meat)

2. AH CHENG LAKSA (Malay food)

3. Maifenju (Hakka cuisine)

4. FRIDAYS (North American style food)

5. Samtai Yamch'a (Cantonese-style tea restaurant)

6. TWO SONS (seafood, afternoon tea)

7. BACHA COFFEE (coffee shop)

8. TEA ROASTERY (Japanese matcha)

9. Arte 66 Restaurant & Bar (French food)

10. Teppanyaki (tieban shao)

11. Shrimp Noodle Bar (Japanese ramen)

12. The Fish Bowl (light meals)

13. Cili Kampung (Malay cuisine)

14. Fresh (airport light meal fast food)

15. Tengyu (Chinese food, hot pot)

16. Paris Baguette (Western pastries and bread)

1. Wrap'nroll



This is an Arabic fast food restaurant on the B1 floor of Avenue K mall. People call this mall AK. It sits just across the street from the north side of the Petronas Twin Towers. The B1 floor has many halal fast food shops.





You can eat Arabic specialty desserts like kunafa and baklava here.



Address: By the elevator on the B1 floor of AK mall

2. Ah Cheng Laksa



Laksa is a specialty of Malaysia. It is a type of noodle soup that comes in many varieties and flavors. Because many Malay people live in Singapore and Indonesia, you can find laksa there too.



The broth for this noodle soup has many ingredients and a wide range of flavors. I did not quite understand the taste, so I just ordered the signature laksa. I could not finish it after two bites. If you have a conservative palate, be careful when ordering.



Address: AK Mall, B1

3. Ma Fen Ju



This is a small Hakka restaurant. You can probably only find halal Hakka food in Southeast Asia, and this was my first time trying it.









The menu says no pork. In Malaysia, getting an official halal certification costs over 50,000 Malaysian ringgit. Small shops cannot afford that, so they just write no pork instead of paying the fee.





Sambal okra (yangjiaodou) is just okra.



Dried shrimp tofu with minced meat rice, which is a little spicy.



Address: AK Mall, B1

4. FRIDAYS



This is an American-style halal restaurant. You can tell by the decor that it has a Western cowboy vibe.



American restaurants are known for large portions and high calories. I chose this place because my son cannot eat spicy food, but the black pepper in the American dishes still has a bit of a kick.





Fahim took one bite of the salmon and stopped, so I ordered him a kids' meal instead.



Tomato pasta is his absolute favorite.

Address: 4th Floor, KLCC

5. Samtai Yamch'a



This is a halal-certified Cantonese dim sum restaurant.



They have freshly made dim sum available for takeout.



The restaurant is in the newly opened TRX Mall and is very busy with many Malay customers, but I don't think it is as refined as the dim sum in KLCC.



Spicy wontons in chili oil (hongyou chaoshou) and their signature hand-pulled noodles (lamian).





Fresh shrimp rice noodle rolls (changfen).





Custard buns (liushabao).



Chicken barbecue pork buns (chashaobao). I still think the ones from the Hui Muslim restaurant in Guangzhou that split open at the top are better.

Address: Concourse Level, TRX Mall

6. TWO SONS



Two Sons is a seafood afternoon tea restaurant on the third floor of TRX.





You order by scanning a QR code here, and they serve tea and coffee.



The main meals focus on seafood, which tastes fresh and delicious. You often have to queue for a table, but waiting in line to eat is very common in Kuala Lumpur.

Address: 3rd Floor, TRX Mall.

7. BACHA COFFEE



This is a very popular cafe that also has locations in Hong Kong. It is known as the Hermes of the coffee world, but the prices are not actually that high. A pot of coffee costs about 30 to 60 Malaysian Ringgit.



We visited the branch on the ground floor of KLCC, and I also saw one in the TRX mall.



They have hundreds of coffee varieties, and the menu is as thick as a book. I do not have any specific recommendations, but keep in mind that one order is a whole pot, which is enough for two people. We accidentally ordered two pots, but luckily they were not filled to the brim, so we managed to finish them.



You can pair the coffee with cream and desserts, which are of excellent quality.







Address: Ground Floor, KLCC, near the entrance by the musical fountain.

8. TEA ROASTERY CHA-BA-SHI-RA



A new Japanese matcha shop just opened at the entrance of the B1 supermarket in Isetan Department Store.



The owner is Malaysian. He went to Japan to learn the art of matcha, and because he loves it himself, he came back home to open this shop.



I have tasted matcha in Hokkaido, where it was smooth and rich, and the quality at this shop is also very good.



Address: Exit of the B1 supermarket in Isetan Department Store.

9. Arte 66 Restaurant & Bar



This is a very luxurious French restaurant located just a few hundred meters from the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.



You can only find this kind of halal French dining in Kuala Lumpur. I saw one in Dubai, but it was ridiculously expensive at 3,000 yuan per person. This place is about 500 RMB per person.







The restaurant is on the 66th floor of the building, offering a panoramic view of Kuala Lumpur with the Petronas Twin Towers visible in the distance.







They charge per person, and you choose your items from the menu. The dishes are served in order, and the whole meal takes about an hour.



They serve TWG brand tea bags, which cost over a hundred yuan online.



The first dish was raw oyster sashimi. The taste was very average and a bit fishy; I still don't like eating raw oysters.



The two of us chose different set menus, and the other one was salmon sashimi.



Seafood soup with scallop meat, large shrimp, and mussels.



Creamy vegetable soup.



This is a French-style duck dish. The meat is quite tender and very lean.



The French-style pan-seared lamb chops taste good. It is a pity I did not get to eat French escargot here; I will have to wait until I am back in Tianjin to eat snails.



The coffee and desserts are high quality, but the main dishes taste very ordinary and a bit rough. They do not seem to match the decor.





Address: Level 66, Jalan Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, Mont Kiara, 50480 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur

10. Teppanyaki



A Japanese teppanyaki restaurant. I remember the last time I had halal teppanyaki was in Hokkaido.





A chef cooks the meat for you, then you eat it with vegetables and rice. The meal comes with jelly and edamame.



Address: 52100, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Taman Kepong, Jalan Metro Prima, F28, L1, AEON Mall, Metro Prima

11. Shrimp Noodle Bar



This is a Japanese-style shrimp broth ramen shop.







Their shrimp soup is incredibly rich and authentic, made with real, quality ingredients. The shrimp tails are already peeled, which is a perfect touch.



12. THE FISH BOWL



This is a light meal shop on the fourth floor of KLCC. After living in Malaysia for a while, you will really crave this kind of light, healthy food. This shop is also halal certified.



Their drinks are all fresh-pressed fruit and vegetable juices.



You order by selecting your ingredients on a piece of paper.



If you cannot read the menu, you can also choose a set meal by looking at the pictures.

13. cili kampung



This is a Malay restaurant on the fourth floor of KLCC. It is a chain store that is very popular, so you will need to wait in line.





The large shrimp and squid are delicious. The salty and spicy flavors go perfectly with rice; the two of us ate a whole bucket of it.











Address: 4th Floor, KLCC

14. FRESH



This is a fast-food restaurant located after the international security checkpoint at Kuala Lumpur Airport.



There are not many good food options after security. Besides McDonald's, KFC, and Pizza Hut, this is the only healthy restaurant worth visiting.



Address: After international security, Terminal 2, Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

15. Tengyu Chinese Hot Pot Restaurant



Tengyu is a hot pot restaurant in Kuala Lumpur opened by Hui Muslims from Xi'an. They also serve stir-fried dishes.





The restaurant has a nice, spacious environment and even includes a prayer room.



They use traditional copper pots with charcoal fire, and the taste is very good.





Their stir-fried dishes are prepared in the Sichuan style and go very well with rice.



Fermented glutinous rice soup (laozao tang)



Shredded pork in sweet bean sauce (jingjiang rousi)



Fish with pickled mustard greens (suancai yu)



Address: 83-G PLATINUM WALK NO 2 JALAN LANGKAWI SETAPAK, KUALA LUMPUR. (Next to the side entrance of Setapak Central)

16. PARIS BAGUETTE



A halal Paris Baguette store in Kuala Lumpur.



They have bread, light meals, and coffee.



Address: Level C, The Exchange TRX mall view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This China mosque travel guide records the author's mosque footprint map as of August 2024, including 709 mosques across 16 countries and regions, more than 200 cities, a long Beijing mosque list, reflections on memory, travel, friendship, and the goal of visiting 1,000 mosques.

In 2017, I counted the mosques I had visited, and the number was 200. A Muslim community website in the UK even reported on it. By 2022, that number reached 454, which you can see in my list of 454 mosques visited. As of August this year, I have visited a total of 709 mosques across 16 countries and regions, spanning over 200 cities. I am getting closer to my goal of 1,000 mosques.



Traveling over these years has given me so much insight. It has broadened my horizons so much that I am no longer surprised by strange or unusual things. When you adopt a solar system perspective, you realize that the issues back home are really not a big deal. You stop looking at any authority with a halo. Of course, the prerequisite for improving your understanding is to have a certain amount of reading, otherwise, travel just becomes a superficial glance.



I think it is very necessary to record my travel experiences. I have found that as I get older, my memory gets worse. To put it nicely, I have a broad mind and do not take things to heart, but the truth is that if I do not write down many people and events, I might forget them after a while. I look back at articles I wrote in the past from time to time. Some content actually feels strange to me, and I cannot seem to remember how I recorded those words and photos at the time.

My number of WeChat friends has also expanded 10 times, but the vast majority can only be considered as stranger-friends. Even for people I have met offline, after a while, if I did not add a note, I might not remember where I met them. After all, a person's social capacity is limited. If any friends feel that I am cold because of this, please forgive me. I just have limited brain capacity, but I prefer to make friends with people who resonate with me. I am not the Chinese currency (renminbi), so I cannot make everyone like me.

1. Dongsi Mosque, Dongcheng District, Beijing; 2. Andingmen (Daguan) Mosque; 3. Nandouya Mosque; 4. Dongzhimenwai Mosque; 5. Hua'ershi Mosque; 6. Shazikou Mosque; 7. Qingzhen Pushou Mosque, Xicheng District; 8. Dewai Fayuan Mosque; 9. Sanlihe Qingzhen Yongshou Mosque; 10. Zhengyuan (Beigouyan) Mosque; 11. Niujie Mosque; 12. Houheyan Mosque; 13. Huihuiying Mosque; 14. Qianmen Mosque; 15. Nanhxiapo Mosque, Chaoyang District; 16. Changying Mosque; 17. Kangying Mosque; 18. Yangzha Mosque; 19. Xihui Mosque; 20. Wanziying Mosque; 21. Guanzhuang Mosque; 22. Balizhuang Mosque; 23. Songyu Mosque; 24. Haidian Mosque, Haidian District; 25. Madian Mosque; 26. Qinghezhen Mosque; 27. Landianchang Mosque; 28. Anheqiao Mosque; 29. Shucun Mosque; 30. Siwangfu Mosque; 31. Nanyuan Mosque, Fengtai District; 32. Fengtaizhen Mosque; 33. Changxindian Mosque; 34. Huangcun Mosque, Daxing District; 35. Cuizhihuiying Mosque; 36. Liushizhuang Mosque; 37. Xueying Mosque; 38. Dongbaita Mosque; 39. Qingyundian Mosque; 40. Tongying Mosque; 41. Xihongmen Mosque; 42. Langgezhuang Old Mosque; 43. Langgezhuang New Mosque; 44. Tianying Mosque; 45. Lixian Old Mosque; 46. Lixian New Mosque; 47. Xin'anzhuang Mosque; 48. Caiyu Mosque; 49. Yufa Mosque; 50. Nanyanfa Mosque; 51. Majuqiao Mosque, Tongzhou District; 52. Fatoucun Mosque; 53. Tongzhou Town (Nandasi) Mosque; 54. Xiguan Mosque; 55. Yujiawu Mosque; 56. Zaolinzhuang Mosque; 57. Zhangjiawan Mosque; 58. Yongledian Mosque; 59. Beiguan Mosque; 60. Xiguanshi Mosque, Changping District; 61. Nanyicun Mosque; 62. Xiaoxinzhuang Mosque; 63. Changping Town Mosque; 64. Heying Mosque; 65. Nankou Town Mosque; 66. Nankoucun Mosque; 67. Doudian Mosque, Fangshan District; 68. Changzhuang Old Mosque; 69. Changzhuang New Mosque; 70. Xinjie Mosque; 71. Chengguan Mosque, Miyun District; 72. Mujiayu Mosque; 73. Gubeikou Mosque; 74. Chengzi Mosque, Mentougou District; 75. Huiminying Old Mosque, Shunyi District; 76. Huiminying New Mosque; 77. Niulanshan Mosque; 78. Gaoliying Old Mosque; 79. Gaoliying New Mosque; 80. Yangzhen Mosque; 81. Chadao Mosque, Yanqing District; 82. Moshi Kou Mosque, Shijingshan; 83. Hongqiao Mosque, Tianjin; 84. Jinjiayao Mosque; 85. Chenjiagou Mosque; 86. Gexindao Mosque; 87. Yuchang Mosque; 88. Wanxin Mosque; 89. Dazhigu Mosque; 90. Hexi Mosque; 91. Great Mosque; 92. Tianmu Liuhe Mosque; 93. Xiningdao Mosque; 94. Shijiazhuang Mosque, Shijiazhuang, Hebei; 95. Zhengding Mosque; 96. Chengde East Mosque, Chengde; 97. Chengde West Mosque; 98. Baoding North Mosque, Baoding; 99. Dingzhou Mosque; 100. Cangzhou North Great Mosque, Cangzhou; 101. Cangzhou East Great Mosque; 102. Botou Great Mosque; 103. Botou East Mosque; 104. Tangshan Lunan Mosque, Tangshan; 105. Xingtai Mosque, Xingtai; 106. Handan Mosque, Handan; 107. Qinhuangdao Haigang Mosque, Qinhuangdao; 108. Yanjiao Mosque, Langfang; 109. Dachang Mosque; 110. Dachang Beiwu Mosque; 111. Damazhuang Mosque; 112. Luzhuang Mosque; 113. Huogezhuang Mosque; 114. Xiaochang Mosque; 115. Liangzhuang Mosque; 116. Yangxinzhuang Mosque; 117. Nanwangzhuang Mosque; 118. Nansitou Mosque; 119. Xiadian Mosque; 120. Xiadiancun Mosque; 121. Chenxinzhuang Mosque; 122. Weizizhuang Mosque; 123. Manxingying Mosque; 124. Dongchang Mosque; 125. Xinhua Street Mosque, Zhangjiakou; 126. Xiguan Mosque; 127. Xuanhua Middle Mosque; 128. Xuanhua South Great Mosque; 129. Dongguan Mosque; 130. Tu'ergou Mosque; 131. Zhulu Mosque, Zhulu County; 132. Taiyuan Old Mosque, Taiyuan, Shanxi; 133. Datong Mosque, Datong; 134. Shuozhou Mosque, Shuozhou; 135. Yuanqu County Mosque, Yuncheng; 136. Changzhi North Mosque, Changzhi; 137. South Mosque; 138. Middle Mosque; 139. Luze Mosque; 140. Huanan Mosque; 141. Southwest City Mosque; 142. Wuyi Road Mosque; 143. Hohhot Great Mosque, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia; 144. Hohhot Small Mosque; 145. Hohhot East Mosque; 146. Hohhot Northeast Mosque; 147. Hohhot South Mosque; 148. Hohhot West Mosque; 149. Hohhot Xianghe Mosque; 150. Hohhot Tuanjie Mosque; 151. Jining Mosque, Ulanqab; 152. Baotou Qingkun Mosque, Baotou; 153. Baotou Great Mosque; 154. Baotou Middle Mosque; 155. Baotou West Mosque; 156. Chifeng Jingpeng Mosque, Chifeng; 157. Chifeng South Great Mosque; 158. Chifeng North Great Mosque; 159. Ordos Dongsheng Mosque, Ordos; 160. Haibowan Mosque, Wuhai; 161. Huajue Lane Mosque, Xi'an, Shaanxi; 162. Xiaopiyuan North Great Mosque; 163. Sajinqiao Old Mosque; 164. Daxuexi Lane Mosque; 165. Dapiyuan Mosque; 166. Beiguangji Street Mosque, Xi'an; 167. Qingzhen Yingli Mosque; 168. Middle Mosque; 169. Xicang Mosque; 170. Lvshan Mosque; 171. Hongbu Street New Mosque; 172. West Mosque; 173. Dongxin Street Mosque; 174. Jianguo Lane Mosque; 175. Yuanjiacun Mosque, Xianyang; 176.

Hanzhong Mosque, Hanzhong 177

Luling Mosque, Xixiang County 178

Xixiang County South Mosque 179

Xixiang County North Mosque 180

Dingbian Mosque, Yulin 181

Ankang North Mosque, Ankang 182

Ankang West Mosque 183

Nansi Mosque in Ankang, Ningning, 184

Xingwen Mosque in Ankang 185, Huayuan Street Mosque in Zhengzhou, Henan 186, Yuyuanli Mosque in Zhengzhou 187, Xiaolou Mosque at Erqi Square in Zhengzhou 188, Beixia Street Mosque in Zhengzhou 189, Qingpingli Mosque in Zhengzhou 190, Wuyingli Mosque in Zhengzhou 191, Fuminli Mosque in Zhengzhou 192, Beida Mosque in Zhengzhou 193, Jiaozuo Mosque in Jiaozuo 194, Beida Mosque in Qinyang 195, Shuinanguan Mosque in Qinyang 196, Qingzhen Laonan Mosque in Qinyang 197, Xiguan Mosque in Bo'ai County 198, Erjie Mosque in Bo'ai County 199, Huaiqing Mosque in Jiaozuo 200, Sangpo Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque 201, Sangpo Qingzhen Zhangsi Mosque 202, Sangpo Xida Mosque 203, Sangpo Qingzhen Shangsi Mosque 204, Xiajie Mosque in Jiyuan 205, Qingzhen Nansi Mosque in Jiyuan 206, Dongda Mosque in Kaifeng 207, Zhuxian Town Mosque in Kaifeng 208, Chaoyangmen Mosque in Yuzhou, Xuchang 209, Pingdingshan Mosque in Pingdingshan 210, Nanyang Mosque in Nanyang 211, Nanguan Mosque in Xinyang 212, Dongguan Mosque in Xinxiang 213, Dengzhou Mosque in Dengzhou 214, Nanguan Grand Mosque in Yinchuan, Ningxia 215, Najiahu Grand Mosque 216, Yuehai Mosque 217, Yongning Mosque 218, Minning Mosque 219, Mingxin Mosque 220, Pingluo Mosque in Shizuishan 221, Zhongjie Mosque 222, Shizuishan Mosque 223, Dawukou Mosque 224, Zhongwei Dongguan Grand Mosque 225, Zhongwei Grand Mosque 226, Xingren Grand Mosque 227, Hongganggangzi Gongbei 228, Tongxin Grand Mosque in Wuzhong 229, Siqiliangzi Gongbei 230, Honglefu Gongbei 231, Shagou Gongbei in Guyuan 232, Jingyuan Chengguan Grand Mosque 233, Yejiacun Mosque 234, Guyuan Xiyuan Mosque 235, Guyuan Jiulong Road Mosque 236, Xiguan Grand Mosque in Lanzhou, Gansu 237, Wulipu Mosque in Lanzhou 238, Gengjiazhuang Mosque in Lanzhou 239, Yuzhong Street Mosque in Lanzhou 240, Nanguan Grand Mosque in Lanzhou 241, Wuxingping Lingmingtang Gongbei 242, Xinguan Mosque 243, Lanzhou Qiaomen Mosque 244, Lanzhou Dongchuan Grand Gongbei 245, Lanzhou Wenzquantang 246, Lanzhou Water Mosque 247, Tiejiazhuang Mosque in Linxia 248, Linxia Laohua Mosque 249, Linxia Xinhua Mosque 250, Linxia Nanguan Grand Mosque 251, Linxia Qianheyan Mosque 252, Linxia Grand Gongbei 253, Linxia Zheqiaowan Mosque 254, Chuimatian Qianzhuang Mosque 255, Linxia Grand Gongbei 256, Beiguan Mosque in Tianshui 257, Houjie Mosque 258, Zhangjiachuan Nanchuan Daotang 259, Zhangjiachuan Xuanhuagang Grand Gongbei 260, Zhaochuan Mosque 261, Labuleng Mosque in Gannan 262, Hezuo Grand Mosque 263, Hezuo Qingzhen Xisi Mosque 264, Lintan Qingzhen Shangsi Mosque 265, Lintan Qingzhen Hua Grand Mosque 266, Galutian Big House 267, Lintan Xidaotang 268, Longnan Wudu Grand Mosque in Longnan 269, Yumen Mosque in Yumen 270, Wuaisi Gongbei 271, Jiayuguan Mosque in Jiayuguan 272, Jiuquan Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque 273, Wuwei Mosque in Wuwei 274, Dongguan Grand Mosque in Xining, Qinghai 275, Xining Nanguan Grand Mosque 276, Xining Yudaiqiao Mosque 277, Xining Jianguo Road Mosque 278, Xining Xiadu Avenue Mosque 279, Beimo'eryuan Mosque 280, Nanshan Gongbei 281, Guangdemen Gongbei Mosque 282, Xianmen Gongbei 283, Xining Beiguan Mosque 284, Hualong Kangyang Mosque in Haidong 285, Hualong Shangjiahe Mosque 286, Xunhua Jiezi Mosque 287, Xunhua Caotanba Mosque 288, Mengdashan Village Mosque 289, Quhuxiang Village Mosque 290, Hongshuiquan Mosque 291, Xunhua Zanbuhu Mosque 292, Qunke Grand Mosque 293, Hualong Yisha'er Mosque 294, Imam Mosque 295, Guoshitan Mosque 296, Qingshuihe East Qingzhen Nansi Mosque 297, Qingshuihe East Mosque 298, Mengda Mosque 299, Kewa Mosque 300, Zhangga Mosque 301, Suzhi Mosque 302, Ahetan Mosque 303, Tashapo Mosque 304, Chengguan Mosque 305, Jiezi Gongbei 306, Ladongtai Village Mosque in Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture 307, Jianzha Maketang Mosque in Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture 308, Hexi Mosque in Delingha 309, Delingha Grand Mosque 310, Jinfeng Middle Road Mosque in Golmud 311, Shimen Mosque 312, Hedong Grand Mosque 313, Hexi Grand Mosque 314, Huatugou Mosque in Mangya 315, Guangyuan Mosque in Guangyuan, Sichuan 316, Langzhong Baba Mosque in Nanchong 317, Langzhong Qingzhen Ancient Mosque 318, Mianyang Mosque in Mianyang 319, Jiangyou Mosque 320, Xiaoquan Mosque in Deyang 321, Tangjia Mosque in Chengdu 322, Tuqiao Mosque in Chengdu 323, Gulou Mosque in Chengdu 324, Huangcheng Mosque in Chengdu 325, Dujiangyan Mao'gong Mosque 326, Dujiangyan Nanjie Mosque 327, Songzhou Qingzhen Beisi Mosque in Aba 328, Songpan Chengguan Mosque 329, Guangzhaoting Gongbei Mosque 330, Xichang Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque in Xichang 331, Xichang Qingzhen Xisi Mosque 332, Hetaocun Mosque in Panzhihua 333, Huihuicun Mosque 334, Heying Mosque 335, Miyi Guabang Mosque 336, Chongqing Qingzhen Xisi Mosque 337, Chongqing Grand Mosque 338, Chongqing Fengjie Mosque 339, Hechuan Mosque 340, Urumqi Tatar Mosque in Xinjiang 341, Urumqi Shaanxi Grand Mosque 342, Urumqi Erdaoqiao Mosque 343, Urumqi White Mosque 344, Urumqi Guyuan Grand Mosque 345, Urumqi Nanda Mosque 346, Urumqi Shanxi Lane Mosque 347, Urumqi Shaanxi Laofang Mosque 348, Turpan Sugong Pagoda Mosque 349, Yining Shaanxi Grand Mosque 350, Liuxing Street Mosque 351, Khanaka and Saitikamale Mosque 352, Kashgar Id Kah Mosque 353, Abakh Khoja Mausoleum 354, Fragrant Concubine Garden Jiaman Mosque 355, Saheya Community Youbazha Mosque 356, Yusuf Khass Hajib Tomb 357, Wuerdasike Mosque 358, Taxkorgan Xiabazha Mosque 359, Shache Jiaman Grand Mosque 360, Altun Mosque 361, Azini Micheti Mosque 362, Kuqa Grand Mosque 363, Mulan Eshidong Mausoleum 364, Yutian Id Kah Mosque 365, Ruoqiang Mosque 366, Hotan Jiaman Mosque 367, Atushi Wusitang West Road Mosque 368, Zhanqian Mosque 369, Aksu Gulebage Mosque 370, Turpan Tuyugou Mausoleum 371, Hami Gaise Tomb 372, Shaanxi Grand Mosque 373, Zhongshan South Road Mosque 374, Huicheng Town Jianguo Village Tuguluk Buzuerrega Mosque 375, Hami Lingmingtang Branch Hall 376, Shenyang Sujiatun Mosque in Liaoning 377, Shenyang South Mosque 378, Dalian Mosque 379, Changchun Songjia Mosque in Jilin 380, Changchun Shuangyang Mosque 381, Changchun Changtong Road Mosque 382, Jilin City Qingzhen Xisi Mosque 383, Jilin East Mosque 384, Jilin Shipyard Gongbei 385, Jilin Qingzhen Beisi Mosque 386, Harbin Daowai Mosque in Heilongjiang 387, Harbin Tatar Mosque 388, Harbin Acheng Mosque 389, Harbin Qingzhen Xisi Mosque 390, Qiqihar Bukui West Mosque 391, Bukui East Mosque 392, Taicheng Mosque in Tai'an, Shandong 393, Taicheng Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque 394, Xijie Mosque 395, Xijie Qingzhen Xisi Mosque 396, Beidaquan Mosque 397, Xihuangcun Mosque 398, Fajialing Mosque 399, Xiawang Mosque 400, Shangwang Mosque 401, Ershilibu Mosque 402, Changjiazhuang Mosque 403, Daxinzhuang Mosque 404, Dasuozhuang Mosque 405, Zhoujiapo Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque 406, Zhoujiapo Qingzhen Xisi Mosque 407, Jiajiagang Village Mosque 408, Majiayuan Mosque 409, Nigou Village Mosque 410, Longshan Guanzhuang Mosque 411, Fanjia Anfu Mosque 412, Dawenkou Xinghua Street Mosque 413, Dongshen East Village Mosque 414, Dongshen West Village Mosque 415, Dongjie Village Mosque 416, Houhuangcun Mosque 417, Qianhuangcun Mosque 418, Shengjiazhuang Mosque 419, Beiqiu Mosque 420, Songzhuang Mosque 421, Chahedian Mosque 422, Fenghuangcun Mosque 423, Dawangzhuang Mosque 424, Chenjiabu Mosque 425, Xiaojiabu Mosque 426, Xitaili Mosque 427, Liujiazhuang Mosque 428, Nanyicun Mosque 429, Houlvguan Mosque 430, Zhoucheng Mosque 431, Xicun Mosque 432, Lisuocun Mosque 433, Jinan Luokou Mosque 434, Jinan Xiaojinzhuang Mosque 435, Jinan Qingzhen Nanda Mosque 436, Jinan Beida Mosque 437, Jinan Nanguan Mosque 438, Qingzhou Zhenjiao Mosque in Weifang 439, Qingzhou City Mosque 440, Weifang Mosque 441, Jining Dongda Mosque 442, Jining Liuhang East Mosque 443, Heze Xiguan Mosque 444, Heze Nanguan Mosque 445, Cao County Dongguan Xida Mosque 446, Cao County Dongmenli Mosque 447, Cao County Dongguan Mosque 448, Liaocheng Linqing Mosque 449, Linqing Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque 450, Liaocheng Qingzhen Xisi Mosque 451, Dezhou Beiying Mosque 452, Dezhou Nanying Mosque 453, Nanjing Jingjue Mosque in Jiangsu 454, Nanjing Caoqiao Mosque 455, Jizhaoying Mosque 456, Hushu Mosque 457, Zhenjiang Shanxiang Mosque 458, Lianyungang Mosque 459, Huai'an Qingjiang Ancient Mosque 460, Taizhou Mosque 461, Nantong Mosque 462, Yangzhou Lingtang Mosque Ancient Mosque 463, Lingtang Grand Mosque 464, Yangzhou Xianhe Mosque 465, Xuzhou Mosque 466, Wuxi Mosque 467, Suzhou Mosque 468, Hefei Mosque in Anhui 469, Huainan Shou County Mosque 470, Anqing Nanguan Mosque 471, Chuzhou Mosque 472, Wuhan Qiyi Street Mosque in Hubei 473, Minquan Road Mosque 474, Ma Si Baba Gongbei 475, Wuhan Jiang'an Mosque 476, Xiangyang Mosque 477, Laohekou Mosque 478, Shiyan Mosque 479, Yichang Mosque 480, Shanghai Huxi Mosque 481, Xiaotaoyuan Mosque 482, Pudong Mosque 483, Songjiang Mosque 484, Jinshan Mosque 485, Jiangwan Mosque 486, Fuyou Road Mosque 487, Hangzhou Phoenix Mosque in Zhejiang 488, Hangzhou Mosque 489, Jiaxing Mosque 490, Ningbo Yuehu Mosque 491, Shaoxing Keqiao Mosque 492, Kuba Mosque 493, Lishui Mosque 494, Huzhou dua Site 495, Nanxun dua Site 496, Quzhou Mosque 497, Taizhou Huangyan dua Site 498, Wenzhou Dongyu Village dua Site 499, Yiwu Grand Mosque in Jinhua 500, Xiamen Mosque in Fujian 501, Quanzhou Qingjing Mosque 502, Nanchang Grand Mosque in Jiangxi 503, Jiujiang Mosque 504, Shaoyang Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque in Hunan 505, Shaoyang Qingzhen Nansi Mosque 506, Longhui County Taohuaping Mosque 507, Longhui County Shanjie Hui Township Ancient Mosque 508, Longhui County Shanjie Hui Township Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque 509, Shaoyang County Qingcao Mosque 510, Shaoyang County Jiugongqiao Mosque 511, Changde Mosque 512, Changde Fengshu Township Mosque 513, Changsha Han-Hui Mosque 514, Changsha Mosque 515, Guiyang Mosque in Guizhou 516, Zunyi Mosque 517, Weining Xiaba Mosque 518, Kunming Shuncheng Mosque in Yunnan 519, Kunming Chongde Mosque 520, Kunming Yixigong Mosque 521, Kunming Dabanqiao Mosque 522, Kunming Yongning Mosque 523, Dali Xiaguan Mosque 524, Dali Ximen Mosque 525, Dali Nanmen Mosque 526, Dali Nanwuliqiao Mosque 527, Dali Xiadui Mosque 528, Dali Zhihua Mosque 529, Dali Fengyi Mosque 530, Xizhou Mosque 531, Shipang Mosque 532, Yousuo Mosque 533, Jiming Mosque 534, Yangbi Xiajie Ancient Mosque 535, Weishan Xiaoweigeng Mosque 536, Huihuideng Mosque 537, Donglianhua Mosque 538, Yanqichang Mosque 539, Daweigeng Mosque 540, Mamichang Mi Surname Mosque 541, Mamichang Ma Surname Mosque 542, Weishan City Mosque 543, Xundian Yuping Mosque 544, Kedu Dangui Mosque 545, Kedu Huihui Village Mosque 546, Ludian Tuogu Mosque 547, Zhaotong Baxian Mosque 548, Zhaotong Maohuojie Ancient Mosque 549, Mojiang Talang Mosque 550, Jianshui Ancient Mosque 551, Kaiyuan Dazhuang Mosque 552, Xinzhai Mosque 553, Gejiu Shadian Grand Mosque 554, Shadian Xiying Mosque 555, Shadian Jinjizhai Mosque 556, Laojijie Mosque 557, Mengzi City Mosque 558, Dehong Ruili Mosque 559, Yuxi Daying Mosque 560, Yuxi City Mosque 561, Najiaying Mosque 562, Najiaying Ancient City Mosque 563, Xishuangbanna Jinghong Mosque 564, Xishuangbanna Mansai Hui Mosque 565, Xishuangbanna Manluan Hui Mosque 566, Xishuangbanna Menghai Mosque 567, Lhasa Grand Mosque in Tibet 568, Lhasa Small Mosque 569, Duodi Mosque 570, Lhasa Kaqilinka East Mosque 571, Lhasa Kaqilinka West Mosque 572, Shigatse Mosque 573, Guangzhou Huaisheng Mosque in Guangdong 574, Guangzhou Haopan Street Mosque 575, Guangzhou Xiaodongying Mosque 576, Guangzhou Xianxian Mosque 577, Dongguan Wanjiang dua Site 578, Zhaoqing Qingzhen Xisi Mosque 579, Zhaoqing Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque 580, Shenzhen Mosque 581, Nanning Mosque in Guangxi 582, Guilin Qianjing Mosque 583, Liutang Mosque 584, Shanweicun Mosque 585, Jiucun Mosque 586, Xixiang Mosque 587, Women's Mosque 588, Maping Mosque 589, Chongshan Road Mosque 590, Daxu Mosque 591, Beihai Mosque 592, Kowloon Mosque in Hong Kong 593, Islamic Union Mosque 594, Wan Chai Islamic Centre 595, Jamia Mosque 596, Macau Mosque 597, Haikou Mosque in Hainan 598, Sanya Huixin Nankai Mosque 599, Huixin Qingzhen Nansi Mosque 600, Huihui Qingzhen Dongsi Mosque 601, Huihui Qingzhen Beida Mosque 602, Huihui Qingzhen Xibei Mosque 603, Huihui Qingzhen Ancient Mosque 604, Tokyo Camii in Japan 605, Tokyo ASSALAAM Mosque 606, Nagoya Mosque 607, Osaka Mosque 608, Sapporo Otaru Mosque 609, Sapporo Mosque 610, Phuket ISSATUL Mosque in Thailand 611, Phuket YAMEAY Mosque 612, Sultan Mosque in Singapore 613, Omar Mosque 614, National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 615, Jamek Mosque in Kuala Lumpur 616, Federal Territory Mosque 617, Tabung Haji Mosque 618, Selangor Royal Mosque 619, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque 620, Putrajaya Mosque 621, Ash-Shakirin Mosque 622, Terengganu Crystal Mosque 623, Redang Island Mosque 624, Malacca Chinese Mosque 625, Malacca State Mosque 626, Tranquerah Mosque 627, Kampung Hulu Mosque 628, Kampung Kling Mosque 629, Malacca Straits Mosque 630, Sabah State Mosque 631, Sabah Floating Mosque 632, Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia 633, Yogyakarta Nurul Iman Mosque 634, Nurul Falah Mosque 635, Baitussalam Mosque 636, Single Pillar Mosque 637, Jogokariyan Mosque 638, Gedhe Kauman Mosque 639, Yogyakarta Royal Grand Mosque 640, Mataram Mosque 641, Surabaya Broadway Shopping Center Mosque 642, Al-Akbar National Mosque 643, Sunan Ampel Mosque 644, Cheng Ho Mosque 645, Labuan Bajo Agung Nurul Falah Mosque 646, Saigon Mosque in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 647, Rahim Mosque 648, Vladivostok Mosque in Primorsky Krai, Russia 649, Christchurch Mosque in Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand 650, Manhattan Mosque in New York, USA 651, Atlanta Mosque in Atlanta, Georgia 652, Idris Mosque in Seattle, Washington 653, Holiday Inn dua Room in Dubai, UAE 654, Desert Safari Camp dua Site 655, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi 656, Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt 657, Imam Hussein Gongbei 658, Nasir Muhammad Mosque 659, Muhammad Ali Mosque 660, Ibn Tulun Mosque 661, Al-Fattah Al-Aleem Mosque 662, Sulayman Agha al-Silahdar Mosque 663, Al-Hakim Mosque 664, Sultan Barquq Mosque 665, Al-Rifa'i Mosque 666, Masjid Al-Malik Faisal bin Abdulaziz 667, Luxor Abu Haggag Mosque 668, Al-Iman Mosque 669, Jeddah Floating Mosque in Saudi Arabia 670, Airport dua Room 671, Prophet's Mosque in Medina 672, An-Nam Mosque 673, Abu Bakr Mosque 674, Umar ibn al-Khattab Mosque 675, Ali Mosque 676, Uhud Martyrs Mosque 677, Mustaraha Mosque 678, Qiblatain Mosque 679, Fatah Mosque 680, Fatah Ali Mosque 681, Salman al-Farsi Mosque 682, Umar Mosque 683, Sa'd ibn Mu'adh Mosque 684, Quba Mosque 685, Jumu'ah Mosque 686, Masjid al-Haram in Mecca 687, Namirah Mosque 688, Jinn Mosque 689, Aisha Mosque 690, Fiumicino Airport dua Room in Rome, Italy 691, Ottawa Mosque in Ottawa, Canada 692, Toronto Chinese Muslim Community 693, Masjid Qurtabah 694, Islamic Institute of Toronto 695, Islamic Foundation of Toronto 696, Jame Abu Bakr Siddique 697, Islamic Center of Quebec in Montreal 698, Alsalam Mosque 699, Masjid Al Salaam in Vancouver 700, Muslim Association Richmond Branch Sadaqa 701, Ismaili Centre 702, Vancouver Jamea Mosque 703, Az-Zahraa Islamic Centre 704, Baitur Rahman Mosque 705, London Central Mosque in London, UK 706, Heathrow Airport dua Room 707, Crawley Islamic Centre 708, NOOR MOSQUE 709, Sri Lanka Mosque view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Muslim knowledge guide revisits a paper on Islamic banking, focusing on Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks in Malaysia, Sharia compliance, profit maximization, murabaha, riba, manager incentives, banking structure, and whether Islamic banks are truly Islamic in practice.

This is another article I translated that critiques Islamic finance. The previous ones got a good response and made many readers think. If you read those, you will see that the contradictions and struggles of so-called Islamic finance were already discussed by scholars decades ago. Solutions exist, but we know very little about them. This has a lot to do with the stance of the people who control the narrative.



Original title: HOW ‘ISLAMIC’ IS ISLAMIC BANKING? A REVISIT

Authors: Eliza Nor, Anwar Allah Pitchi, and Muhammad Usman. It was originally published in the International Journal of Accounting, Finance and Business. All three are from the Universiti Sains Malaysia, and the paper was published in 2020.
Main text: Literature widely suggests that Islamic banks and conventional banks do not differ much in terms of regulation, operational expectations, operational dynamics, and organizational structure (Asutay, 2007; Siddiqi, 1999). Considering this argument, this paper tries to discuss these issues by focusing specifically on the Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks in Malaysia. The establishment of Islamic subsidiaries by conventional parent banks has raised many unresolved questions.

Based on an extensive review of theoretical and empirical literature related to Islamic banking and Islamic economics, this study identifies three major challenges facing Islamic banks. These challenges may cause the implementation of Sharia to be limited to a minimum scope.

The first challenge is the different goals between the conventional parent bank and its Islamic subsidiary. The main goal of a conventional parent bank is profit maximization (maximizing shareholder wealth), while the main goal of an Islamic subsidiary (in theory) is to comply with Sharia regulations (profit maximization is only secondary). Managers who are supposed to execute and follow Sharia rulings still need to follow instructions from the senior management of the conventional parent bank.

The second challenge is the profit-maximization motive of Islamic banks. Since an Islamic subsidiary is a subset of a traditional parent bank, its goals must align with those of the parent company.

Finally, if managers lack a deep background in Sharia law, their background can become an obstacle during the Sharia compliance process.

Islamic finance and banking started nearly forty years ago. Even today, despite many ways for Sharia scholars and practitioners to discuss ongoing issues, many unresolved questions and controversies remain around the industry, along with new problems that emerge alongside the development of Islamic banking and finance. One main reason why issues remain unresolved is that there is no clear distinction between Islamic banks and traditional banks, as both systems coexist in the same economy. Although Islamic finance was founded back in the time of the Prophet Muhammad, it has developed much more slowly than traditional finance. Traditional banking and finance have been accepted and practiced by most countries in the world for centuries, so the development of Islamic finance is to some extent benchmarked against traditional banking. In countries like Malaysia where Islamic banks exist, coexistence with traditional banks is almost unavoidable because these banks were originally established as traditional banks. Islamic banking windows were opened to meet the growing public demand and interest in Islamic banking products.

The successful implementation of the Islamic banking system in the Middle East encouraged local consortiums to establish Islamic banking in Malaysia. Therefore, in 1983, Malaysia enacted the Islamic Banking Act and established the first full-fledged Islamic bank, Bank Islam Malaysia. In 1999, the second Islamic bank, Bank Muamalat, was established. To this day, these are the only full-fledged local Islamic banks in Malaysia. Other local Islamic banks operate as subsidiaries of traditional parent companies, including Affin Islamic Bank Berhad; Alliance Islamic Bank Berhad; AmBank Islamic Berhad; CIMB Islamic Bank Berhad; Maybank Islamic Berhad, Public Islamic Bank Berhad; and RHB Islamic Bank Berhad.

In 1993, the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia) gave traditional banks the option to open Islamic windows. These windows offered customers banking products that follow Sharia law through their existing traditional branches. As a result, 21 Islamic banking windows were set up by their traditional bank parent companies. In 2002, the Central Bank of Malaysia allowed traditional banks to open Islamic subsidiaries to replace their existing Islamic windows. These subsidiaries are governed by the Islamic Banking Act of 1983 (Mohamed Ariff, 2017).

Over time, issues related to Islamic banking operations have grown because of conflicts between Sharia goals and commercial goals. The former is built around Islamic concepts, while the latter is built on a capitalist economy. The task of Sharia scholars is to ensure that Islamic banks follow the goals of Sharia law. On the other hand, managers are the people responsible for carrying out Sharia rulings. At the same time, managers also have a duty to meet the business goals set by the board of directors. Because of this, managers are stuck in the middle between reaching Sharia goals and business goals. This conflict can lead to Islamic banks failing to follow Sharia. Beyond the differences between business goals and Sharia goals, the backgrounds of managers and staff also play a big role in making sure Islamic banks follow Sharia.

Since Islamic banking and finance began, the issues and challenges facing the industry have been widely debated by scholars, professionals, and regulators around the world. Many documents discuss how Islamic banking products are similar to traditional banking products (for example, see Dusuki & Abozaid (2007); Kuran (2004); Siddiqi (2006); Yousef (2004)). On the other hand, issues regarding Islamic banking operations have received very little attention in the literature. Some argue that there is not much difference between Islamic banks and traditional banks when it comes to regulation, operational expectations, operational dynamics, and organizational structure (Asutay, 2007); Siddiqi, 1999). To fill this gap in the literature, this article focuses on the operations of Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks based on a newly developed conceptual framework.

There are two reasons for choosing Islamic subsidiaries of conventional banks. First, setting up Islamic subsidiaries by conventional banks has become a popular practice not only in Malaysia but also worldwide. Since the birth of Islamic finance nearly forty years ago, Islamic banking has become a profitable business. Many conventional banks have tried to seize this opportunity by establishing their own Islamic subsidiaries. As mentioned above, most Islamic banks in Malaysia exist as subsidiaries of conventional banks. Second, issues and controversies surrounding Islamic subsidiaries are expected to be more severe compared to established Islamic banks, because the former are under the control of non-Islamic conventional banks. On the other hand, for established Islamic banks, issues or conflicts related to Sharia may be less obvious because these banks exist independently and their decision-making processes are not influenced by a conventional parent bank.

Islamic Economics and Capitalist Economics

Before discussing issues related to Islamic banking, it is important to emphasize the differences between capitalist economics and Islamic economics, because Islamic economics and finance are only a small part of the larger capitalist economy.

Therefore, the influence of the former on Islamic economic and financial activities is almost inevitable, as the entire world is governed by capitalist economics. The difference between the two is only clear in theory. In reality, daily activities in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries are influenced by the capitalist economy.

The capitalist economy is built on a neoclassical framework that focuses on individual self-maximization while ignoring the maximization of social welfare (Asutay, 2007, p. 168). This approach contradicts the teachings of Islamic economics, which emphasize a balance between self-interest and social welfare.

Muhammad Zahid (2015) argues that the Muslim world has become a supporter of interest (riba) and secularism, which is the separation of daily life, activities, and education from religion. Muslims have also consistently supported the fiat currency and fractional reserve systems introduced by the Western world, which resulted from the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate in Turkey in 1923, the rise of the Western world, and the spread of secular ideologies.

The differences between capitalist economics and Islamic economics are obvious; the former emphasizes individualism, while the latter focuses on the welfare of both the individual and the entire society. Islamic economics also considers life in the afterlife, whereas capitalist economics only focuses on worldly life.

Similarities between Islamic banks and traditional banks: Islamic banks have two main goals: profitability and social objectives. However, profitability should not be the only goal, because Islamic banks must meet the social objectives set by the goals of Islamic law (Maqasid al Shariah), which is the fair distribution and circulation of wealth. Wealth circulation means that funds in society should flow from the rich (surplus sector) to the poor (deficit sector). Warde (2000, pp. 174-175) summarizes the functions and roles of Islamic banks in society as follows (based on the Islamic Banking Handbook, Vol. 6, p. 293):

(1) Broad social and economic benefits: Investment policies must focus on these sectors: agriculture, housing, and health services.

(2) Create job opportunities, focusing on promising economic sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, and technology-intensive activities.

(3) Promote and encourage entrepreneurship: Banks must prioritize small businesses through profit and loss sharing (PLS) mechanisms like mudarabah and musharakah.

(4) Promote social justice, equality, and poverty alleviation.

(5) Regional distribution of investments: (a) Direct funds to areas that lack investment. (b) Invest savings primarily in areas where savings were mobilized, so that people benefit from their own savings.

Based on the functions and roles of Islamic banks mentioned above, it is clear that Islamic banks should provide financing to entrepreneurs starting new businesses in sectors that use new technologies, such as information technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. However, these entrepreneurs may lack experience and a track record because their businesses are small and new. They may need a lot of capital to expand, so they might seek funding from Islamic banks. However, due to the nature of these businesses, these entrepreneurs may lack the collateral to offer banks. Entrepreneurs with new businesses, lacking a track record and collateral, are likely to be excluded from getting financing because their businesses are risky and have a high chance of failure. Therefore, their applications might be rejected. This leads to the problem of financial discrimination by Islamic banks. According to Asutay (2007, p. 177), financial discrimination in personal banking has become a major issue. When comparing debt financing in both types of banking, entrepreneurs rejected by traditional banks may receive the same treatment from Islamic banks.

In theory, Islamic banks should provide equity-based financing, such as profit-sharing partnership (mudarabah) and joint venture (musharakah) (M&M). Both mudarabah and musharakah are based on profit and loss sharing (PLS), where both the financier and the entrepreneur share profits and losses according to a pre-agreed ratio. These types of financing are suitable for entrepreneurs with new businesses. However, in practice, Islamic banks have been avoiding M&M financing. Evidence provided by Aggarwal and Yousef (2000), Iqbal and Molyneux (2005), Hasan (2007), and Nagaoke (2007) shows that Islamic banks rarely provide long-term financing to entrepreneurs seeking funds. Asutay (2007) argues that equity financing contributes more to economic growth than debt financing because the former is long-term. The fact that Islamic banks avoid equity financing suggests they are not particularly interested in economic development and social welfare. Islamic banks are more interested in providing financing with fixed returns, such as cost-plus financing (murabaha), deferred payment sale (bay bithaman ajil), and leasing (ijarah), rather than offering PLS-type products.

On the other hand, Islamic banks often operate in ways that mimic traditional banks, where (1) both avoid providing financing to entrepreneurs with risky businesses, and (2) both rely heavily on debt financing to ensure fixed returns (Warde, 2000, p. 22). Therefore, the goal of reaching deep into rural areas to serve them has not been achieved. Most evidence highlights that Islamic banks prefer to invest in short-term commercial deals rather than the manufacturing or agricultural sectors (Warde, 2000, p. 175). As Asutay (2007) and Warde (2000) point out, the main sectors Islamic banks should focus on are agriculture, manufacturing, and technology-intensive industries. Traditional banks are built on a fractional reserve system, which expands the money supply by multiplying loans. In this system, commercial banks use excess reserves from money deposited by savers to make a profit by charging interest to borrowers (for example, see Mishkin, 2016). This system goes against Islamic teachings because the profit comes from riba, and the bank uses other people's money—the money of the savers—to earn that profit.

Islamic banks, just like traditional banks, create money through debt financing (Zaman, 2020). The effects caused by credit expansion in traditional banks and Islamic banks are almost the same. This credit expansion can be linked to artificial scarcity (due to greed and self-interest), trade distortions (due to wealth accumulation, inflation, and the financialization of capital), and inherent boom-and-bust cycles (business cycles); ecological destruction (deforestation) and wealth polarization (wealth concentrated in the hands of a few); income inequality. Because of the nature of the money supply, as global debt increases, the business interests served by that debt allow the rich to become even wealthier. Over the past decade, more and more wealth has been concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people (Jha, 2013, pp. 356-359). Sabirzyanov and Hashim (2015) argue that Islamic banking and finance create bubble economies through debt financing under a fractional reserve system. Like traditional banks, Islamic banks support the expansion of the money supply, which leads to economic inflation. Even though price levels rise, the GDP growth rate does not change because the actual production in the economy likely stays the same.

Empirical evidence supports the argument that there is no major difference between Islamic banks and traditional banks. Chong and Liu (2009) empirically studied the differences between Islamic and traditional banks and found that Islamic banks do not differ much from traditional banking operations. In terms of assets in the Islamic banking industry, only a small portion of financing is based on profit and loss sharing (PLS) principles. In Malaysia, the vast majority of Islamic bank financing is still based on non-PLS models allowed by Sharia, but these ignore the spirit of prohibiting usury. Their research shows that in practice, Islamic deposits are not interest-free. One possible explanation for why Islamic deposits are not interest-free is that depositors' funds are mainly invested in non-PLS financing in practice. Due to increased competition from the traditional banking industry, the return rates on Islamic deposit accounts are linked to the return rates of traditional bank deposits. They concluded that the Islamic banking practiced in Malaysia today is similar to traditional banking, so the benefits of Islamic banking only exist in theory.

In Pakistan, research has also been conducted on the similarities between Islamic banks and traditional banks. Hanif (2016) chose five contracts or products to analyze: deposits, cost-plus financing (Murabaha), leasing (Ijarah), diminishing partnership (Reducing Musharaka), and Islamic bonds (Sukuk). The results show that even though these financial contracts look at legal forms, their economic substance matches traditional banking more closely. The study found that despite philosophical differences, the financial results of the Islamic finance system match traditional banking. This happens mainly because pricing is linked to the interbank offered rate (Islamic Bank OR), which ignores market mechanisms or the actual price of goods and services provided. Some also argue that putting Sharia-based financial contracts into practice is more demanding than what the contracts themselves require. Islamic banks prefer Sharia-compliant financial contracts because they are similar to traditional financial products (Hanif, 2018). A recent study on how customers perceive Islamic banks in Malaysia found that most people surveyed do not think Islamic banking is fully compliant with Sharia. This shows how important it is to implement a profit-and-loss sharing (PLS) system in the current financial setup. The results also show there is not much difference between Islamic banks and traditional banks, as both focus on efficiency and keeping their current services running (Rahmi, Azma, Obad, Zaim, and Rahman, 2020).

Evidence shows that Islamic banks currently fail to meet all the requirements set by the El Hawary four-part classification (El Hawary, Grais, and Iqbal, 2004: 5): (1) risk sharing (financial deals must reflect a balanced risk and reward distribution for everyone involved); (2) materiality (financial deals must be linked, directly or indirectly, to real economic transactions); (3) no exploitation (financial deals should not lead to any party involved being exploited); (4) no funding for sinful activities (such as producing alcoholic drinks). Therefore, the argument that Islamic banks offer a different alternative to traditional financing is not supported, because there is no real difference between Islamic banks and traditional banks (Khan, 2010). If Islamic banks do not operate much differently from traditional banks in reality, they will fail to reach their original goals of promoting social justice and equality or reducing poverty if they do not direct funds to the people who need them.

In terms of financing, Islamic banks limit their social role to zakat and other charitable activities like religious endowments (waqaf) and voluntary charity (sadaqah), which overlooks economic development and social justice. Even though the Islamic banking industry has been growing worldwide, the lives of Muslim people have not improved much. From the early days, it was clear that Islamic banks should not be driven by profit maximization, but should instead provide socio-economic benefits to their communities (Warde, 2000, p. 153). In practice, Islamic banks tend to make profit maximization their main goal, which is the same as the goal of traditional banks. In theory, the purpose and foundation for establishing Islamic financial institutions are completely different from those of traditional financial institutions. Islamic banks should follow the goals of Islamic law (maqasid al-shariah) regarding the protection of wealth. According to Islamic law rulings, five dimensions of public welfare (maslahah) must be protected in Muslim society: faith, life, intellect, prosperity, and property (Khairul Mukminin, 2018).

Laldin and Furqani (2012:4) define the goals of Islamic law (maqasid al-shariah) as follows: '...as a way of life, Islam forms standards, guidelines, values, and directions based on divine revelation (wahi) to be applied in daily life to solve human problems and guide the direction of human life.' The principles of goals (maqasid) and public welfare (maslahah) cannot and must not contradict the Quran and the Hadith, as both are the core of all other principles and rules. However, in the current situation, the interpretation of public welfare (maslahah) comes only from practical methods and reasoning, rather than from the Quran and the Hadith. Therefore, some international financial institutions manipulate the interpretation of public welfare (maslahah) and goals (maqasid) to justify their actions and norms (Sabirzyanov and Hashim, 2015). When it comes to mal (wealth), the main goal of Sharia is the legal protection of funds. How funds should be invested is only a secondary goal. However, Islamic banks put profit maximization first. Despite various profitable investments, Islamic banks should prioritize protecting the wealth of depositors instead of investing just to get higher profits. Islamic banks are advised not to engage in normal profit-seeking or maximize their funding sources as financial gains. Some also argue that Islamic banks pay less attention to the overall well-being of society (Khairul Mukminin, 2019). A critical study on the performance of international financial institutions shows a gap between the reality of these institutions and the goals of Islamic economics. Instead of bringing benefits to society, the Islamic banking and finance industry has achieved high profit margins (Sabirzyanov and Hashim, 2015).

From the perspective of Sharia, regarding interests, the rights of Allah must be given supreme status, and human rights will come after all other commitments are fulfilled. In the long run, Islamic banks can protect the value of wealth and other higher values by upholding Sharia, so they should put protection first, followed by establishment and cultivation (Khairul Mukminin, 2018).

Sharia compliance

In the case of Islamic financial transactions, all deals must follow and comply with Islamic law and business transaction rules. Sources of Islamic law include the Quran and Sunnah, along with secondary sources like ijma' and qiyas (Engku Rabiah Adawiah, 2013). The concept of Shariah compliance is often misunderstood as just meeting the minimum legal requirements set by Islamic jurisprudence. Instead, Shariah compliance means growing Islamic finance within the spirit and value system of Islam, and achieving the ideals and goals of Shariah in the financial sector (Laldin and Furqani, 2013a). Maqasid al Shariah is seen as a grand framework that provides guidelines and direction to ensure maslahah (benefit) is achieved and mafsadah (harm) is prevented in all financial contracts (Laldin and Furqani, 2012).

For branch managers, achieving both profit maximization and Shariah compliance is not easy, because in Malaysia, both Islamic and conventional products are offered at the same branch. When this happens, it is clear that there is a mix of lawful and unlawful practices. Although some banks separate the branches that offer Islamic products from those offering conventional ones, it is still questionable whether their daily operations follow Islamic rules. This is not a major issue because the products they offer are Shariah-compliant; it is a micro-level issue. Islamic banks have focused on Shariah-compliant products since they started, rather than products based on Shariah, so the problem is whether daily practices follow Shariah. In other words, do the daily operations of Islamic subsidiaries follow Shariah? In reality, achieving Shariah compliance at a macro level is much harder than at a micro level.

The idea of wealth circulation is a macro goal of Shariah, while the ideas of fair and transparent financial practices relate to the micro goals of Shariah regarding transaction tools and mechanisms. As mentioned before, the role of Islamic banks is to move wealth from the rich (surplus sector) to the poor or those in society who need funds (deficit sector), so that effective wealth circulation can be achieved in society. However, if Islamic banks do not practice what they should and instead act like conventional banks, this goal is hard to reach. If Islamic banks are not much different from conventional banks, the main goal of setting up Islamic banks will remain just a theory.

Islamic Banking: Theory and Reality

In theory, Islamic banking is a subset of the Islamic economic system, aimed at achieving a just, fair, and balanced society, which is written in Sharia (for example, see Ahmed, 1972; Chapra, 1985, 2000; and Siddiqi, 1981). The ban on interest, gambling, and excessive risk is meant to create a fair playing field to protect social interests and promote social harmony (Dusuki and Bouheraoua, 2011).

However, in reality, Islamic banks are a subset of conventional parent banks, and those parent banks are a subset of the capitalist economic system. This conceptual framework was developed based on the arguments presented in the previous sections. This is common in Malaysia and Pakistan, where Islamic banks are often subsidiaries of conventional parent banks. Both the conventional parent bank and the Islamic subsidiary are part (subsets) of the capitalist economy. The CEO, chairman, and board of directors of the conventional parent bank are the parties who may influence the decisions of the CEO, chairman, and board of directors of the Islamic subsidiary. Sharia board members provide advice on Sharia issues and may communicate directly with the boards of Islamic subsidiaries. On the other hand, the Sharia committee may not have direct contact with the general managers and branch managers of Islamic subsidiaries. Because they act as advisors to the boards of Islamic subsidiaries, Sharia board members may not have authority in the decision-making process. Managers may have more power than the Sharia committee during the decision-making process (for example, see Ullah et al. (2016)).

Challenges in implementing Sharia in Islamic banks. The main motivation for choosing Islamic banks is to avoid interest and follow Sharia (Bley and Kuehn, 2004; Haque et al., 2009; Hanif et al., 2012). However, following Sharia has been one of the biggest obstacles for Islamic banks. This section discusses the challenges of implementing Sharia. The main challenges include a lack of understanding among staff and managers of Islamic banks regarding the primary goals of establishing these banks. Customers are willing to pay high prices for products and services that follow Sharia, which helps the high profitability of Islamic banking (Lee and Ullah, 2008, 2011). However, achieving Sharia goals has become one of the biggest challenges for Islamic banks. Ullah (2014) found that Islamic banks in Bangladesh do not follow Sharia well, especially in investment activities, where there are serious Sharia violations. This happens because of a lack of knowledge and seriousness about following Sharia, a lack of proper care in Sharia audits, and a lack of skill and experience among members of Sharia supervisory boards.

Islamic banks face tough competition from traditional banks when creating new products. A simple solution is to rely on a loose interpretation of Sharia, which helps Islamic banks compete faster in profitable markets. The difficult way is to improve management and introduce different products based on profit and loss sharing (PLS) (Warde, 2000, p. 153). The literature shows that many Islamic banks choose the first solution. Because of this, Sharia compliance, which is the pillar of Islamic banking, has to take a backseat.

The main challenges Islamic banks face in following Sharia include: (1) the different goals of Islamic subsidiaries and their traditional parent banks; (2) the goal of Islamic banks to maximize profit; (3) the role of branch managers.

Different goals between Islamic subsidiaries and their parent companies

As Adam Smith proposed in his book The Wealth of Nations, business goals are based on a capitalist economy. Under a capitalist system, individuals are not limited by profit and are allowed to pursue their own interests. Built on Adam Smith's capitalist economy, a company's main goal is to maximize profit and increase market share. In other words, the main goal of a company is to maximize the wealth of the shareholders who contribute to the company and expect to make a profit from their investment. Shareholders appoint managers, who act as agents, to ensure the company's daily operations align with its goals.

The goals of traditional banks align with the economic theory proposed by Friedman (1970). As Friedman (1970) pointed out, company executives or managers are hired by the business owners and have a direct responsibility to those owners, who are their employers. They have a responsibility to run the business to maximize the company's profit while following the basic rules of society, whether required by law or ethics. According to Friedman's (1970) theory, the main goal of a traditional bank's parent company is to maximize shareholder wealth.

On the other hand, the main goal of establishing an Islamic bank is to follow the rules of Sharia, provide benefits to society as a whole (Warde, 2000), and protect the public interest (achieving maslahah). In other words, Islamic banks are built on a religious foundation, and making a profit is only a secondary goal for them. The business side of an Islamic bank works hand-in-hand with religion and the core content of Sharia (Engku Rabiah Adawiah, 2013). Therefore, there are different goals between a traditional parent bank and its Islamic subsidiary.

In an Islamic bank, the goals of the managers and the Sharia board are expected to be the same. In other words, the main goal for both sides is to meet the requirements set out in the Sharia amendment. However, evidence from experience shows this is not the case. For example, in a 2016 study by Ullah and others, these areas were used to check if managers and the Sharia board had the same goals: social welfare, ethical investment, fairness and justice, charity, solidarity, profiteering, secured investment, and traditional mutual benefit. Based on interviews, they found that managers only placed a moderate amount of importance on social welfare, fairness and justice, charity, and solidarity. On the other hand, the Sharia board places high importance on these areas because their main goal is to earn the pleasure of Allah. Regarding profits, managers believe maximizing profit is the main reason for starting an Islamic bank, and they are willing to sacrifice fairness and justice to get high returns. For secured investment, managers prefer financial tools that are convenient, safe, and offer a fixed return. Managers do not like profit-sharing tools like mudarabah and musharakah because these tools are risky and make investment returns uncertain. To compete with traditional banks, managers at Islamic banks choose to offer products similar to those of traditional banks to meet customer needs. Sharia scholars say that managers even ask them to find ways to make all traditional products comply with Sharia. Since managers have more power in decision-making than Sharia scholars, the managers use several pressure tactics to get the scholars to accept the lowest level of Sharia compliance in matters related to Sharia.

For subsidiaries of traditional parent banks, the boards of the Islamic subsidiaries are not independent because they must follow instructions set by the board of the traditional parent bank (see Figure 1). Then, these instructions are passed to the branch managers of the Islamic subsidiary. At the same time, branch managers must follow Sharia rulings passed by Sharia authorities and upheld by the Islamic subsidiary's Sharia board. As mentioned, the parent bank and the Islamic subsidiary have different goals because the former is based on a capitalist economy, which is non-Islamic, while the latter is based on Sharia. To make sure the goals of the parent bank and the Islamic subsidiary align, the Islamic subsidiary only achieves the minimum level of Sharia compliance.

If the parent bank is a conventional bank and the subsidiary is an Islamic bank, how can competition between the two types of banks be achieved when the Islamic bank is just a subsidiary of a conventional parent company? Of course, these subsidiaries do not compete with their parent banks. Instead of competing with or being different from conventional banks, Islamic banks end up imitating the products and practices of conventional banks. This goes against what Dusuki and Abdullah (2014) argued, which is that Islamic banks should compete with conventional banks. Therefore, Islamic banks must realign their goals with the goals of Sharia.

The main challenge for conventional banks transitioning to Islamic banks is the goal of profit maximization while complying with Sharia principles (Shafii, Shahimi, and Said, 2016). Some argue that the operations of Islamic banks are similar to those of conventional banks, except that the former must follow Sharia rulings (Haniff, 2011; 2014). In the current context, Islamic finance tries to gain profitability and efficiency from traditional finance by changing its external structure. Making these changes without altering any substance is not enough, because the goals of the capitalist system are still maintained. For example, current Islamic finance products are modified from traditional counterparts to meet Islamic law requirements (Laldin & Furqani, 2013b, pp. 32-33).

According to Al-Atyat (2007) and Al-Atyat and Hakeem (2010), as cited by Ahmed and Hussainey (2015), the main reason for switching from traditional banking to Islamic banking is to use the profitability of Islamic banks. Many studies prove that Islamic banks are more profitable than traditional banks (for example, see the research by Khediri, Charfeddine, and Youssef (2015), and Ramlan and Adnan (2016)). This also relates to the motivation of managers entering the Islamic banking industry to use the industry's profitability, rather than achieving Sharia goals from the overall business model (Ullah et al., 2016). A study on Islamic banking practices shows that wealth maximization, Sharia rulings (fatwa), the competitive environment, and minimal risk management approaches in the Islamic banking industry push Islamic banks to adopt debt-based financing. Islamic banks defend their practices by adopting Sharia rulings from Sharia scholars to make them comply with Sharia, but they are not based on Sharia. The study concludes that the policies and practices of Islamic banks have deviated from Islamic banking theory and Islamic principles. The focus of Islamic banks has always been on profit maximization rather than social welfare (Ahmed, Akhtar, Ahmed, and Aziz, 2017).

Al-Omar and Iqbal (1999) raised questions about the authenticity of large multinational banks operating in the Islamic banking industry. Their participation in the Islamic banking industry is purely a business activity to use the profitability of Islamic banking operations. Another worrying issue is whether traditional banks strictly follow Sharia regulations and comply with the rules of the Islamic banking industry. Some people think the main factors affecting the shift from traditional banks to Islamic banks are risk and profitability (Al-Alani and Yaacob, 2012).

As previous studies cited by Shafii, Shahimi, and Saaid (2016) show, an environment where Islamic banks operate alongside traditional banks does not fully support Islamic banks in following Sharia principles, because these banks are based on traditional economic systems (for example, see the study by Al-Oqool (2011); Al-Atyat (2007); Al-Martan (2005); Al-Omar & Iqbal (1999); and al-Rabiaa (1989)).

Research in the literature highlights many challenges and obstacles to successfully converting traditional banks to an Islamic banking model. Most studies (for example, Alani & Yaacob, 2012; Al-Oqool, 2011; Al-Atyat, 2007; Al-Martan, 1999) prove that human resources, regulations and legislation, Sharia compliance, and Islamic banking products are the main obstacles affecting the shift of central banking institutions to Islamic banking.

The role of managers

According to Azid, Asutay, and Burki (2007), company managers have two main duties. These are (1) maximizing profit for shareholders and (2) protecting the interests of stakeholders. Stakeholders include not only employees, customers, and suppliers, but also society and the environment. The second role aligns with the goals of Sharia (maqasid), where activities should benefit the entire Ummah, covering human life and well-being. Since Islamic banks often operate as subsidiaries of larger conventional entities, managers are caught between following instructions from top management or the board, and following Sharia rulings passed by the Sharia board, which is a primary requirement for an Islamic entity. In an Islamic subsidiary of a conventional bank, the branch manager is responsible for carrying out instructions set by the board. At the same time, he or she must also follow Sharia rulings passed by the Sharia board. The parent conventional bank aims for profit maximization, which fits a capitalist economic system, while the Islamic subsidiary aims to achieve Sharia goals. This puts the manager in the middle of these two objectives. Because the Islamic bank is just a subsidiary of a conventional parent bank, the goals of both entities must align. Therefore, the goal must be profit maximization.

Another major issue is the background of the managers themselves. Literature widely suggests that managers in Islamic banks lack Sharia knowledge and exposure because they often come from conventional backgrounds. If people who should follow Sharia rules do not clearly understand Sharia principles, then carrying out Sharia rulings will be difficult.

Conclusion and suggestions

The Islamic banking and finance industry started nearly forty years ago. However, many issues remain unsolved today, and new problems keep appearing alongside the growth of Islamic finance. One main reason why issues remain unresolved is that there is no clear distinction between Islamic banks and traditional banks, as both systems coexist in the same economy. Even though Malaysia is known as a center for Islamic banking and finance, there are only two full-fledged Islamic banks; Bank Islam and Bank Muammalat. All other Islamic banks are just Islamic subsidiaries of large conventional banks.

Setting up Islamic subsidiaries for conventional parent banks has caused many unsolved problems. This is likely because the conventional parent banks and their Islamic subsidiaries have different goals. The main goal of a conventional parent bank is to maximize profit for shareholders, while the main goal of an Islamic subsidiary is to follow Sharia rules, with profit being only a secondary goal. Managers who should carry out and follow Sharia rulings still have to follow orders from the top management at the conventional parent bank. The Islamic subsidiary and the traditional parent bank operate out of the same branch. Staff members who work for the traditional parent company also have to handle duties for the Islamic subsidiary. In this situation, conflicts of interest are almost impossible to avoid.

Since most Islamic banks in Malaysia are subsidiaries of traditional banks, and staff often face conflicts of interest between traditional and Islamic banking tasks, the best solution may be to train staff and managers to deeply understand Islamic banking and Islamic teachings. This knowledge helps staff realize why it is important to keep Islamic and traditional banking tasks separate, as there should be a clear distinction between the two.

In short, following Sharia at a minimum level is not enough to truly fulfill Sharia. To reach the goals of Islamic banking, the Islamic spirit of sincerity and honesty should be rooted in the hearts of the managers and staff. If managers and staff have a strong Islamic spirit and always aim for maximum Sharia compliance, then the goals of Islamic banking—such as social justice, poverty relief, and preventing exploitation—can finally be achieved. view all

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Summary: This London, Oxford, and Cambridge Muslim travel guide continues through Cambridge colleges, campus scenes, Palestine support gatherings, historic sites, airport details, Heathrow prayer rooms, and the author's reflections after traveling through Italy, the UK, and Canada.



Cambridge is a city in Cambridgeshire. It is famous for the University of Cambridge and functions like a university town.



The University of Cambridge has produced 88 Nobel Prize winners. While this number is impressive, we do not need to be overly surprised. The Nobel Prize originated in Europe, and academic connections like mentorships and professional networks are closer here, so it is normal for the number of winners to be high.





I happened upon a Malaysian Chinese restaurant in Cambridge. There are a lot of Chinese people in this area.



The Polar Museum

At the Polar Museum in Cambridge, the owner even built a statue for a dog.



Europeans treat their dogs like people. The Christian world likes to keep dogs, while the Muslim world prefers cats.



The Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge was named after its main donor, Sir Paul Judge. It was founded in 1990 and is a place for MBA training.



















Lawns are for people to sit on, not just for decoration. You can walk on them, not just look at them.



The country paths in Cambridge are quiet. The weather was nice, and I took a walk there at sunset.





Corpus Clock

The Corpus Clock, also called the Grasshopper Clock, is a popular spot for photos. It is set into the outer wall of the library at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. It consists of a metallic gold disc and a metal grasshopper sculpture. It is called the Chronophage, which comes from the Greek words for time and eating, meaning the time eater. It reportedly cost 1 million pounds, but it is full of craftsmanship. Stephen Hawking attended the unveiling ceremony.

I do not like Hawking because his comments outside of physics were too shallow and felt like publicity stunts. He was basically an internet celebrity. Besides, many in the field think his physics achievements are overrated. In December 1999, Physics World magazine polled top physicists. Out of 130 people asked, they chose five top physicists. Einstein got the most votes (119), followed by Newton (96), Maxwell (67), Bohr (47), Heisenberg (30), Galileo (27), Feynman (23), Dirac (22), and Schrödinger (22). Only one person out of those 130 mentioned Hawking anywhere on their list.



Supporters of Palestine gathered on campus, with someone speaking in the middle.



It happens to be the graduation ceremony at Cambridge today, and many students are wearing their gowns to attend.









Thuluth College is the most powerful college at Cambridge. Both Newton and Bacon came from here. Russell was there too, but I think his influence is far less than the other two. Even Russell's student, Wittgenstein, had more influence than him.





The apple tree in front of Thuluth College is said to be a transplant of the one that hit Newton, but there is no sign on site to prove it. I recommend reading a biography of Newton called The Last Sorcerer. It talks about the origins of his ideas. Newton studied theology his whole life and was a true theologian. His scientific achievements were just a byproduct of his theological research. It is not like some cheap books claim, where he only turned to religion because he was confused in his old age. Newton was a total heretic who denied the Thuluth and insisted the Bible had been tampered with. Because he held such a high position at the Royal Society, the church did not dare to do anything to him.



A miniature sand table model of Cambridge.









Cambridge still keeps its medieval architectural style. I thought universities abroad were completely open to the public, but at least Cambridge and Oxford are not. You need to book tickets in advance to enter some colleges, and some areas are not open to visitors at all.





The Mathematical Bridge designed by Newton.

This bridge and the monument for Xu Zhimo's poem 'Second Farewell to Cambridge' (Zai Bie Kang Qiao) are both closed. You can only look from a distance. Kang Qiao is just another way to translate Cambridge.







The biological garden at Cambridge.

I said goodbye to Cambridge and returned to London that evening to enjoy the night view of Big Ben.





London nights in June are still a bit chilly, and it is windy by the River Thames.



London Eye





I crossed the bridge from Big Ben to find a restaurant on another street. It was already 11 p.m. and not many places were open, but I found this kebab shop.





Two white brothers were grilling meat inside. They spoke Arabic, and when I asked, they said they were from Algeria.









I had a platter of grilled lamb chops and chicken pieces with a side salad and a cola. It cost nearly 200 yuan, but it was delicious.



I set off again the next day, taking a train to Oxford. The one-way trip takes about an hour and a half.



A symbol of the UK: the double-decker sightseeing bus.



Oxford University has an even longer history than Cambridge, dating back over 900 years. Oxford was founded 100 years before Cambridge, which actually split off from Oxford.



However, if you can only choose one, I suggest visiting Cambridge because the scenery is a bit more beautiful.









Christ Church College, Oxford University

Oxford University is the prototype for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and served as a filming location. It is a must-visit spot for Harry Potter fans.



You can see all of Oxford on foot in just one day, and you can finish visiting all the popular spots in half a day.







Oxford Museum





Universities were first built to serve the church, so every college has its own chapel. Even though these chapels are now just places for tourists to take photos, the beauty of their religious art is something secular art can never match.





Radcliffe Camera

This area has also become a place where supporters of Palestine set up tents.





It happened to be Oxford's graduation day. Supporters of Gaza handed out flyers where students and teachers walked, and many police officers arrived to prevent any conflict.



The protesters accused Google of being an accomplice.







It was rare to see an East Asian supporter at the scene. She held flyers to hand out to students and teachers, but I did not see anyone take one, and the police did not stop her.





Bridge of Sighs

This is a popular Oxford spot on Xiaohongshu, but I walked past it and did not see anything special.



I was more interested in the flowers in front of people's homes. I noticed they really love planting flowers at their front doors.



Oxford University Museum of Natural History

The Oxford University Museum of Natural History is great fun. You do not need a reservation, and it is free to visit.





Natural science was my favorite subject as a child. I loved these huge ancient creatures, though I did not become a scientist when I grew up.









They put insect specimens of the same color together. I believe every child is interested in these creatures during their childhood.





















Thuluth College, Oxford

Both Oxford and Cambridge have a Thuluth College, but the one in Cambridge is more famous.



My two-day trip to Cambridge and Oxford moved me deeply. I have to admit, this is exactly what a university looks like in my mind.



I walked around Oxford University from morning until noon and basically finished seeing it. Then I went to town for lunch and saw a market here. It opens every Wednesday and Saturday. It turns out British people also go to big markets.



There are several halal stalls at the market. This young man saw me filming him and cooperated by making a gesture.



I also found a halal Northeast Chinese dumpling shop, but I was too full to eat anymore. Otherwise, I would have definitely tried some.



For lunch, I had a standard halal meal at the kebab shop by the market entrance. They really gave a lot of meat.



Back in London, I went to the London Central Mosque and saw this halal Paris Cafe nearby.



They have breakfast, afternoon tea, coffee, and desserts, so I invited my friend from Linxia who lives in London to sit here.





My friend told me that all KFCs in London are now halal. Even if some stores don't have a sign outside, Londoners know it, so you can eat there without worry.



These muffin cakes are also basically all halal, so you can eat them without asking.



We sat by the road and I put my phone on the table. My friend warned me that leaving it there risked it being snatched. Although I wasn't robbed or pickpocketed during this trip to Europe and America, I still couldn't let my guard down because many friends around me have had things stolen or snatched in Europe.



London Central Mosque

This mosque is located in Regent's Park, London. It is one of the most iconic mosques in London and was built in 1978. The land was donated by King George VI of Great Britain in return for King Farouk of Egypt donating land for an Anglican church in Cairo.



As early as the 1920s, Great Britain wanted to build an iconic mosque in London. At that time, British colonies were spread all over the world with large populations. The Churchill government also wanted to use the construction of the mosque to promote British prestige and commemorate the tens of thousands of Muslim soldiers who served under British rule, but it was opposed by many people at the time and construction was delayed.



It wasn't until after World War II, when various colonies gained independence and broke away from Great Britain, that the British government finally decided to start building the mosque to stabilize public sentiment. So, don't be surprised to see so many Muslims in the UK today. This is the immigrant life their ancestors earned through blood and struggle; immigration from colonies to the mother country is an internal family matter.





















I flew back home on Tianjin Airlines, which is part of HNA Group. I saw a lady wearing a hijab at the check-in counter and decided to queue at her line.



There are prayer rooms at London Heathrow Airport, one before security and one after. However, I didn't see any halal restaurants in Terminal 3.



This side is for Christians, and the other side is for Muslims.



Although it is shared by six major religions, it is mainly used by Muslims. I haven't seen any other believers use it. After performing my travel namaz, I boarded the flight back home. This 15-day trip to Europe and America took me through Italy, the UK, and Canada. I took a total of 10 flights. It was safe and sound, and I am grateful to Allah. view all

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Summary: This Muslim knowledge guide translates and explains Mahmoud A. El-Gamal's discussion of an Al-Azhar fatwa on bank interest, fixed investment profits, riba, mudaraba, jurist disagreement, historical context, and whether bank returns can be treated as lawful investment income.

I posted a screenshot of a book written by Imam Chen Yufeng on my social media. At the end of the book, Imam Chen shares a personal experience regarding interest. He mentions that issue 168 of the Al-Azhar Journal once ruled bank interest as lawful. A friend later found the original source of this fatwa, along with a commentary article explaining the background of the ruling, titled

“The recent Azhar fatwā:Its logic, and historical background”

I will not post the link here, so please search for it yourself. The original text is in English and includes the Arabic version. I have translated the article below for your reference, as it complements the post I shared earlier.

You cannot buy Imam Chen's book, and there is no digital version, so please stop asking me how to purchase it.







“The recent Azhar fatwā:Its logic, and historical background”

Author: Mahmoud A. El-Gamal

Rice University, USA
Author's Preface:

I am not a jurist, but an academic researcher. Therefore, I am not qualified to endorse or reject this fatwa. The purpose of this article is only to explain and summarize the ruling. To explain what this fatwa says? It says nothing. How scholars view it and the logic behind it.

What does this religious ruling (fatwa) say?

It is perfectly fine to deposit your money in a bank and appoint the bank as your agent for investments in exchange for an agreed-upon profit. Neither the Quran nor the Hadith forbids this kind of deal where profit or payment is set in advance, as long as both sides agree to it.

There is no doubt that both sides agreeing to a set profit beforehand is allowed under Islamic law. It also makes logical sense so that each party knows exactly what their share will be.

As everyone knows, a bank only sets these profits or returns for clients after carefully studying global and local markets, economic conditions, the specifics of each deal, the type of investment, and the average expected profit.

This set profit rate can go up or down over time. For example, an investment project might start with a 4% return, grow to over 15%, and then recently drop back to near 10%.

The people who set these rates and manage their changes must follow government rules. Setting a fixed number in advance—especially in these times when honesty is rare—benefits both the investors and the bank.

Investors benefit from stable profit rates, which helps them plan their lives. Bank managers benefit from performance incentives, which push them to work harder to maximize profits and keep the bank profitable even after paying the investors their set returns. What if the bank loses money during that time? How can it set a profit rate in advance? The answer is that a bank might lose money on one investment but make a profit on many others, which covers the loss.

In short: it is allowed for someone to invest money through an institution into a bank or other financial firm with a pre-set profit. There is nothing suspicious about it. This type of transaction is judged by its benefits and is not considered associating partners with Allah (shirk). Therefore, investing money in a bank with a pre-agreed profit or return is allowed and causes no harm. Allah knows best.

What does this religious ruling (fatwa) not say?

Please note that this fatwa does not explicitly state that all bank interest is halal.

Dr. Tantawi has clearly stated elsewhere that interest on bank deposits is riba, and interest on bank loans is also riba. (See Mucamalat al-Bunuk..., 2001, pp. 139-142)

There are three points of contention here.

First, are funds held for business operations considered deposits?

Second, are funds borrowed for business operations considered loans?

Third, is it forbidden to pre-determine the profit for one party in an investment activity?

There is little disagreement regarding deposits.

There is substantial disagreement regarding loans:

Abdullah Al-Najjar explains Dr. Tantawi's position as follows:

Funds given to a bank cannot be seen as a form of loan because the bank has no need, and only those in need apply for loans. Anas ibn Malik reported that the Prophet said: 'On the night of the Ascension, I saw written on the gate of Paradise: Charity is rewarded tenfold, and a loan is rewarded eighteenfold.' I said: 'O Jibril!' Why is borrowing more expensive than giving charity? The angel Jibril said: 'Because a beggar asks when they still have something, but a borrower only asks when they are in urgent need.' — Sunan Ibn Majah

Therefore, if a transaction is not a loan, bank customers must be seen as investors who intend to seek profit from the bank (the bank announces the return rate they pay, and customers choose the bank they prefer).

Jurists believe that once deposit funds are used, they are promised, and because holding a guarantee (like a loan) is more reliable than holding a trust (like a deposit), the deposit contract becomes a loan, and any increase is forbidden interest (riba).

the 'preset profit' in profit-sharing (mudaraba) is the core of what this Islamic law forbids.

Al-Qaradawi and many others believe that the hadith regarding sharecropping (muzara'ah) provides the basis for the prohibition. The Sharia committee mentioned the claim of 'consensus' put forward by Ibn Qudamah in Al-Mughni and confirmed that this 'consensus' is as binding as the classical texts.

The 14th session of the Fiqh Academy, January 2003, Decision #133 (7/14), pages 20-24.

Religious law and secular law describe the relationship between a depositor and a bank as a loan relationship, not an agency relationship. In contrast, an investment agency is where an agent invests funds on behalf of a principal in exchange for a fixed wage or a share of the profits. In this regard, religious scholars have a consensus that the principal owns the investment funds and therefore has the right to receive investment gains and is responsible for losses, while the agent has the right to receive a fixed wage under the conditions set by the agency. Therefore, a traditional bank is not an investment agent for the depositor. The bank receives funds from the depositor and uses them, thereby guaranteeing said funds and making them a loan. In this regard, the loan must be repaid at face value without any increase.

For centuries, jurists from all schools have agreed that you cannot pre-set investment profits in any partnership, whether as a fixed amount or a percentage of the capital. This ruling is based on the idea that pre-setting profits guarantees the principal, which goes against the nature of a partnership where you must share both profits and losses. This consensus is well-established and has no reported disagreements. In this regard, Ibn Qudamah wrote in Al-Mughni (Volume 3, page 34): All scholars agree that if one or both parties set a known amount of profit, the partnership (qirad or mudaraba) becomes invalid. The consensus of religious scholars is itself a legal proof.

Pre-specifying profits

Dr. Tantawi and his supporters rejected the loan issue and held a long discussion on the problem of pre-set profits. Dr. Tantawi cited Abdul-Wahhab Khallaf and Dr. Ali Al-Khafif to support his view that it is inappropriate to limit investment institutions to traditional mudaraba, which has profit sharing but no specific profit amount.

The main argument for fixed profits

Tantawi (2001, page 131) quoted Khallaf (pages 94-104), Al-Khafif (pages 165-204), and others (pages 204-211) word for word, saying: In this era of corruption, dishonesty, and greed, not fixing profits as a percentage of capital would leave the principal at the mercy of the agents managing the investment funds, whether they are banks or other institutions.

Therefore, he and earlier scholars turned to the well-known issue of moral hazard, which is unrelated to profit distribution.

Second, once the loan or deposit argument is rejected, the remaining issue is how to handle the consensus theory in Al-Mughni and the hadith it is based on.

Is the claim of consensus accepted? Is it binding?

Does this decision have a basis in the Quran and Sunnah, or can it be overturned?

If a partnership is considered flawed because the profit margin is predetermined, does this make it forbidden interest (riba), or is it a permitted lease (ijara), such as whether a mutually agreed upon (though uncertain) wage payment is legal?

Hadith on tenant farming.

Hanzalah ibn Qays narrated: I asked Rafi ibn Khadij about renting land for gold and silver. Rafi replied: 'There is no harm in this. In the time of the Prophet, people rented land for the crops and straw that grew along the waterways. Sometimes there was a harvest, and sometimes there was none. People rented land this way, so the Prophet forbade it. As for rent that is fixed and guaranteed, there is no harm.'

— Sunan Ibn Majah

This hadith shows that it is forbidden to pre-arrange any geography, time, or quantity for land rented to tenant farmers. Jurists concluded that because of uncertainty, predetermined compensation for either party is not allowed. This ruling on tenant farming applies to other partnerships, including profit-sharing partnerships (mudaraba). Therefore, Ibn Qudamah believed that jurists reached a consensus that it is not allowed to pre-specify profits in a mudaraba.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Najjar wrote a detailed discussion on this hadith and the conclusions drawn from it. He argued that the prohibition does not stem from the condition of pre-specifying profit itself, but from the uncertainty (gharar) that could lead to disputes (citing the narrative and analysis in Al-Shawkani's Nayl Al-Awtar). On the other hand, he argued that this type of partnership is essentially an employment contract with an unknown reward, and is therefore full of uncertainty. However, a consensus ruling actually permits this contract (including profit sharing) despite the uncertainty (as Ibn Qudamah stated). Therefore, this type of partnership belongs to a category of contracts where uncertainty (including that caused by pre-specifying profit) is ignored, as long as it does not lead to legal disputes.

Dr. Al-Najjar presented many other arguments based on the analysis of Al-Shawkani and Ibn Qudamah. He said: This might be Rafi's own non-binding conclusion; it might be limited to specific types of tenant farming; Zayd ibn Thabit disagreed with this hadith, claiming it related to a specific incident where one person killed another (recorded by Abu Dawud); the hadith narrated by Ibn Umar suggests that renting land is permitted (recorded by Bukhari), which challenges the hadith; other companions of the Prophet, including Ibn Abbas and others, disagreed with Rafi's view. Ibn Qudamah said that some of Rafi's narrations differ from the consensus of the companions and must therefore be discarded.

At the Al-Azhar conference, Dr. Muhammad Rif'at Uthman presented a counter-argument. According to Al-Nawawi, the hadith does not forbid renting land for a fixed rent (which was the focus of previous arguments), but it does forbid pre-specifying profits.

Most jurists believe that a profit-sharing partnership (mudāraba) that is known to be flawed or invalid from the start is not allowed. Dr. Tantāwī focuses on the consensus view that when a mudāraba is considered flawed, such as when an investor's profit is specified in advance, the contract becomes an employment contract ('ijara). Under this, the entrepreneur or worker is entitled to a market wage, as noted by ibn al-Humām in Fath Al-Qadīr and Al-Shaficī in 'um. He summarizes this (2001, p. 133):

Therefore, we say that a bank investing for a pre-specified profit becomes an employee of the investor. The investor accepts the amount the bank gives them as their profit, and any excess profit, whatever it may be, is treated as the bank's wage. Thus, this type of transaction is free of interest (Ribā). In short, we cannot find any canonical text or convincing analogy that forbids specifying profit in advance as long as both parties agree.

Quotes from early jurists

Dr. Tantāwī (2001, p. 95) quotes Dr. Khallāf, who in turn quotes Muhammad Abduh's 1906 article in Manār (#9, p. 332): When a person gives their money to another for investment and receives a known profit, this does not constitute clearly forbidden Ribā, regardless of the pre-specified profit rate. This is because legal rules that disagree on forbidding pre-specified profit do not constitute the clear type of Ribā that ruins families. This type of transaction is beneficial to both the investor and the entrepreneur. In contrast, Ribā for the borrower is only due to need and is not their fault, while for the lender, Ribā leads to greed and a hardened heart. These two types of transactions cannot have the same legal status (hukm).

Dr. Khallāf, in Liwā' 'Islām (1951, #4 (11)), continues (quoted in the same, pp. 95-6): There is no evidence that profit cannot be specified in advance. Just as profit can be shared between two parties, the profit for one party can also be specified in advance. Such a condition might not align with the views of jurists, but it does not contradict any canonical text in the Quran or Sunnah.

Core argument

Dr. Khallaf summarizes the basis for the current Al-Azhar ruling as follows: The only objection to this type of transaction is the validity of mudāraba, which requires that profit must be set as a percentage share rather than a specific capital amount or percentage. My response to this objection is as follows: First, there is no evidence for this condition in the Quran or the Sunnah. We live in a very dishonest time now, and if we do not set a fixed profit for the investor, his partner will swallow up his wealth.

Second, if a mudāraba is considered flawed because it violates one of its conditions, the entrepreneur becomes an employee, and what he takes is considered a wage. There is no difference in calling it mudāraba or 'ijāra: it is a valid transaction that benefits the investor who cannot invest funds directly and benefits the entrepreneur who receives the funds. Therefore, this is a transaction that benefits both parties without harming either side or anyone else, and banning such a beneficial transaction will harm the Ummah.

Key points

Recent academic journals from Al-Azhar do allow certain types of bank interest to be used as investment profit.

This fatwa is at least a century old.

Most jurists oppose this fatwa.

A minority have questioned the authenticity, authority, and applicability of the hadith regarding sharecroppers.

A minority have questioned the logic of prohibiting the pre-specification of profit.

Can we still claim that a consensus exists?

If this issue is controversial, should we proceed with caution? Should we follow the view of the majority? view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Kuala Lumpur halal food guide issue 4 continues the city series with airport Pizza Hut, nasi lemak, Indian meals, beef roti, Thai food, Japanese supermarket snacks, coffee, yong tau foo, Italian food, Dragon-i, and practical halal dining notes around KLCC and the airport.

Since my son started kindergarten in Kuala Lumpur, I have to travel back and forth between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur. Because of this, my Kuala Lumpur Halal Food Series will keep updating.

Kuala Lumpur Halal Food Map (Part 2)

Kuala Lumpur Halal Food Map (Part 3)

The restaurant information for this issue is as follows:

1. Pizza Hut (American-style pizza fast food)

2. Nasi Lemak Royale Kedah (Malay coconut milk rice)

3. Amman Mess (Indian main meal)

4. Beef Roti (beef flatbread)

5. Thai Cuisine (Thai food)

6. Don Don Donki (Japanese supermarket)

7. Jardin Coffee (coffee and desserts)

8. Yong Tau Foo (spicy hot pot)

9. NATALINA ITALIAN KITCHEN (Italian food)

10. Dragon-i (Chinese food)

1. Pizza Hut (American-style pizza fast food)



Just like in Singapore, international fast-food chains in Kuala Lumpur are 100% halal. Some people ask why I didn't list McDonald's or KFC. It's because those shops are everywhere, so I don't need to recommend them. However, these American brands, especially Starbucks, don't do very well in Kuala Lumpur. They face widespread boycotts in the Islamic world due to their Jewish background and public support for the LGBT community.

I personally don't boycott any products, but I don't oppose those who do. I just feel that boycotting is a bit like a child throwing a tantrum and rarely achieves much. First, most employees of these companies in Islamic countries are Muslims, so you end up hurting your own people while trying to hurt the enemy. Second, the global economy is interconnected. Even without considering that boycotts don't have much effect, there are always ways to bypass economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. I think it is better to improve our own skills and defeat our opponents with real strength.



This is the Pizza Hut in the international departure dining area of the airport. Their pizzas are baked to order and take about 10 minutes. The fresh pizza is delicious and the price is not expensive. Keep in mind that at Kuala Lumpur airport, you go through security right before boarding, not before entering the gate area. You also cannot bring water through security, so leave enough time to walk to your gate to avoid missing your flight.

2. Nasi Lemak Royale Kedah (Malay coconut milk rice)



I have been to this shop so many times that I pass by almost every day to buy a glass of fresh fruit juice. A glass only costs 6 RM, while it would cost at least 20 back home.



The staff here are almost all of South Asian descent and know me well. Even though their wages aren't high, they live happily every day. They greet me when we meet and love to joke around. This optimistic personality is easy to catch.



This Pakistani brother can speak a little Chinese, and when he serves my food, he always saves the biggest shrimp for me.

Address: Ground floor shop at Wisma Centre.

3. Amman Mess (Indian main meal)



This is probably the most Indian-style restaurant I have ever visited. It is located on Little India street near Kuala Lumpur Sentral. This street has a strong Indian vibe, is quite clean, and you can find all kinds of Indian snacks here.





The restaurant displays photos of the Malaysian royal family and is halal certified.



All the servers are Indian, and they wear the traditional red dot on their foreheads.



If you are familiar with Western society, you will have a lot of respect for Indian people. They often do better abroad than Chinese people. Many top companies in the U.S. have Indian CEOs, which is something worth thinking about.



There was a pot on the table. To avoid any misunderstanding, I specifically asked the server if the water inside was for washing hands, and I learned that it was drinking water.



They serve Indian milk tea and curry. One server walks around with a curry pot, specifically to add curry dipping sauce for diners. The food is served on banana leaves. Most of the customers here are Indian, and they eat directly with their hands.



There is a slight difference between Indian food and Pakistani food. Indian food is spicier, while some Pakistani food incorporates characteristics of Arab cuisine.



I specifically ordered this curry shrimp dish, which was very spicy. I mentioned in a previous post that it is very common for Hanafi Muslims in South Asia to eat shrimp. This was confirmed in Malaysia, as every Indian restaurant I have seen in Malaysia sells shrimp. See details in: How do Hanafis view shrimp?



After the meal, I strolled over to Little India street to buy some crispy snacks called panipuri. These are street snacks and are not sold inside the restaurant.



Address: The ground-floor shops on one side of the large archway at the entrance to Little India.

4. Beef Roti (beef flatbread)



There is a beef pancake (niuroubing) shop in the food court on the third floor of NU Sentral Shopping Mall near the central station. It sells the kind of beef pancakes you find in Northwest China for 6 RM each, and there is often a long line.



Address: The food court on the third floor of NU Sentral Shopping Mall.

5. Thai Cuisine (Thai food)



Next to the beef pancake shop is a Thai food stall. Thai food feels a bit fresher than Malay food.



I ordered a beef fried rice and tom yum soup, and both were quite tasty.



This mall is a few hundred meters from Little India and close to the train station, making the area great for walking around.

Address: The food court on the third floor of NU Sentral Shopping Mall.

6. Don Don Donki (Japanese supermarket)



The Japanese supermarket inside NU Sentral Shopping Mall has mostly halal products, and they are clearly marked on the shelves. We bought some cookies and chocolate here, which Fahim loves to eat.



Many Japanese goods in Southeast Asia are halal and very popular with the locals.

Address: GF floor, NU Sentral Shopping Mall

7. Jardin Coffee (coffee and desserts)



There are many coffee shops in NU Sentral Shopping Mall, including some domestic chains, but I find this one has a better vibe, and the desserts and coffee are good too.



This shop is right at the entrance of the Japanese supermarket, so it is a perfect place to sit and rest when you are tired from shopping.



Address: GF floor, NU Sentral Shopping Mall

8. Yong Tau Foo (spicy hot pot)



This shop is called Yongtaifeng in Chinese. It is a spicy hot pot (malatang) chain that mixes in Southeast Asian flavors. You grab a bowl, pick your own ingredients, and the staff will cut the vegetables for you, weigh them to calculate the price, cook them, and then ask which soup base you want.



I could not recognize many of the ingredients. It felt like there were a lot of soy products and gluten, but not much meat, so it leans toward vegetarian.



I chose a tom yum soup base. The sour and spicy flavor is very appetizing, and I think girls who dislike greasy food will like this place.



Address: Food court on the second floor of the KLCC Twin Towers

9. NATALINA ITALIAN KITCHEN (Italian food)



This is a very charming Italian restaurant located in AK Mall.



I feel a sense of familiarity with Italian restaurants now because my son loves pasta. When I worry about what to feed him because he is a picky eater, the safest choice is always pasta.



He ate the whole bowl of noodles, so I didn't get a single bite and cannot comment on the taste.



This dish is called GNOCCHI TARTUFO, which you can think of as Italian potato dumplings. I originally wanted to order pizza, but the waiter misunderstood me. I decided to just go with it and try them, but the texture was sticky and I don't think many people would like it.



The octopus salad tasted pretty good, and it is certainly healthier than eating fried food.

Address: 4th Floor, AK Mall.

10. Dragon-i (Chinese food)



This is a Chinese restaurant serving southern cuisine. It is positioned as a mid-to-high-end spot, specializing in various soup dumplings (tangbao) and also serving Beijing roast duck.



It is also a pork-free restaurant.





The white fungus and poria jelly (yin'er fuling gao) is light and healthy.



This bowl of noodles is called Shanghai ramen. It looks very light, and it tastes very light too.



Their custard buns (liusha bao) and soup dumplings (tangbao) are truly delicious. The skins are thin, the fillings are generous, and the broth is savory. The taste is just as good as Din Tai Fung.





The fried chicken cutlet served with the ramen is also delicious. This shop is worth recommending; it is not crowded and the service is great.

Address: The food court on the second floor of the KLCC Twin Towers. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Penang Muslim travel guide covers train travel from Kuala Lumpur, George Town heritage hotels, Nyonya culture, halal breakfast, mosque and city walks, beaches, seafood, Malay-Chinese history, and why Penang can feel more fun, beautiful, and affordable than Singapore.

Penang is a popular tourist city in Malaysia, especially among Chinese travelers. The local Chinese speak with an accent very similar to Taiwan, with a soft and pleasant Mandarin. There are two ways to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Penang. I recommend taking the train. A ticket costs about 90 Malaysian Ringgit, and children under 4 travel for free. Prices vary by train, and the trip takes between three and a half to four and a half hours, depending on the specific schedule, just like high-speed rail in China.

Flying to Penang takes one hour. Although tickets cost only one or two hundred RMB, when you add the time and cost of getting to and from the airport, it is not faster than the train. Flights are also often delayed. I have tried taking the train there and flying back, but my flight was delayed by two hours. If train tickets were not so hard to get, I would never fly. You must book train tickets to and from Penang at least three days in advance on the KTMB app. The departure station is KL Sentral and the destination is Butterworth.

After getting off the train, you take a 10-minute ferry ride across the sea. The ferry runs every half hour, costs 2 RM, and you can use your Kuala Lumpur transit card.



George Town in Penang is a World Heritage site. There are many heritage hotels here, meaning the buildings themselves are historical artifacts with distinct local character. We chose the George Hotel because it is a five-star hotel that reopened in 2022, so the rooms are quite new.



The piano in the lobby is free for anyone to play. The staff invited Fahim to play, unlike the piano at the Radisson Hotel in Brunei, which is just for decoration.



The hotel lobby displays history about King George III and George Town, with notes provided in Chinese. King George III was the third monarch of the House of Hanover and King of Great Britain and Ireland. He was the first monarch born in England to speak English as his first language. He reigned from 1760 to 1820. Under his rule, Penang Island was claimed by Britain and used as a naval base, governed by naval officer Francis Light.



Two things about King George III are memorable: he lost the American colonies, and he had mental health issues. Rumors suggest he suffered from hereditary porphyria, which caused his mental instability.



The hallway introduces local Nyonya traditional cuisine. Nyonya food is a fusion of Chinese and Malay cooking.





The best part of the hotel is the restaurant. The breakfast is especially rich, and you can eat all kinds of local specialties.



Penang is affordable, and the hotels offer great value. In a cultural town like this, the most relaxing way to spend your time is to find a comfortable hotel, sit by the window with a coffee during the day, and wait until the sun goes down to go out for a stroll, otherwise it is really hot during the day.









PENANG ROAD FAMOUS LAKSA

Less than 1 kilometer from the George Hotel, you can find this locally famous laksa. It has both halal certification and a Michelin recommendation. Since Penang is a Chinese-majority city with simplified Chinese signs everywhere and many restaurants selling pork, local snacks with halal certification are rare.



However, there is a catch. This shop only sells laksa, but you will meet two other servers inside holding different menus for you to choose from. These two other businesses do not share the same owner as the laksa shop, so you have to scan codes to pay different servers. Only the laksa is the signature dish here, and the other snacks are just riding on its popularity.



Since we wanted to try different snacks anyway, we did not mind much. It turned out my attempt was a failure, as these snacks were not good.



This is Penang-style white coffee. It actually tastes like instant coffee and is not worth recommending.



The taste of this Michelin-rated laksa is the same as the one I had at the AK mall in Kuala Lumpur. It looks like hot and sour noodles, but it is mixed with the flavors of lemongrass and mint. I tried it a few times but could not really get into it, though my wife thought it was quite tasty.







Among the items here, only the Japanese pan-fried dumplings (jiaozi) tasted okay. The others were not good, and I do not think you would like the salty and sweet flavors.







Not far from the laksa shop, you can find the oldest Chinese mosque in Penang.



MASJID JAMEK TITI PAPAN

This mosque was first built in 1860. The surrounding area used to be a swamp, and people laid down wooden planks to walk to the mosque for namaz, which is how it got its Malay name, Titi Papan.



In 2014, the Penang state government and the Penang branch of the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association held an inauguration ceremony for this mosque, marking the first mosque for Chinese people in Penang.



At first, it was a wooden structure with jewelry and diamond merchants Haji Mohamed Gumbong and Saiboo Merican as the main donors. The George Town World Heritage Incorporated set up an information plaque for it, and it was not rebuilt as a brick building until 1893.



The two main donors later disagreed over who should manage the mosque. After decades of ups and downs, the mosque closed from time to time. In 1986, Yusof Latiff was appointed as the mosque's chairman. To make the mosque more popular, he asked the Penang government to approve Friday Jumu'ah prayers there, but the request was rejected because Penang already had too many Jumu'ah mosques.



The mosque has copies of the Quran with Chinese translations.

The mosque was not approved as a Jumu'ah mosque until 1991. In 2001, the government expanded the mosque, and the regional office covered the costs.



On August 16, 2014, the state government officially designated this mosque as the first Chinese mosque in Penang, naming it MASJID CINA TITI PAPAN.



The halal bird's nest museum.





MASJID MELAYU LEBOH ACHEH

This mosque is called the Acheen Street Mosque (Masjid Melayu Leboh Acheh). It was built by the Acehnese in 1808. The graves of the donor and his family are right next to the mosque.



This mosque was once an Islamic academic center in Penang, bringing together merchants from the surrounding Malay Archipelago, Arabia, and India.



It was once a gathering place for pilgrims heading to Mecca, which is why it was called the Second Jeddah.



The area gradually became quiet after the Hajj Pilgrimage Fund Board was established in Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s.



This is a wudu pool, which is common in Southeast Asian mosques.



MASJID KAPITAN KELING

Kapitan Keling Mosque is a mosque built by Indians in Penang in 1801. It is located in the Tamil Muslim community of Penang and is part of the George Town World Heritage Site. George Leith, the then Lieutenant Governor of Penang, appointed an Indian man named Cauder Mohudeen as the captain of the South Indian Keling community. He received a piece of land and used it to build this mosque. People called this Indian captain 'Kapitan Kling,' so 'Kapitan' means captain, and 'Kling' is the Malay term for Indians, which now carries a derogatory meaning.



This mosque is also the largest mosque in Penang and a must-visit spot for tourists.





You can see various religions living in harmony in Penang. The picture below shows an Indian mosque not far from the mosque.





You can eat pork-free Nyonya cuisine at the Yeng Keng Hotel restaurant in George Town's old city. Yeng Keng Hotel is also a heritage hotel. Its price is similar to the George Hotel, around 1,000 yuan per night, but its facilities are clearly much older than those at the George Hotel.







The menu prices are quite reasonable, and the restaurant is very busy. When we arrived for dinner, there was only one empty table left, and guests who came after us had to wait in line.





We ordered signature Nyonya dishes. The taste was very authentic and similar to the Nyonya food I had in Malacca.



Beef rendang (rendang yangrou)



Nyonya sambal shrimp with stink beans (niangre sanba xia chao choudou)



Hainan fried rice (hainan chaofan)



Fish maw curry (yudu gali)

The waiter was an Indian man. I wanted to order a few more dishes, but he suggested that we had already ordered enough.



A must-visit place in George Town is Penang Hill to see the panoramic view of Penang. Take a taxi directly to the Penang Hill ticket office. Hiking up is free, but if you want to take the funicular train up the mountain, a round-trip ticket costs 30 RM, and a fast pass costs 80 RM. With a fast pass, you can skip the line for the train; otherwise, you have to wait for nearly an hour.

Try to sit in the front of the small train when going up the mountain, and in the back when coming down. This gives you the best views for photos.



If the weather is good, you can wait for the sunset. The sun sets on the other side of the mountain, so you will see the fiery clouds from the peak, and the night view is also beautiful.



The temperature at the peak is cool, even a bit cold. You can sit in the cafe at the top and enjoy the panoramic view of Penang. The cafe serves simple Western-style meals that taste pretty good, though they are slightly more expensive than down in the city.







There is a small mosque at the top of Penang Hill, and there is also a church on the mountain.



There is a hiking trail at the peak that goes through the tropical rainforest, where you can also see monkeys.



Penang Floating Mosque

It takes about 20 minutes by taxi from George Town to reach the Penang Floating Mosque. Built in 1967 on stilts, the mosque looks like it is floating on the water from a distance when the tide comes in.







The Shangri-La Golden Sands resort in Penang is about 3 kilometers away from the floating mosque.



There are two Shangri-La hotels by the beach in Penang: one is Golden Sands and the other is Rasa Sayang. Both hotels share the same beach and swimming pools, but they have different lobbies. Rasa Sayang is slightly more expensive than Golden Sands, but the public facilities are the same, so Golden Sands is a better value.



Shangri-La is the best hotel for families in Penang. The children's water park here is great for younger kids, and Fahim had a lot of fun playing there.



There are restaurants near the beach at the hotel where you can eat Western or Southeast Asian food at reasonable prices.







The sunset at Golden Sands beach is beautiful. It has the most stunning sunset views in all of Penang.



The server at the restaurant was a Chinese lady who kindly helped us look after our children.



The breakfast buffet had so many choices that it reminded me of our trip to Atlantis in Dubai last year. However, the Shangri-La in Penang costs only one-third of the price. Being able to eat every halal food at a five-star hotel breakfast buffet makes for a wonderful start to the day.











We ordered a seafood barbecue set for two at the seaside restaurant and waited quietly for the sunset. That made our trip to Penang complete.





Fahim is not even three years old yet, but he has already been to five countries. He does not know how to appreciate this beautiful sunset yet. To him, it does not matter where we go; any place with sand, stones, and puddles is a paradise. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Brunei Muslim travel guide part 1 explains visa on arrival, SIM cards, Dart ride-hailing, cash needs, hotel choices, Brunei's history and monarchy, mosque visits, airport prayer access, Japanese halal food, and practical notes for Muslim travelers.

Chinese citizens can get a visa on arrival in Brunei. You just need to fill out an electronic arrival card on the computer at the immigration office, show your round-trip flight tickets and hotel booking to customs, and pay a 20 USD visa fee. You can pay with a VISA card, and you can also fill out the arrival card online. Website: https://www.imm.gov.bn



After clearing customs, buy a SIM card at the airport lobby for 10 Brunei dollars, which gives you 8GB of data. This was enough for our three-day, two-night trip. A SIM card is very necessary because you need to download the local ride-hailing app, Dart. You cannot register for this app with a Chinese phone number. Public transport in Brunei is basically non-existent; locals drive themselves, and tourists have to use taxis. Dart is the only ride-hailing app available in Brunei.

Remember to withdraw some cash because the ride-hailing app cannot be linked to Chinese credit cards and only accepts cash payments. Dart drivers pick up passengers quickly, usually within 5 minutes. There are over 600 cars running on Dart across Brunei's four districts, so you might run into the same driver more than once.

The exchange rate in Brunei is the same as in Singapore, and Singapore dollars can be used directly in Brunei. However, the cost of living is lower than in Singapore and slightly higher than in Malaysia. I recommend two hotels. One is the Radisson Hotel Brunei Darussalam, which is the best in the city and the second best in the country. Brunei does not have many international hotel chains, but this Radisson has a great location. Many must-visit attractions, restaurants, and shops are within walking distance. The other is the Empire Hotel, the most luxurious in Brunei. It is near the beach and has amazing sunset views. If you want a luxury hotel stay, choose this one. The only downside is that it is far from the city center.



Map of Brunei

Brunei is truly tiny, so small it is almost invisible on a world map. Its territory is split into two parts that do not touch, and both are almost entirely surrounded by Malaysia. Historically, Brunei was a regional power, and its territory once included most of East Malaysia. It later declined and almost joined Malaysia. At that time, a group of people in Brunei wanted to join Malaysia and abolish the monarchy. They started a revolution, but the Brunei royal family worked with the British Empire to suppress them, and the Sultan eventually gave up on joining the Malaysian Federation.



Brunei Museum



The entry fee is 5 Brunei dollars per person. Note that it is closed on Friday for Jumu'ah. Muslim men in Brunei must attend Jumu'ah on Fridays, or it is against the law and they will be punished. Therefore, most shops are closed on Jumu'ah.



The Sultan of Brunei is a descendant of the Prophet. The fourth Sultan in Brunei's history, Sharif Ali, was a direct descendant of Imam Hasan. Hasan was the eldest son of Caliph Ali and the grandson of the Prophet. After marrying the daughter of the previous Sultan, Puteri Ratna Kesuma, he legally inherited the throne, which has been passed down to this day.



The English name for Brunei is Brunei, which is phonetically translated as "Boni." Ancient China referred to Brunei as Boni. The Tomb of the King of Boni in Nanjing is the burial site of the ancient Boni King, Mana'nana'nai. It is located at Wugui Mountain, Huacun, east of Shizigang, outside Andemen, Yuhuatai District, Nanjing. The person buried in the "Tomb of the King of Boni" was the second Sultan of Brunei. He was the older brother of the third Sultan and the uncle of the fourth Sultan.



In the sixth year of the Yongle reign, the King of Boni, Maharaja Karna, brought his wife, nieces, children, and over 150 officials to China for a friendly visit. The Yongle Emperor welcomed them with grand ceremonies. The King of Boni spent several months touring Nanjing, but he unfortunately fell ill and passed away there. The Yongle Emperor followed the king's final wishes and buried him with the honors due to a monarch. Maharaja Karna's son, Xiawang Huangkesun, inherited the throne of Boni. In the ninth month of the tenth year of the Yongle reign, Xiawang Huangkesun and his mother visited Nanjing again to pay their respects at his father's grave.



The Brunei Empire began to decline in the 19th century. Brunei became a British protectorate in 1888. After being occupied by Japan during World War II, it established a new constitution in 1959. In 1962, a small armed rebellion against the monarchy, indirectly linked to the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, was ended with British help. This led to the banning of the pro-independence Brunei People's Party. This rebellion also influenced the Sultan's decision not to join the Federation of Malaysia when it was formed. British protection of Brunei finally ended on January 1, 1984, when it became a fully sovereign nation.



Between May and December 1969, Hassanal Bolkiah traveled to London three times to try to build ties with the British government. However, these trips were unsuccessful, as the British government insisted on withdrawing its troops stationed in Brunei.

In April 1970, Hassanal Bolkiah visited London again to try to break the negotiation deadlock, but the British government refused to compromise because it believed Brunei could defend itself without British aid. Given that the defense agreement was set to expire in November 1970, he expressed great concern, stating that even if half the male population joined the armed forces, Brunei could not defend itself.

With the election of the Conservative Party, Hassanal Bolkiah found new hope. The British government agreed to keep a limited number of British troops in Southeast Asia, including keeping Gurkha units stationed in Brunei, and decided not to abandon the 1959 agreement that was originally set to expire on June 30, 1970. These talks led to the signing of the Brunei-UK Friendship Agreement on November 23, 1971. This agreement gave Brunei full internal independence and limited the British High Commissioner's power to foreign affairs only.



Hassanal Bolkiah (Hassanal Bolkiah Muiz'zaddin Wad'daulah bin Omar Ali Saifuddien III; born on July 15, 1946) has served as the Sultan of Brunei since 1967 and as the Prime Minister of Brunei since the country gained independence from Britain in 1984.



In 1978, Hassanal Bolkiah led another delegation to London to negotiate with the British government about Brunei's status as an independent sovereign nation. In the end, Brunei and the UK signed a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. The treaty took effect on January 1, 1984. The British government was no longer responsible for managing Brunei's foreign affairs and defense. This was the day Brunei became independent from Britain after being under British protection for nearly 20 years. As head of government and Prime Minister, Bolkiah took over Brunei and turned it into an independent monarchy.



I saw a familiar signature.





A model of the Prophet's Mosque (Al-Masjid an-Nabawi) in Medina gifted by Saudi Arabia.





A model of the bronze chariot from Pit No. 2 of the Terracotta Army gifted by our country.





A model of the Sacred Mosque (Masjid al-Haram) in Mecca gifted by Saudi Arabia.





The Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque (Masjid Omar 'Ali Saifuddien) was named after the 28th Sultan of Brunei, Omar Ali Saifuddien III, and was completed in 1958. As of 2019, a total of 102 mosques have been built across Brunei.



The mosque's architectural style is influenced by both Islamic and Italian designs, as it was created by an Italian architect.



Like Malaysia, Brunei officially follows the Shafi'i school of thought. However, the imam I met at this mosque follows the Hanafi school. This is because only the Hanafi school advocates raising the hands once, while the other three schools raise them three times.



Regardless of which school the imam belongs to, imams in Brunei perform dua during namaz rather than after. Some believe that during namaz, you are closest to Allah, making it the best time for your dua to be answered.





During the Sultan's reign, some of Brunei's older wooden mosques were rebuilt with brick and stone. These newer buildings use stronger materials and offer more space.



Brunei has no historic wooden mosques left because they were destroyed or torn down during the Japanese occupation. The Antiquities and Treasure Trove Act of 1967 created a legal framework to protect Brunei's architectural history, defining monuments as structures built before January 1, 1894.



As of 2018, Brunei has only designated 27 buildings and sites as historical monuments, and none of them are mosques.











During the Sultan's reign, Arabic architecture became more popular, likely due to the Sultan's own Arabic heritage.



There is a giant picture frame in the mosque square that serves as a landmark in Brunei.







People walking toward the mosque at sunset (sham).



In the evening, residents sit on the lawn for picnics, and the water village is right across from the square.



Water village.



There is a new, small night market in the shopping mall across from the mosque, with about twenty or thirty stalls selling various snacks.





From what I saw, this Chinese dumpling (jiaozi) shop is the most popular snack spot at the night market.



This night market is cleaner and tidier than the Gadong Night Market, the largest in Brunei. Dining tables are set up behind the two rows of stalls, and there are even sinks for washing up on both sides.



Bruneians also add various flavorings and food coloring to their fruit drinks.



I had a Southeast Asian-style fried fish set meal at this stall.





There is a food court on the basement level of the shopping mall, but it is not very crowded. You rarely see many people anywhere in Brunei on a normal day.



I bought a non-spicy fried rice for Fahim at the food court.



Brunei's second iconic national mosque, the Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque, is named after the 29th Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah.



This mosque was built as a charitable endowment (nieti) by Sultan Bolkiah, cost 350 million US dollars, and was completed in 1994.



The mosque has 29 domes, representing the 29 sultans.









The minaret features a suspended design.



Fahim likes to perform namaz by prostrating himself.





The domes of the mosques in Brunei look cute and rounded.







Besides the two iconic mosques, another place in Brunei worth visiting is the bakery opened by Wu Chun, called BAKE CULTURE.



This is a chain store, and there is one located just one kilometer away from the Jame' Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque.



Wu Chun is a Brunei-born Chinese. Ethnic Chinese make up about 9.5% of Brunei's population, but most of them do not have Brunei citizenship. Before Brunei's independence, they held British passports. After Brunei left the UK, these Chinese became stateless. They hold a special identity card in Brunei that allows for long-term residency, but they do not receive the same benefits as citizens.



It is unclear if Wu Chun holds Brunei citizenship, but given his family's close relationship with the royal family, they may have been granted citizenship by special royal decree. However, Wu Chun now lives in Shanghai, and his bakery and gym in Brunei are managed by others. Wu Chun's bakery has halal certification.





The food at the bakery tastes pretty good, and it is an affordable little shop.



It is very difficult for Chinese people in Brunei to obtain citizenship. First, you must qualify for the naturalization exam, which is hard to get. Second, you must pass a Malay language test. Locals say that even some Malay people cannot pass this Brunei Malay exam, so very few people become citizens through this process.



Once you get Brunei citizenship, there are many benefits. Not only are medical care and education free, but there are also housing subsidies. Brunei has no personal income tax, so the officially announced per capita income is the actual take-home pay for citizens. This is even better than the welfare in so-called high-welfare Nordic countries, as their welfare is built on high taxes.



The taxi drivers I met in Brunei were all local ethnic Chinese without citizenship. Life in Brunei is indeed a bit boring for them. There are no entertainment venues like bars because alcohol is banned nationwide, and you cannot even buy cigarettes.



The Sultan of Brunei once planned to implement Sharia law in Brunei. The first few years went smoothly, but in the final stage, when they were ready to implement Islamic criminal penalties, they faced strong protests from overseas public opinion.

In 2014, Hassanal Bolkiah announced the implementation of Islamic criminal penalties, where acts including homosexuality would violate criminal law. This proposal sparked outrage on international social media. The planned penalties included whipping, amputation, and stoning. It was originally scheduled to be implemented on April 22, 2014, but was later delayed for no reason.



The bakery also sells some Wu Chun merchandise, and his popularity attracts many Chinese visitors.





Less than 800 meters from the bakery, I found a Lanzhou beef noodle shop.



This shop is run by a partnership between a Brunei Chinese person and a Lanzhou person. The decor inside is a perfect copy of the Lanzhou beef noodle (lanzhou lamian) style back home.



The menu is just like the ones in China, with all kinds of noodle dishes available. The prices are not expensive either; a bowl of beef noodles costs 5 Brunei dollars, which is about 25 Chinese yuan.



Shops here all hang portraits of the Brunei royal family.



Many people come here to eat at noon, and every table is full.



We ordered the traditional beef noodles and mixed noodles (banmian). Honestly, they were both very authentic and tasted just like a typical Lanzhou beef noodle shop in China. It is no wonder their business is so good.





According to Google Maps, there is another Lanzhou beef noodle shop in Brunei, and it is said to be doing well too.



Sultan's Palace

The palace is not usually open to the public, but local friends say the Sultan is very approachable. If you stand at the palace gate and happen to see the Sultan's motorcade coming or going, he will wave back if you wave at him.



Gadong Night Market

This is the largest night market in Brunei. It has a very lively atmosphere, which means as soon as you walk in, you can smell a lot of cooking smoke. I am not very interested in local Southeast Asian food because I feel it is not healthy enough, as it is often heavy on oil, salt, and spice. It is fine to try it once in a while.



However, the durian at the night market is worth a try.



These small durians only cost 3 Brunei dollars for a pile, which is about 15 Chinese yuan. We bought one, and this is what it looked like when we opened it.



Durians in Malaysia are never cheap, but I found I could eat as many as I wanted in Brunei. Just remember that you cannot bring durians, mangosteens, or dragon fruit into your hotel. They can leave behind strong smells or stains, and you will be fined if you break this rule.



The fine for breaking this rule is 250 dollars.





The mosque next to the Gadong Night Market.



Another place in Brunei worth visiting is the beach at the Empire Hotel.



The Empire Hotel is the most luxurious hotel in Brunei and is said to meet a six-star standard, though it actually looks quite flashy. Brunei does not have many international hotel chains, so accommodation here is relatively expensive for what you get.



A night at the Empire Hotel costs over 4,000 RMB. I think the best part is the sunset at the hotel beach, which is arguably the most beautiful view in Brunei. The beach is open to the public, so anyone can watch the sunset for free. There is no need to pay a high price to stay there.



Also, the Empire Hotel is over ten kilometers from the city center, and there is nothing to do in the surrounding area. Most of Brunei's attractions are in the city, and taking a taxi is not cheap.





Still, it is very worth coming here just to see a beautiful sunset.







A friend in Brunei took us to an Indonesian restaurant called Pondok Sari Wangi Seafood Restaurant. The Arabic letters on the sign are actually Malay, which just uses the Arabic script. This is a unique feature of Brunei, and they have even created a few of their own letters.



I think this is a very popular local restaurant in Brunei, and the flavors are easy for Chinese people to enjoy.



Over dinner, my friend told me about local Islamic banking in Brunei. I learned that if you deposit money in a Brunei Islamic bank, you get a fixed return, but they do not call it interest. They call it Murabahah. Even with private loans between people in Brunei, they ask for a return, and everyone is used to it.



This confirms one of the issues I mentioned in my recent series of articles criticizing Islamic finance: the way interest is legalized by using specific contracts or changing terms. In reality, promising a fixed return on a deposit is essentially interest, regardless of how that money is earned.



Many traditional international financial institutions have started offering halal financial services to cater to the official pursuit of so-called Islamic purity. However, these institutions do not separate the money they collect; they mix it with their traditional financial business. This is different from a non-Muslim opening a halal restaurant, because a restaurant can keep ingredients separate. Traditional financial institutions cannot keep money from mixing, so this nominal halal certification is just for show.







Ash-Shaliheen Mosque

Located next to the Prime Minister's Office in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, this Moroccan-style mosque was built in 2012. I think it is one of the more unique mosques in Brunei.



More Arabs pray in this mosque, and the designer is Egyptian.





The glass dome of the mosque can retract.



After namaz, people hand out bottled water at the door, and it is even chilled.





There is a shopping center about a 1.5-kilometer walk from Brunei Airport, and inside is a Japanese restaurant.



Japanese food is very common in Brunei due to Japan's colonial history in Southeast Asia, and this restaurant also has halal certification.











Radisson Hotel

If you are staying in the city, I recommend the Radisson Hotel. It is the second-best hotel in Brunei, right after the Empire Hotel. I recommend the Radisson not because it is amazing, but because there really are no better options in Brunei. Although it is ranked second in the country and costs a thousand yuan a night, it is really only at the level of a four-star hotel in China. The rooms are small, but the location is convenient.





The hotel restaurant is quite good. You can eat healthy Western food, which is easier for children to accept. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Brunei Muslim travel guide part 2 follows hotel life, Mawlid celebrations, Sultan Bolkiah walking with the crowd, local history, royal sites, religious tolerance, the airport mosque, and reflections on Chinese and Malay communities in Brunei and Malaysia.





Hotels in Brunei do not provide bottled water. Instead, they place a water dispenser in the hallway and leave bottles in the rooms for you to fill up yourself.



Breakfast offers three buffet options: Malay, Chinese, and Western.







On our second night, the hotel sent a notice saying that tomorrow is the Prophet's Birthday (Mawlid). Roads around the hotel would have temporary traffic controls, and we might even see Sultan Bolkiah.



I read in the newspaper that at least 20,000 people gathered on the streets of Bandar Seri Begawan for the Mawlid event. This is a huge deal in Brunei, as I rarely see pedestrians on the road. Brunei has one private car for every 2.09 people, thanks to a lack of public transport, low import taxes, and unleaded gasoline prices as low as 0.53 Brunei dollars per liter.



As the crowd stirred, I saw the Sultan appear in the distance, surrounded by people.



This was my first time seeing the Sultan in person. Bolkiah is small in stature but has an extraordinary presence. Even at 70, he walks very quickly. Remarkably, he is very approachable. Ordinary people can get close to him to take photos or shake his hand. Even as a foreigner, I could get close to the Sultan without any security screening.



The Sultan holds absolute power in Brunei, and no one can challenge his position. According to the 1959 Constitution of Brunei, the Sultan is the head of state with full executive authority, including emergency powers held since the 1962 Brunei Revolt.



Hassanal Bolkiah attended the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien College (Darul Hana Surau) for over four years before moving to Kuala Lumpur for further studies. He became the first Sultan of Brunei to complete his education both at home and abroad. While studying at Victoria Institution, he joined the cadet corps and was named best recruit in 1961. Principal G. E. D. Lewis said he was not the only royal or noble in the school, so the award was based entirely on merit.



The Sultan walked quickly around the main road outside the square for about 2 kilometers. People followed him, singing praises to the Prophet as they walked. Along the road, citizens spontaneously provided free drinks and food to passersby.



The entire event lasted about two hours. After it ended, I walked around the area near the square.



I found a royal cemetery next to the square. According to the inscription, two royals, a man and a woman, were buried here. They were sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, but no one had the heart to throw stones at them. Since they still had to be punished, the Sultan compromised and locked them in a cave. The cave had a vent and food inside. Outsiders could see smoke coming from the cave, which meant they were still alive, until one day when no more smoke appeared, signaling they had died.



Some records say this event happened in 1452. The woman in this tomb was likely royalty with an Arab father and was related to the third Sultan. The tombstone says that every crime must be punished and no one can escape it. This shows that the influence of Islam had already spread throughout Brunei at that time.



At the other end of the square, I saw a mosque built by Chinese people.



Inside, various deities are worshipped. This shows that the Sultan of Brunei is tolerant of other religions, as Buddhism, Christianity, and Catholicism are all present in Brunei.









Brunei only has one small airport, but there is a large mosque built right next to it. You can walk directly from the airport terminal to the prayer hall.





The mosque at Brunei airport.







After finishing our three-day, two-night trip to Brunei, we took a two-and-a-half-hour flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Every time we enter Kuala Lumpur, we have to fill out the Malaysia Digital Arrival Card at the departure airport.

Chinese people in Brunei and Malaysia are both local-born, but they do not know much about the Islamic faith of the Malays. For example, a local Chinese driver in Brunei whose family has lived there for at least three generations did not even know that the Arabic-looking signs everywhere in Brunei are actually Malay. If you look at the social media accounts of Chinese and Malay people in Malaysia, you will feel like they live in two different worlds. Malays do not go to the bars, nightclubs, casinos, or some restaurants that Chinese people visit. So, if you only learn about Malaysia and the Malay people from Malaysian Chinese, you might get a biased view. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Kuala Lumpur halal food guide issue 2 covers restaurants around KLCC and beyond, including Oriental Kopi, Tien, Beacon's, Ben's, Vietnamese food, O'Briens, Mongolian barbecue, dry-pot shrimp, Korean food, a hotel lounge, AVANI Sepang Goldcoast Resort, and seafood by the beach.

I wrote a halal food map for Kuala Lumpur in February. Now that my child is going to school here, I have visited some different restaurants, mostly around the Petronas Twin Towers (KLCC). Kuala Lumpur has so many delicious restaurants. The variety is great, the prices are cheap, and the food is safe to eat.

1. Oriental Kopi (Huayang)

2. Tien

3. Beacon's

4. Ben's

5. KLCC Vietnam Cafe

6. O'Briens

7. Mongolian Barbecue (Menggu Shaokao)

8. Fanfang Suxiaomeng

9. Mo Song Dry Pot Shrimp (Mo Song Ganguo Xia)

10. Warong Maa Abah 11. Dodo Korea

12. Renaissance Hotel Executive Lounge

13. AVANI Sepang Goldcoast Resort

14. Wak Lan Seafood

1. Oriental Kopi (Huayang)



Huayang was started by a Chinese immigrant from Hainan. He traveled south to work on foreign ships to make a living before settling in Malaysia. Huayang Tea Restaurant is a chain that is very popular in Kuala Lumpur. Most of the customers are Malay, so you often have to wait in line for a table.



This restaurant has halal certification. Halal-certified restaurants are rare in Malaysia. Most restaurants just have a woman wearing a headscarf at the door to show they are halal, which is much cheaper than getting official certification.





Huayang makes everything by hand to ensure quality.



The flaky egg tart (dan ta) is their signature snack, and the crust is very soft and crispy.



The pineapple bun (boluobao) is also a must-order. Add butter inside and follow the shop's advice to eat it with a cup of Huayang coffee.



Huayang Coffee



Curry rice noodle rolls (changfen)

The rice noodle rolls (changfen) are slightly spicy with a strong curry flavor, and the fish balls are delicious.



Lime and plum juice.



Hainan coconut rice (nasi lemak).

The rice is cooked in coconut milk and served with roasted chicken and sweet chili sauce. The coconut rice tastes salty and spicy.



Huayang is an affordable tea restaurant with an average cost of 50 RM per person.

Address: 4th Floor, KLCC Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur.

2. Tien



This is a Fujian Putian cuisine restaurant. It is labeled as a non-pork restaurant, which is very common in Malaysia. This is my first time eating Putian food.



The restaurant focuses on seafood, and their specialty is fresh eel.



Every table has a small bowl of dipping sauce, which is their secret house recipe.



The eel needs to be cooked for 10 minutes. A server helps cook it, and there is a timer on the table.



The cooked eel is tender and firm with no fishy smell. It tastes great with the secret sauce. The eel meat itself is slightly sweet, and the sauce is mildly spicy.

Address: Level 4, Petronas Twin Towers (KLCC), Kuala Lumpur.

3. Beacon's



There is a Decathlon next to KLCC with a play area featuring a ball game projector. Fahim has to come here every day and could play for hours. This restaurant is right behind the court.



Decathlon sells sports gear, and the restaurant here is quite healthy. The shop focuses on organic ingredients without over-processing.





Passion fruit soda.



Most Malay food is very unhealthy, with too much oil, salt, sugar, and spice. It is fine to eat occasionally, but this organic green food spot is a rare find.



Address: Second floor of the Decathlon next to KLCC, Kuala Lumpur.

4. Ben's



This is a Western-style cafe inside The LINC KL shopping mall. They start serving breakfast at 8:00 AM. The atmosphere is fresh and quiet.



I prefer shopping here compared to the busy KLCC.



They serve Fahim's favorite pasta, which has a light flavor perfect for kids.





Hainan chicken rice (hainanjifan) is considered a relatively light meal in Malaysia.

Address: 1st Floor, The LINC KL shopping center.

5. KLCC Vietnam Cafe



There is a Vietnamese fast food shop on the basement level of KLCC. They have boxed Vietnamese rice sets that come with a cup of Vietnamese coffee for just over ten ringgit, which is very cheap.



The Vietnamese fast food here is not much different from Malay food, and the taste is also quite salty and spicy.



6. O'Briens



This is an Irish sandwich shop that also has locations in Beijing. It used to be located in Financial Street next to a Fuke Burger, but it closed down later.



They focus on light meals that are very healthy with little oil and salt. I like their vegetable salads and freshly squeezed fruit juices, but this kind of healthy food is not cheap, costing about 40-50 RM per meal.

Address: Basement level, KLCC.

7. Mongolian Barbecue (Menggu Shaokao)



Although it is called Mongolian barbecue, I feel it has nothing to do with Mongolia at all; it is just a Southeast Asian barbecue. The area where this restaurant is located is the famous food street district of Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur.



The lamb skewers (yangrouchuan) are a bit tough. Southeast Asia isn't really a place for lamb, as chicken and seafood are much more popular.



The grilled squid is delicious.



People here don't eat many green vegetables.



The grilled chicken wings taste good.

Address: Bukit Bintang

8. Fanfang Suxiaomeng



This is the Kuala Lumpur branch of Chengdu Fanfang. They serve hot pot on the second floor, and the beef pancakes (niuroubing) on the first floor have become a viral hit.



You have to wait in line for about 15 minutes on average to get a beef pancake.



These beef pancakes have more filling and are crispier than the ones back home.



Address:

Bukit Bintang is not far from the Mongolian barbecue.

9. Mo Song Dry Pot Shrimp (Mo Song Ganguo Xia)



This shop in Kuala Lumpur was opened by an elder (xianglao) from the Lingmingtang gongbei in Lanzhou. Lanzhou people are very particular about their food, focusing not just on taste but also on the decor.



The shop has a beautiful environment, and the owner is a student who studied in Malaysia.



The dry pot shrimp (ganguo xia) is delicious. The squid and shrimp inside are very fresh, and everyone praised it. We plan to come back next time to try their hot pot.







Fahim loves their Lanzhou fried rice, and he can eat more than half a portion by himself.

Address: 88, Jalan SS 21/62, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

10. Warong Maa Abah



This is a Malay-style fast food restaurant next to Musa Lanzhou Beef Noodles. It is semi-self-service where you pick your dishes first and then pay, just like a cafeteria. This type of shop is very popular with Malay people.



This combo only costs 10 ringgit. In Malaysia, running this kind of cheap fast food shop is often more profitable than running high-end restaurants.





It features fried fish, grilled chicken, and okra, served with rice and sauce. The flavors are mainly spicy and salty.

Address: Ground floor of Wisma Central, next to Musa Lanzhou Beef Noodles.

11. Dodo Korea



This is a Korean fast food shop on the second floor of KLCC. It is also popular with Malay people because Korean food tastes similar to Malay food, being mostly salty and spicy. It also features fried chicken and rice, though none of it is very healthy.



Kuala Lumpur has something for every taste.

12. Renaissance Hotel Executive Lounge



If you want a healthy and complete breakfast in Kuala Lumpur, the five-star hotels around KLCC are great choices.



Dining at luxury hotels in Kuala Lumpur costs only half as much as in China, offering great value while catering to different tastes.







13. AVANI Sepang Goldcoast Resort



The Avani resort is a drive of over an hour from downtown Kuala Lumpur.

You can see the sea here, and there are few tourists, as the people visiting the beach are mostly local Malaysians.



The seawater is not very blue because it is near the river mouth, so you have to take a boat to further islands to see deep blue water, but Fahim is not interested in that; he only cares about throwing stones and playing in the sand.



The hotel's western restaurant has burgers and pasta that children like.





The price is not expensive, at about 50 RM per person.



Avani hotel's breakfast is served in three halls, featuring Indian food, Malay food, and Chinese food, so you can try them all.











We booked our room on Trip.com. Sepang is close to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and the airport is an hour's drive from the city, so I recommend coming here if you want to spend a day playing before a connecting flight.

14. Wak Lan Seafood



If you do not want to eat at the hotel, turn left at the main gate and walk 500 meters to find this seafood barbecue stall.



This is a restaurant where locals eat. It is very busy at night, and the crowd starts to grow after 9 p.m. First, pick your ingredients and how you want them cooked. The server will weigh them, and you pay after you finish your meal.









The seafood is fresh and delicious, especially the crab, which is sweet and tender. It is also cheap, costing about 80 RM per person. After eating, you can head to the beach to watch the sunset. This is how the Golden Coast got its name, and you can take photos here that look just like the Maldives.



We stayed here for one night and noticed the tide comes in at night and starts to go out by the next afternoon. When the tide is low, you can see many small crab holes on the beach and go hunting for sea life.







The sand on the beach is fine and soft, so children can have a great time. That is all for this restaurant post. I will update you with more special food in Kuala Lumpur later. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Muslim knowledge guide explains food rulings in the Maliki school, including halal and haram animals, frogs, sea creatures, domesticated and wild animals, slaughter rules, People of the Book, utensils, wine, vinegar, and food-related transactions.



Imam Malik (711-795) was from Medina. He was the teacher of Imam Shafi'i, and Shafi'i was the teacher of Imam Hanbali. Shafi'i once said that the book of hadith written by Malik, the Muwatta, was the most perfect book in the world after the Quran. Malik's teacher was the sixth Imam of the Shia, Jafar. Jafar also had a student named Abu Hanifa, who was the founder of the Hanafi school.

Malik's grandfather, Malik Abi Amir, was a student of Caliph Umar. He was also one of the people who collected the original parchment scrolls of the Quran during the time of Caliph Uthman.

From these lineages, we can see that the four major schools of jurisprudence come from the same source and influenced each other. I do not understand how people who claim we must only follow one school convince themselves of this. I am afraid even the four Imams themselves would not agree with that view.

The Maliki school and the Hanafi school are very closely related. The Abbasid Caliphate favored the Hanafi school, while the Umayyad Caliphate favored the Maliki school. The Maliki school was founded in the 8th century AD. It is mainly found in North Africa, West Africa, Chad, Sudan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, and northeastern Saudi Arabia. In the Middle Ages, it also appeared in Spain and Sicily in Europe. The number of followers is about the same as the Shafi'i school and slightly less than the Hanafi school. Unlike other schools, the Maliki school considers the consensus of the people of Medina as one of the bases for Islamic law.

Malik did not place much importance on analogy. Instead, when the Quran and hadith did not provide clear guidance, he made rulings based on the principle of protecting the public interest. Regarding consensus, it is only considered a valid basis if it comes from the companions of the Prophet or the first three generations of Muslims from Medina. Analogy is only accepted when no answer can be found in other sources.

Title: Chapter On Food – Imam Ibn ‘Abdi’l-Barr Al-Qurtubi (Kitab Al-Kafi)

Author: Ibn ‘Abdi’l-Barr Al-Numayri Al-Qurtubi
Halal and haram animals

Domestic donkeys are not halal, whether they are slaughtered or not. People only want them for their meat or skin. If someone wants to purify a donkey skin, they must tan it. Malik said that wild donkeys cannot be eaten once they are tamed for work or riding because they have become domesticated. The Messenger of Allah forbade eating the meat of domestic donkeys. If a donkey remains wild, it is fine to eat. (From a reliable hadith narrated by Jabir)

Malik believed horses should not be eaten, but this was just a personal preference. Eating horse meat is not forbidden. The same ruling applies to mules. No one should eat elephants, rats, or geckos. It is not allowed to eat beasts with fangs. Any animal that hunts and eats meat is considered a beast. This is the well-known ruling of Malik. However, it is recorded that Malik said there is no harm in eating foxes and weasels. He did not consider these animals to be the same as lions, wolves, lynxes, leopards, and hyenas.

It is not allowed to eat cats, whether wild or domestic. Eating rabbits is allowed. Malik said any bird can be eaten, regardless of whether they are birds of prey, eat carrion, or have talons. You can eat lizards, jerboas, or monitor lizards. Malik allowed eating slaughtered snakes, including venomous ones. It is also fine to eat large lizards, hedgehogs, and frogs.

Other scholars in Medina forbade eating carrion-eaters or any animal that eats excrement. They also forbade eating snakes, geckos, rats, and similar animals. These scholars believed that if it is not allowed to kill these animals, then it is not allowed to eat them either.

You can eat dead fish, including those that are floating or at the bottom. All seafood is halal, although Malik disliked eating water pigs (dolphins). This also applies to sharks. In his view, there is no harm in eating crustaceans, sea turtles, and frogs. Fish caught by anyone can be eaten because fish do not require ritual slaughter. Malik said you cannot eat locusts that died from suffocation. You can eat locusts that died due to human action, such as being cut or thrown into a fire. Scholars outside the Maliki school allow eating locusts regardless of how they died, as they consider them the same as fish.

Food of the People of the Book

The food of those who follow the revealed scriptures is halal for us. (5:6) Animals slaughtered by the People of the Book and their other food are halal for us, and some do not require slaughtering. Out of personal preference, Malik disliked eating meat slaughtered by the People of the Book because there is better meat slaughtered by Muslims available as an alternative.

Malik disliked obtaining fat, camels, and slaughtered animals with claws from Jews, though most scholars believe there is nothing wrong with this since these items are not halal for Jews.

It is fine to eat food from idolaters, but you cannot eat the meat of animals they have slaughtered. Any food from idolaters that does not require slaughtering can be eaten, except for food that has rotted or spoiled.

A child's religious identity is based on the father's faith; if the father is an idolater, the animal slaughtered by the child is also not to be eaten. Other scholars believe that if either parent is an idolater, the animals slaughtered by the child are not to be eaten.

Malik disliked the food of non-believers (kafir) for fear that it might have been sacrificed in a name other than Allah. However, Malik believed that utensils used by non-believers are clean once washed, provided they are not made of gold, silver, or pigskin. Malik allows the use of pig bristles for stitching or making other tools. Pork, fat, and all other parts of the body are considered unclean, except for the hair.

Regarding drinks

Wine (khamr) is a drink made from fermented grapes. Any drink, whether in large or small amounts, that causes intoxication is considered wine. Any amount of wine, no matter how small or what type of drink it is, is forbidden. This is the position of some scholars in the Hejaz and Syria. Anything that contradicts this is rejected by the Prophet's hadith. When the Prophet was asked about honey wine, he said: Everything that intoxicates is wine, and everything that is wine is forbidden (Tirmidhi hadith). Grape juice does not cause intoxication regardless of the amount, so it is a halal drink until it ferments and becomes intoxicating.

Fruit juice that has been boiled is also halal if it does not cause intoxication. You do not need to boil away two-thirds of it, as long as it is not addictive.

No one should make vinegar from wine. If someone does this, it is a sin and they should repent. However, it is legal for a Christian to let wine turn into vinegar without human intervention.

A Muslim must not own any wine or intoxicating drinks. If they do, they should pour it out and break the container. A person who drinks alcohol should receive a punishment of 80 lashes. When someone becomes a Muslim and owns wine, they should pour it out. They will not be punished unless they knew the rules beforehand. A Muslim should not engage in any business related to wine. If they do, they should give away the money they earned as charity and repent to Allah.

Transaction

If a person buys goods from someone suspected of owning illegal property, the transaction itself is legal, unless the goods purchased are known to be illegal.

(End) view all

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Summary: This Beijing halal food map issue 45 covers Imam Malik food-rule reflections, Chenfei Shiwei fried chicken, Gao Qunsheng hulatang, Hotan Xinjiang rose pilaf, spicy hot pot, Guizhou sour soup, lobster, Ningxia salt-lake lamb, farmhouse dishes, and Miyun reservoir fish.

I am currently translating a research paper on Imam Malik's legal views regarding food. It is quite interesting, as it mentions that Imam Malik allows eating frogs. I will post it later. I previously wrote an article about which foods are considered not halal according to the Quran and Sunnah. The article mentions that the four schools of jurisprudence interpret the Quran and Sunnah differently. I often hear people say that on controversial issues, it is best to be cautious and strict. I think the opposite. In most cases, I prefer to be lenient when facing controversial issues. I believe that having different opinions on the same issue is actually a mercy. It gives people more choices. You cannot label those who choose the lenient path because you do not have enough evidence yet. If there were evidence, there would be no controversy. Some things will only be revealed in the afterlife, and it is not for you in this life to point fingers and judge.

In fact, we create too many difficulties for ourselves, overcome problems that should not exist, and then feel moved by our own efforts. I will not specify which things these are; you can all decide for yourselves.

The restaurant information for this issue is as follows:

1. Chenfei Shiwei

2. Gao Qunsheng Spicy Soup (hulatang)

3. Hotan Xinjiang Rose Pilaf (zhuafan)

4. Luyiyuan Spicy Hot Pot (malatang) and Spicy Dry Pot (mala xiangguo)

5. Guizhou Sour Soup Hot Pot, Beef with Skin (daipi huangniurou), and Sour Soup Fish

6. Fanshen Lobster Restaurant

7. Gameizi Ningxia Salt-lake Lamb Restaurant

8. Fuhua Zhengxing Folk Customs Restaurant

9. Hexingzhai Restaurant

1. Chenfei Shiwei



A new fried chicken shop opened at the entrance of Puhuangyu subway station. It is a takeout window, but you can also sit inside to eat.



The fried chicken tastes pretty good. Usually, as long as the ingredients are fresh, fried food like this will not taste bad.



The group-buy deal for two people including fried chicken and almond tofu (xingren doufu) is quite affordable.



The fried chicken is 39.9 yuan, and two bowls of almond tofu cost 4 yuan.



There is a paid parking lot right at the shop entrance, so it is easy to get to.

2. Gao Qunsheng Spicy Soup (hulatang)



Gao Qunsheng is a halal chain brand from Henan. After they opened in Beijing, I never saw a halal certification displayed, so I did not go. This time, I saw the halal certification at the Shijingshan branch. The staff told me that some branches do not have enough ethnic minority employees to qualify for the certification. If you mind that, you can just go to the Shijingshan branch.





Gao Qunsheng spicy soup (hulatang) is in the style of Xiaoyao Town and is not particularly spicy.



Their pan-fried buns (shuijianbao) are better than the beef pockets, and the pan-fried buns and bean porridge (doumo) are their signature dishes.





The scallion pancakes (congyoubing) are crispy and have a good texture, but the lamb offal soup (yangzatang) is just average.



I went in the evening and they only had spicy soup (hulatang), no bean porridge. It is best to go in the morning for the spicy soup.



There is a paid parking lot at the entrance of the restaurant, which is very convenient.

3. Hotan Rose Xinjiang Pilaf (zhuafan)



This is a Xinjiang halal restaurant that only serves pilaf and has chain stores in Urumqi.



The shop just opened, so they currently only have pilaf and some free side dishes.





Their free side dishes are especially delicious.



The lamb and oil are both shipped from Xinjiang.





Uyghur staff work in the kitchen, and the lamb leg pilaf here is excellent. I arrived late and there was only one lamb leg left. The meat was very tender and flavorful, and the pilaf was fragrant. You could say this is the best place for pilaf among Xinjiang restaurants in Beijing.



4. Luyiyuan Spicy Hot Pot (malaxiangguo)



There are plenty of halal spicy hot pot (malatang) shops, but halal spicy dry pot (mala xiangguo) is rare.



I arrived at 10 p.m., and there were still many customers eating a late-night snack.



The spicy dry pot is quite hot, so be careful if you cannot handle spice. The shop also serves steamed dumplings (shaomai).



5. Guizhou Sour Soup Hot Pot, Beef with Skin (daipi huangniurou), and Sour Soup Fish



This is a Guizhou sour soup hot pot restaurant with a new style, featuring beef hot pot and fish hot pot as their signature dishes.



Business was great as soon as they opened, and you have to wait over 30 minutes for a table.



The owner originally planned to serve Guizhou-style stir-fried dishes, but the hot pot business became so popular that they stopped making stir-fries. Now, they only serve hot pot.





We ordered three cups of homemade prickly pear juice (cili zhi), which is sweet, sour, and icy. They only have three of these cups, so we took them all, and other customers had to order different drinks.



The dipping sauce is the soul of the meal. I suggest following the guide posted by the shop to mix your sauce. You must try the litsea cubeba oil (mujiangzi you), mint leaves, chili powder (hu lajiao mian), and fish mint (zhe'ergen).





The full beef set includes beef and various beef offal, and the ingredients are very fresh. If you like fish, choose the river catfish (jiangtuan). Each fish weighs two jin and three liang, and the meat is firm with no small bones.





You can get free iced jelly (bingfen) if you save the shop on your map and check in. The iced jelly is just okay, but the signature beef and fish hot pots are worth a try.

6. Fanshen Lobster Restaurant



A new crayfish restaurant just opened in Baiziwan. The owner is from Langfang, and they are currently only open for dinner until the early morning.



You can eat seafood like crayfish. For details, check out my previous article on how the Hanafi school views shrimp. They also serve specialties from Cangzhou, Hebei, like hot pot chicken (huoguo ji) and spicy crab (xiangla xie).







The restaurant has a great atmosphere. It is spacious with plenty of room between tables, and the private courtyard at the entrance serves as a free parking lot.



If you leave a review and save the shop on the app, you get a free glass of fresh-squeezed fruit juice.



The most popular dish is the garlic crayfish. You can really taste how fresh the shrimp are. You can dip the freshly griddled hand-torn flatbread (shousi bing) into the golden crayfish broth; it tastes excellent.





The grilled squid is also delicious. Their ingredients are definitely fresh.



The spicy beef tripe (chanzui niudu) has a numbing and spicy flavor and tastes great. Overall, this place has the potential to become a viral hit, whether you look at the service, environment, or taste. It is a bit pricey, with an average cost of over 200 yuan per person.

7. Gameizi Ningxia Tan Sheep



Gameizi is a chain restaurant, and they do a good job with their lamb.



Tan sheep (tan yang) restaurants have popped up all over Beijing in the last two years, but the quality of the meat has been going downhill.



We tried the lamb neck this time, and everyone liked it. It comes with chive flower sauce and chili sauce, both of which are quite tasty.





Stir-fried beef (xiaochao huangniurou) is a common home-cooked dish in southern Ningxia, where people eat more beef.



Salt-lake sheep (tanyang) has a slightly thicker layer of fat, which makes it perfect for roasting. This restaurant is busy at night, but parking is difficult. The average cost is about 150 yuan per person.

8. Fuhua Zhengxing Folk Customs Restaurant



Mujia Yu village, near Miyun Reservoir, is a village for Hui Muslims. There are four halal farm-style restaurants along the road at the village entrance: Fuhua Zhengxing Folk Restaurant, Hexingzhai Restaurant, Shanshui Tianyuan, and Kunanchun. I have eaten at Shanshui Tianyuan before, and Kunanchun was closed, so we had our farm-style lunch at Fuhua Zhengxing.





I recommend trying the farm-style tofu in Miyun. It is a local specialty and has a very fragrant flavor.



Fried river shrimp is another farm specialty. There is also the stir-fried pumpkin (wogua) shown below. Wogua is just pumpkin, and this was grown in their own field. It tastes great.





One of the wild vegetables often found in Beijing farm-style restaurants is muli bud (muliya), also called jasmine bud (moliya), which is actually the tender leaf of the goldenrain tree.



The fried beef strips are covered in sesame seeds. They seem to be made from beef jerky and go very well with rice.



Their signature meat pie has a crispy crust, which is the texture I like. We ordered two jin (one kilogram), and all 10 of us finished it.



The stewed free-range chicken is also good. The meat is soft, tender, and flavorful, and the price is cheap.



Since we did not book in advance, there were no reservoir fish of a suitable size when we arrived at noon, so we chose these fried small fish. Reservoir fish usually weigh between five and eight jin, with the extra-large ones being over ten jin. They are bighead carp, and every restaurant charges 38 yuan per jin, usually cooking them by braising in sauce.

9. Hexingzhai Halal Restaurant



We missed out on reservoir fish at lunch, but we didn't give up. We wandered around until evening and came to Mujia Yu to try this place, Hexingzhai.



The homemade mung bean jelly (liangfen) had mustard oil added, making it extra refreshing.



We had scrambled eggs and stir-fried tofu. Miyun tofu is truly delicious no matter how you cook it.





Stir-fried celery with beef and mixed-grain buns (zaliangbao) are both classic home-style dishes that go great with rice.





Lamb skewers (yangrouchuan) are 5 yuan each, which isn't expensive. The food at these farmhouses in Mujia Yu is quite good.



We finally got to eat reservoir fish. This fish weighed over eight pounds, enough for 10 people. The bighead carp meat was tender, though it had many small bones, so kids should be careful. After finishing the fish, we added a portion of griddle-baked flatbread (laobing) to the sauce to make fish head with soaked flatbread. This dish was a hit with everyone, making the trip well worth it. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Beijing halal food map issue 44 discusses restaurant trust, alcohol-serving venues, halal intention, Sultan Turkish Restaurant, meat pies, Sichuan-style hot pot, beef flatbread, noodles, spicy hot pot, and Hulun Aile Halal Mongolian Cuisine.

Let me say a few more words on a common topic: eating at restaurants that serve alcohol. To me, this is not a problem. Them selling alcohol and me eating there are two different things. I just don't drink myself. I also don't stress over whether a place's meat is truly reliable. To be blunt, if I put a piece of meat in front of you right now, how could you possibly tell if it was slaughtered in a halal way? Every halal restaurant has its own supply chain, but most come from the same few monopolies. Unless you personally track every piece of meat from slaughter to loading to your table, you cannot be certain it is halal. Even if you are perfect in your religious practice, as long as you didn't slaughter the meat yourself, I have reason to doubt its source. The point here is whether your intention (niyyah) is pure and the division of responsibility is clear. People who trick you with non-halal meat are at fault, but you are not guilty if you eat it by mistake. This is like the smart approach I mentioned in my last article criticizing Islamic finance. He just deposits his money in a bank that is Islamic in name. As for whether that bank uses his money for usury, he doesn't care. He doesn't have the ability to judge if the income is lawful, but he has fulfilled his duty. What can you say to him?

I have said before that I don't share halal food just for the sake of sharing food. I have to share food to pass on certain values. I share these values only to find like-minded people. I have always been talking to myself online. Take it or leave it. I don't join any arguments or hang out in any circles. If we don't see eye to eye, I just block you. It saves everyone the trouble.

1. Sultan Turkish Restaurant

2. Yin's Meat Pie (Yinji Roubing)

3. Junbang Sichuan-style Hot Pot

4. Baoding Beef Covered Flatbread (Baoding Niurou Zhaobing)

5. Xiaojing Li

6. Northwest Xinjiang Lake (Xibei Jianghu)

7. Alanxiang Sour and Spicy Noodles (Suanlafen), Beef Noodles, and Spicy Hot Pot (Malatang)

8. Maimai Red Beef Sliced Noodles (Daoxiaomian)

9. Hulun Aile Halal Mongolian Cuisine

1. Sultan Turkish Restaurant



The original team from the former Kubei Turkish Restaurant has rebranded the same location as Sultan Turkish Restaurant. Sultan is a chain, and I once ate at one in Yiwu. The taste was excellent, arguably the best Turkish restaurant in China—perhaps even better than what you might find in Turkey. It wasn't very busy when it first opened, but I hear it has become a viral sensation recently, with long lines for a table.



Sultan serves the famous Turkish ice cream brand MADO. It is made from goat milk without adding water, giving it a rich, creamy flavor.









Sultan offers a wide variety of Turkish-style breakfasts. You can choose a single or double set meal, and you can even order breakfast during regular lunch or dinner hours. Turkish people are used to eating two meals a day—one in the morning and one in the evening—with each meal lasting a long time.









Balloon flatbread (balon ekmek)







MADO layered ice cream, with your choice of four flavors.



Just for this MADO ice cream, it is worth stopping by. The quality is higher than Haagen-Dazs.





The open kitchen lets you watch the chef baking flatbread (naan) by the oven.



Various Turkish desserts served with tea.

2. Yinji Door-Nail Meat Pie (mending roubing)



Yinji is a chain restaurant that specializes in door-nail meat pies and some traditional Beijing snacks.





The ratings for their various locations are all about the same. I think their Jingdong meat pie (jingdong roubing) tastes better than the door-nail meat pie. The advantage of both is that they are pan-fried to order, rather than being made in advance and reheated.



Beef tendon and brisket (jintou banao).



The meat filling in the door-nail meat pie (mending roubing) is generous, and it is made in the traditional way.

3. Junbang Hot Pot.



This is a newly opened Sichuan-style hot pot restaurant on the 4th floor of Building B at the Xinjiang Mansion. It is owned by the same person who runs the Xihan Meatball Soup.







The dining environment here is very comfortable. It has a large space, big tables, beautiful decor, and the service is especially attentive.



We ate from individual small pots, which can also be set up as a split-pot (yuanyang guo). We chose a yellow tomato broth and a green chili mushroom broth.



This is the house-brewed kvass (gewasi). It is ice-cold and tastes great. I prefer this kind of house-brewed kvass because it is more satisfying than the bottled version.



A serving of fresh abalone from the set meal for two.



The homemade yogurt provided by the restaurant is quite thick.





The green chili broth is spicy. I recommend pairing it with a dipping sauce of sesame oil and minced garlic, with a splash of fragrant vinegar added. It is delicious.







The Xinjiang Mansion has launched a Xinjiang-style afternoon tea (Jiang Ka). I will come back to try it when I have the chance. The Xinjiang Mansion is the Xinjiang government office in Beijing. There are several halal restaurants inside, and parking is convenient.

4. Baoding Beef Covered Flatbread (Baoding Niurou Zhaobing)



I once drove all the way to Miyun just to eat halal covered flatbread (zhaobing). When I heard a new halal zhaobing shop opened in Baiziwan, I went to try it, and it tasted even better than the one in Miyun.



The term 'one cover two' means one liang of meat and two liang of flatbread. I chose the single-person set 'two cover three,' which is two liang of beef and three liang of flatbread. The shop just opened and is still hiring staff. They only serve zhaobing and braised chicken (luzhuji), which is also a specialty from Baoding.



5. Xiaojing Li



I often pass by this old shop in Fengtai that serves traditional halal stir-fry and hot pot meat. Last week, a sudden rainstorm forced me inside to take shelter, so I decided to check the place out.



The history of Xiaojingli is written too simply, so I suggest polishing it up.



I think their eggplant diced noodles (qiedingmian) are delicious, and the hand-rolled noodles have a great chew.



The door-nail meat pies (mending roubing) were not freshly pan-fried but were heated up before being served, so they were not as good as the ones at Yinji.



However, the braised meat strips (baroutiao), a traditional dish for Hui Muslims, were quite tasty and affordable, costing just over sixty yuan.

6. Northwest Xinjiang Lake (Xibei Jianghu)



I saw this restaurant while out with my kids. They sell grilled fish, and there is a group-buy set for 98 yuan.



The fish is very fresh, but the grass carp has a lot of bones.



The noodle soup slices (tangmianpian) and stir-fried cabbage with flatbread (nang chao lianhuabai) are both quite tasty. If you want grilled fish, you can come to this shop; it is a chain.



7. Alanxiang Lanzhou Beef Noodles



What attracted me to this shop wasn't the beef noodles, but the fact that you can get hot and sour glass noodles (suanlafen), rice noodles (mixian), and Tianshui spicy hot pot (malatang) here.





Because the chili used in Tianshui spicy hot pot is fragrant rather than spicy, the hot and sour glass noodles and rice noodles made with this chili are also especially delicious.



Chicken rice noodles (jirou mixian)

The chicken rice noodles are very good, and they give you plenty of chicken in big chunks, all for just 15 yuan a bowl.

8. Maimai Red Beef Sliced Noodles (Daoxiaomian)



Maimai Hong's beef knife-cut noodles (daoxiaomian) are definitely worth a visit. If you like this kind of food, you won't go wrong coming here.



The shop is run by Hui Muslims from Jiaozuo, Henan. Their cold dishes are also a specialty. If you come at breakfast time, you can have spicy soup (hulatang) in the Xiaoyao Town style, but with the spice level lowered to suit Beijingers.



Another specialty they have is beef steamed buns (niurou baozi). These aren't pan-fried, but the large steamed kind, which you can also get if you come in the morning.





I had a portion of the deluxe beef knife-cut noodles. They gave me plenty of meat, the broth was rich, the meat was tender, and the noodles were chewy.



You pick your cold dishes first, then they go to the kitchen to be tossed with extra seasoning so they stay fresh and taste their best.

9. Hulun Aile Halal hand-held meat (shouba rou).



This place used to be a hot pot restaurant, but it recently switched to Mongolian cuisine, and the change was a huge success.



They source all their beef and lamb from Hulunbuir, and the quality of meat from the Inner Mongolian grasslands is unbeatable.



What drew us here was their afternoon tea with Inner Mongolian flair.





The milk tea comes with a plate of dairy products, a combination that is just too tempting.



Mongolian-style milk tea contains roasted millet (chaomi) and is served in a thermos to keep it warm.



For the hand-held beef steak (shouba niupai), you cut off a piece with a small knife, spread some chive flower sauce (jiucaihua) on it, and it tastes great. Their three types of dipping sauces are all very authentic.



Buryat steamed buns (Buliya baozi) look a lot like the thin-skinned buns from Xinjiang, but the dough is a bit thicker. They are filled with large chunks of lamb, full of broth, and delicious.



This dairy platter is the most popular part of the afternoon tea today. The white topping is cream, which you eat with the dairy products. The four cups contain concentrated milk that tastes like ice bock, a type of milk concentrated by evaporating most of the water.



The Inner Mongolian milk ice cream is also simple and bold. It is made of large chunks of milk ice, just like a popsicle, but without added water, so the texture is silky and the milky flavor is rich. It is highly recommended. Compared to the Mongolian food, their hot pot seems quite ordinary, so I suggest you stick to the Mongolian dishes when you visit. view all

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Summary: This Muslim knowledge guide presents a critical look at Islamic finance, including Sharia compliance, profit-and-loss sharing, murabaha, interest benchmarks, social justice concerns, scholar critiques, banking practice, and the gap between ideal Islamic finance and real-world banking.

This article is a collection and compilation of critiques on Islamic finance. The content mainly comes from the English Wikipedia entry 'Challenges in Islamic finance' and various scholars' blogs. The skepticism from these foreign scholars shows that so-called 'Islamic finance' is not as competitive as we imagine. It has many problems and perhaps should not even be promoted under the name 'Islamic'.



The challenge facing Islamic finance is the difficulty of providing modern financial services without violating Sharia law. The development of the Islamic banking and finance industry centers on avoiding interest, which is seen as an unjust and exploitative gain in trade or business.

Most Islamic banking customers come from the Gulf and developed countries in the Muslim world. Challenges include the fact that interest rate benchmarks have been used to set Islamic 'profit' rates, so the 'net returns are not substantially different from interest-based transactions'. In essence, Islamic banking is 'nothing more than a matter of changing contracts...'.

Religiously, Islamic finance prefers a profit and loss sharing (PLS) model. However, this causes problems, including the need to wait for investment projects to generate earnings before profits can be distributed, which increases risk and complexity for financial service providers.

The Islamic finance industry has been praised for developing a 'theory' into an industry worth about 2 trillion US dollars. It has attracted banking users who could not use traditional banking services for religious reasons, drawn non-Muslim bankers into the field, and (according to other supporters) introduced a more stable and lower-risk form of financing.

However, the industry is also criticized for ignoring its 'basic philosophy' and moving in the wrong direction for decades, leading both outsiders and ordinary Muslims to question it. First, it abandoned the original financing method advocated by its promoters—risk-sharing financing—in favor of fixed-markup purchase financing (especially murabaha). It then distorted the rules of fixed-markup murabaha to effectively provide traditional cash interest loans like conventional interest rates, but disguised them with 'word games' while bearing 'higher costs and greater risks'.

Other issues and complaints raised include that the industry has made no effort to help small vendors and the poor. How to deal with the problem of inflation; Delayed payments; A lack of currency and interest rate hedging; Or a lack of short-term cash deposit accounts that follow Sharia law; Most Islamic banking businesses are owned by non-Muslims;

In a series of interviews with Pakistani banking professionals (traditional and Islamic bankers, Sharia banking advisors, business people using finance, and management consultants) in 2008 and 2010, economist Faisal Khan noted that many Islamic bankers expressed 'skepticism' about the differences, or lack thereof, between traditional and Islamic banking products. He also noted a lack of external Sharia compliance audit requirements for Islamic banks in Pakistan, and that Sharia boards lacked awareness of their banks failing to follow Sharia-compliant practices or were unable to stop them. However, this did not stop devout people from using the banks (one person explained that if his Islamic bank was not truly following Sharia, 'the punishment is on their heads, not mine!'); I have done what I can do.

An estimate of customer preferences in the Pakistani banking industry (provided by a Pakistani banker) is that about 10% of customers are 'strictly traditional banking customers,' 20% are strictly Sharia-compliant banking customers, and 70% prefer Sharia-compliant banking but will use traditional banking if the 'price difference is significant.' A survey of Islamic and traditional banking customers found that Islamic banking customers were more observant (attending Hajj, performing namaz, keeping a beard, etc.), but they also had higher savings account balances than traditional banking customers, were older, better educated, traveled abroad more, and tended to open a second account at a traditional bank. Another study using 'official data' reported to the State Bank of Pakistan found that for lenders who received both Islamic (murabaha) financing and traditional loans, the default rate for traditional loans was more than twice that of the others. If the vote share of religious political parties increases, borrowers are 'less likely to default during Ramadan and in large cities, which suggests that religion—whether through personal piety or network effects—may play a role in determining loan defaults.'

As of 2016, the key challenges facing the Islamic finance industry, including Islamic bonds (sukuk), according to the 2015/16 State of the Global Islamic Economy Report and International Monetary Fund data, include:

Public awareness and understanding of Islamic financial products and services are low, which keeps people from using them.

There is a need to improve regulatory clarity and coordination, strengthen cooperation between Islamic and traditional financial standard-setters, and further improve regulatory tools. This is to address the complex financial products and company structures in some countries where regulatory frameworks fail to handle risks specific to the industry.

There is a scarcity of monetary policy tools that follow halal rules and a lack of understanding of monetary transmission mechanisms.

Underdeveloped safety nets and resolution frameworks. A lack of a complete Islamic deposit insurance system, where insurance premiums cannot be invested in halal assets, or a lack of a halal lender of last resort.

Regulators do not always have the ability or the will to ensure compliance with Islamic law.

Imitating traditional finance.

Some supporters of Islamic banking, such as Taqi Usmani, D. M. Qureshi, Saleh Abdullah Kamel, and Harris Irfan, and skeptics like Muhammad Akram Khan, Mohammad Omar Farooq, Feisal Khan, Mahmoud El-Gamal, and Timur Kuran, have studied the differences between Islamic and traditional banks and expressed regret over their similarities.

Taqi Usmani argues that Islamic banking has completely ignored its basic philosophy. First, it ignores the risk-sharing model (musharaka) between the financier and the user of funds, preferring fixed markup models like cost-plus financing (murabahah) and leasing (ijarah), which theoretically should only be used when risk-sharing is impractical. Second, it ignores the rules of cost-plus financing (murabahah) and leasing (ijarah) themselves. For example, it uses murabahah financing to borrow cash without even buying any goods in the process, or uses leasing (ijarah) where the lessor does not take responsibility for ownership or provide the lessee with any rights of use.

Interest rate benchmarks are used to set Islamic profit rates, so the net result is not substantially different from interest-based transactions. Ignoring these basic principles weakens the influence of Islamic banking among non-Muslims and especially the general public. Usmani believes the public now has the impression that Islamic banking is just a matter of swapping documents.

In March 2009, Usmani declared that 85% of Islamic bonds (sukuk) were non-Islamic. At the time, Usmani was the chairman of the Sharia board for the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), which sets standards for the global Islamic banking industry. Others, such as Hassan Heikal, have also criticized the authenticity of Islamic bonds.

Another pioneer of the Islamic banking industry, DM Qureshi, told a questioner at a 2005 Islamic banking conference, 'With all due respect, today's Islamic banking is a labeling industry.' Everything traditional is just given a new label, and then you call it Islamic.

Mohammad Najatuallah Siddiqui also criticized the trend of copying traditional interest-based financial tools and making minor changes to terms and phrases, such as using sukuk for bonds or tawarruq for loans. He said this trend gives Islamic finance a bad reputation. One Islamic bank, Lariba, even issued a fatwa from its Sharia board, which included famous Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, stating: 'We have reached a consensus that there is no objection to using the word interest to replace profit or rate of return.' Siddiqui stated that practitioners of Islamic finance are eager to prove in theory that their finance is different from traditional finance, but in reality:

They are busy finding ways to make them similar. Starting around the 1980s, Sharia advisors mainly focused on designing alternatives to financial products that were already familiar to the market while trying to keep them compliant with Sharia.

A Muslim banker at Deutsche Bank, Harris Irfan, wrote about how he felt when selling Islamic banking products that did not truly comply with Sharia. He complained that he felt like a fraud, suffering from incoherent pietism and cognitive dissonance while trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Muhammad Akram Khan, a senior expert in Islamic economics, criticized Islamic banks for claiming to build their business on something other than interest while designing a series of tricks and ruses to hide interest.

Mahmoud Amin El-Gamal and Mohammad Fadel complained that Islamic banks charge fees that are too high. Fadel described the foundation of the industry as charging fees to create financial products that seem to meet the formal requirements of Islamic law while keeping all the economic features of traditional products.

El-Gamal described modern Islamic finance as Sharia arbitrage, which means taking advantage of price differences between Islamic and traditional markets because devout Muslims are willing to pay extra for financing they believe follows Sharia. In this system, a bank's Sharia board earns fees by finding a suitable classical Arabic name for an Islamic-style product and using that name to justify the Islamic brand and make it seem more credible.

According to Sayyid Tahir:

There is no evidence that the arrangements of Islamic banks are based on any kind of Sharia foundation. For example, the formulas for legal liquidity requirements, capital adequacy, and risk management standards in Islamic banks are the same as those in interest-based banks.

According to AW Duskuki and Abdelazeem Abozaid, the only difference investigators might find between Islamic finance and traditional finance is

in technical details and legal form, but the substance is the same. In fact, Islamic bankers use the same financial calculations as other bankers to figure out the present and future value of investments. Therefore, in the end, skeptical Muslims and other critical outsiders will find that Islamic banks actually charge interest, just under a different name like commission or profit.

Saleh Abdullah Kamel, the 1997 winner of the IDB Islamic Banking Prize, has a different view. He pointed out that the industry only has most of the features of traditional banking.

The investment models favored by Islamic banks have turned into a mix of loans and investments. This hybrid model has most of the features of interest-based loans and the flaws of the Western capitalist system. It does not highlight the features of Islamic investment based on risk-sharing and actual investment. It does not recognize the guarantee of capital and its returns.

Another criticism of mimicking traditional banking (raised by Mahmoud El-Gamal) is that imitating the 'past returns and past trends' of traditional finance, such as seeking to be the first bank to offer an 'Islamic hedge fund,' can bring huge initial profit margins. This is because the imitator is a 'first mover' in the Islamic finance industry and has 'access to monopoly markets and free indirect publicity.' This tempts other banks to try to follow suit, but long-term returns are often limited.

Skeptics of the industry have offered several explanations for why they believe the industry has failed to provide a real alternative to traditional banking. According to MO Farooq, Sharia boards face pressure, and it is indeed difficult to review the institutions that pay their salaries, which is a modern version of the medieval 'court ulama'.

Feisal Khan argues that Islamic banking is caught in a 'vicious cycle' where traditional piety conflicts with feasibility. Inspired by the Islamic revival movement, a large number of pious Muslims seek to finance, invest, and save in ways that do not use interest and 'standard debt contracts'. Efforts to provide interest-free alternatives that truly comply with Sharia—'participatory' or 'profit and loss sharing' financing—have failed because, in most cases, information asymmetry between the financier and the recipient makes this financing model unprofitable. Large banks are unwilling to let this obstacle stop them from profiting from the vast market of pious Muslims, so they look for 'scholars willing to certify traditional instruments as Sharia-compliant' and give more business to the most helpful scholars. The result is a 'fairly wide' range of financial products and services that 'closely' mimic traditional products and services but come with Sharia certification, which adds extra transaction costs.

Another explanation given by Farooq, citing Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi, is the shortage of Sharia experts. Generally speaking, these experts have not received enough training in the intent or purpose of Islamic law, so they cannot evaluate the pros and cons of certain financial products. They also lack training in economics and cannot analyze the consequences of using complex financial transactions like tawarruq, which allows lenders to provide cash to borrowers in a way that complies with Islamic law but is more complex and costly than traditional loans.

Timur Kuran argues that the importance of the Islamic economic foundation in Islamic banking is that it is primarily a tool to reaffirm the primacy of Islam, and only secondarily a tool for radical economic change.

The promises and challenges of profit and risk sharing.

According to a 2006 paper by Suliman Hamdan Albalawi, at least in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Islamic banks no longer use profit and loss sharing (PLS) techniques as a core principle, and Malaysia has also seen a decline.

A study on the most commonly used Islamic finance models found that PLS financing in major Islamic banks dropped from 17.34% in 1994-1996 to just 6.34% of total financing in 2000-2006. In the sample, debt-based contracts or debt-like instruments were more popular. During the 2004-2006 period, 54.42% of financing was based on murabaha, 16.31% on ijara, and 5.60% on salam and istisna. Another survey of the largest Islamic banks released in 2010 found that the use of PLS ranged between 0.5% and 21.6%.

Authors Humayon A. Dar and J. R. Presley explain why PLS tools, where the financier provides capital and partnership financing, have dropped to a negligible percentage, including:

Bank clients have a strong incentive to report less profit than they actually earn, because the higher the declared profit, the more money the client must pay to the financing bank. This puts banks at a disadvantage when using PLS compared to using fixed-income models.

Property rights are not clearly defined in most Muslim countries, which makes it hard to share profits and losses.

Islamic banks compete with traditional banks that have deep roots and hundreds of years of experience. Islamic banks are still unsure about their own policies and practices, so they avoid taking on risks they cannot predict.

Profit and Loss Sharing (PLS) is often not suitable or possible for things like short-term resource needs, working capital, or non-profit projects in education and health.

In some countries, interest is treated as a business expense and is tax-free, but profit is taxed as income. Because of this, business clients who get funding through PLS pay higher taxes than those who take out loans and pay interest.

At least as of 2001, there was no secondary market for Islamic financial products based on PLS.

As a form of PLS, profit-sharing partnership (mudaraba) gives bank shareholders limited control and leads to an unbalanced governance structure. Shareholders want a consistent and complementary control system, but profit-sharing partnership (mudaraba) financing lacks this.

The industry has not been able to get customers to accept the periodic losses (the L in PLS) that come with investments. The profit-sharing partnership (mudarabah) feature, where bank clients and investors share in the bank's losses, is thought to make Islamic financial institutions more stable than traditional banks. In its 2015 paper, Islamic Finance: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policy Options, the International Monetary Fund listed ensuring that profit-sharing investment accounts (PSIA), also known as profit-sharing partnership (mudarabah) accounts, are handled in a way that keeps the financial system stable as a major regulatory challenge. Supporters like Taqi Usmani argue that normal trade activities naturally lead to occasional losses. They believe that expecting stable returns without any risk of loss is an unnatural product of capitalist banking, caused by separating finance from normal trade. Over decades of development, Islamic banking has faced bad debts and even major financial difficulties, such as the significant corruption scandal at the Dubai Islamic Bank in 1998.

However, at least up until 2004, no Islamic bank had passed bad debts on to its depositors. No Islamic bank reduced the value of depositor accounts when writing down the value of bad assets for fear of losing those depositors.

Beyond the disadvantages for lenders, critic Feisal Khan argues that the widespread use of profit and loss sharing (PLS) could cause serious damage to the economy. He points out that if banks held direct equity in every business as required by profit-sharing contracts (mudarabah) and partnership contracts (musharakah), credit would shrink. Central banks would then be unable to use standard credit expansion methods, such as buying bonds or commercial paper, to prevent the liquidity crises that occur in modern economies. While purists like Usmani are correct that cost-plus financing (murabahah) and other fixed-income tools—which have already pushed out PLS—are essentially just another name for traditional banking, banning them in favor of more authentic profit and loss sharing might leave central banks unable to prevent economic contraction and extreme unemployment.

Besides ignoring profit and loss sharing in favor of cost-plus financing (murabahah), the industry is accused of failing to follow Islamic law rules for murabahah. It often fails to buy or sell the actual goods or inventory that are a key condition for compliance. Banks do this when they want to lend cash rather than fund a purchase, even though it adds extra costs without serving any other purpose. In 2008, Arabianbusiness.com complained that sometimes there were no goods at all, only cash flowing between banks, brokers, and borrowers. Often, the goods have nothing to do with the borrower's business, and there are not even enough existing goods in the world to account for all the transactions taking place. Two other researchers reported that billions of dollars in synthetic murabahah transactions have taken place in London over the years, with many people doubting whether the banks actually owned the deposits or even the underlying assets.

Early supporters of Islamic banking called for setting up different accounts for different types of deposits so that earnings could be distributed to each type. Critic Muhammad Akram Khan argues that, in reality, Islamic financial institutions pool all types of deposits together.

Critics complain that banks following Sharia rules often just take the word of the bank or the borrower that they are following compliance rules, without doing real audits to check if it is true. An observer (L. Al Nasser) complained that when dealing with peers in the industry, Sharia authorities show too much trust in their subjects. He said Sharia audits are needed to reach transparency and make sure institutions keep their promises to customers. Also, when doing outside Sharia audits, many auditors often complain about the high number of violations they see but cannot discuss because the records they check have been tampered with.

Illegal gains

Even though Islamic banks forbid charging interest, their profit margins are usually based on interest rates. Islamic banker Harris Irfan says there is no doubt that benchmarks like LIBOR are still necessary for Islamic banks, and most scholars accept this no matter how imperfect the solution seems. However, Muhammad Akram Khan wrote that following the traditional bank benchmark LIBOR goes against the original purpose of designing and offering Islamic financial products.

Skeptics also complain that the returns on Islamic bank accounts are very close to those of traditional banks, even though their different mechanisms should theoretically lead to different numbers. A 2014 study using the latest econometrics techniques looked at the long-term relationship between time deposit rates at traditional banks and participation banks (Islamic banks) in Turkey. It found that the time deposit rates of three out of four participation banks were significantly cointegrated with those of traditional banks, and the causal relationship between Islamic bank yields and traditional banks was permanent. Skeptics believe this closeness shows that Islamic banks manipulate their yields. These banks are often smaller and have weaker foundations, and they feel the need to reassure customers about their financial competitiveness and stability.

Liquidity issues

The Islamic banking and finance industry lacks a way to earn returns on money that is parked short-term while waiting for investment, which puts these banks at a disadvantage compared to traditional banks.

Banks and financial institutions must balance liquidity—the ability to quickly turn assets into cash or cash equivalents in an emergency without a big loss when depositors need it—with competitive rates of return on funds. Traditional banks use the interbank lending market to borrow money for liquidity needs and invest for any period, including very short terms, to boost their earnings. Calculating the return for any period is simple: just multiply the loan term by the interest rate.

However, the profit and loss sharing (PLS) model preferred in Islamic finance means profits can only be shared after the invested project is finished. Since you cannot determine profit or loss in the short term, money deposited for a short time does not earn any return. Islamic financial institutions cannot use traditional interbank lending markets for short-term borrowing.

Because there are few or not enough Islamic money market investment tools, as of 2002, the liquidity—or money without returns—held by Islamic banks was on average 40% higher than that of traditional banks. The Islamic Financial Services Board found that the daily volume of interbank transactions between Islamic financial institutions, between Islamic and traditional banks, and between Islamic financial institutions and central banks is very low compared to traditional money markets. While Muslim countries like Bahrain, Iran, Malaysia, and Sudan have started developing Islamic money markets and issuing securitized documents based on profit-sharing partnership (musharakah), profit-sharing investment (mudarabah), and leasing (ijarah), as of at least 2013, the lack of a proper and effective secondary market means these securities are much smaller in number than those in traditional capital markets.

Regarding non-PLS, or debt-based contracts, one study found that the business model of Islamic banks is changing over time and moving toward taking on more liquidity risk.

To solve the problem of money held for liquidity or lack of investment opportunities not earning a return, many Islamic financial institutions, such as the Islamic Development Bank and Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt, openly earn interest from their excess funds, which are usually invested in safer debt-like or overseas debt instruments. Sharia experts do not forbid this practice, but instead provide the necessary religious rulings (fatwa) to comply with Sharia based on the rule of necessity (darurah). Researchers Frank Vogel and Frank Hayes write:

Islamic finance and banking scholars cite necessity to allow exceptions and relax rules. They issued fatwas allowing Islamic banks to deposit funds into interest-bearing accounts, especially abroad, because these banks have no other investments during periods of necessity. However, they usually attach conditions to such fatwas, such as requiring that illegal earnings be used for religious charitable purposes like charity, training, or research.

Lack of social responsibility

According to Islamic teachings, Islamic banks should adopt new financing policies and explore new investment channels to encourage development and improve the living standards of small-scale traders, but Taqi Usmani complains that few Islamic banks and financial institutions focus on this. Islamic scholar Mohammad Hashim Kamali regrets that Islamic banks focus on short-term financing, which mainly focuses on financing already produced goods rather than creating or increasing production capital or focusing on facilities like factories and infrastructure.

Muhammad Akram Khan also complains that in the process of merging with traditional banking, Islamic bank product development mimics traditional banking instead of building a different type of banking consistent with fair and equal income distribution and ethical investment models.

Another scholar, Mahmoud El-Gamal, also regrets that Islamic banks value form over substance and suggests rebranding Islamic finance to emphasize issues like community banking, microfinance, and socially responsible investment.

Criticisms from other unorthodox economists are even more intense.

Muhammad O. Farooq questions the basic premise of Islamic banking, arguing that it focuses on abolishing all interest at the expense of the big picture of pursuing overall economic justice, and cites the Quran's warning against the concentration of wealth:

Whatever Allah has restored to His Messenger from the people of the towns is for Allah and for the Messenger, and for the near relatives and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer, so that it will not be a perpetual distribution among the rich from among you...

He questioned if greed and profit are bigger causes of exploitation than loan interest. He believes that in a competitive and regulated market, loan interest might not actually count as interest.

The Islamic banking and finance movement has adapted to political tyranny. It is supported by a small, wealthy class of rentiers in the Muslim world and is increasingly manipulated by global financial giants. Because of this, it is easily limited to just talking about opposing exploitation, and it might even unintentionally become a tool for exploitation itself. The real world is full of exploitation, such as child exploitation, sexual exploitation, and labor exploitation. Interest might only be a small part of global exploitation. However, supporters of Islamic economics and finance remain obsessed with interest.

He used the profit motive of the East India Company as an example. Before 1858, the company colonized and ruled India at the expense of the Muslim Mughal Empire, and its shares were equity rather than debt instruments. He found it curious that although books promoting Islamic banking and finance often claim that loan interest exploits the poor and Muslims, there is almost no empirical or focused research on exploitation or injustice within Islamic economics. For example, Farooq complained that in two important bibliographies on orthodox Islamic economics, there was not a single citation about exploitation or injustice. These were 'Muslim Economic Thought: A Survey of Contemporary Literature,' which had 700 entries under 51 subcategories across 115 pages, and 'Islamic Economics: Annotated Sources in English and Urdu' by Muhammad Akram Khan.

Timur Kuran complained that Islamic banks in Egypt and other Muslim countries follow Western banking practices and do little to help economic development or job creation. However, they do not follow the practices of Western venture capitalists, who have funded the global high-tech industry. Since the operating principles of venture capital are the same as profit and loss sharing, even though venture capital does not avoid haram (forbidden) products, using venture capital could bring huge benefits to Egypt and other poor Muslim countries seeking economic development.

Lack of uniformity in Sharia.

Most Islamic banks have their own Sharia boards to rule on bank policies. Researchers Frank Vogel and Frank Hayes believe the four schools of Sunni Islamic law (Madhhab) do not agree on Islamic banking practices. They apply Islamic teachings to business and finance in different ways. There are disagreements on specific points of religious law both between the four schools and within them. Also, Sharia boards sometimes change their minds and overturn previous decisions.

Ibrahim Warde asks if boards just rubber-stamp the banks that pay their salaries. Munawar Iqbal and Philip Molyneux say that disagreements between boards about what counts as Sharia-compliant can cause trouble, because customers might doubt if a bank is truly following the rules. If Islamic banks are not seen as truly Islamic, they will quickly lose most of their market.

Late payments and defaults.

In traditional finance, late payments or loan defaults are discouraged by interest that keeps adding up. Muhammad Akran Khan says that controlling and managing late accounts has become a thorny problem in Islamic finance. Although many suggestions have been made to fix the problem of overdue loans in Islamic banks, Ibrahim Warde says:

Islamic banks face serious issues with late payments, not to mention outright defaults, because some people use every legal and religious trick to delay. In most Islamic countries, various forms of fines and late fees have been set up, but they have been banned or found impossible to enforce. Late fees, in particular, have been treated the same as interest. Therefore, debtors know they can pay Islamic banks last because there is no cost for doing so.

Warde also complained:

Many business people who borrowed large amounts of money for a long time took advantage of the shift to Islamic finance. They paid back only the principal and wiped out the accumulated interest. Given the double-digit inflation over the years, this was usually a tiny amount.

How to deal with inflation

Inflation is also a problem for financing. Islamic banks do not copy traditional banks; they actually provide loans without interest or any other fees. Whether and how to compensate lenders for money that loses value due to inflation is a problem that "troubles" Islamic scholars. If lenders lose money by giving loans, businesses will not be able to get financing. Suggestions include indexing loans to inflation, which many scholars oppose because they think it is a form of interest and encourages inflation. Other ideas include measuring loans by commodities like gold, or doing more research to find an answer.

The influence of non-Muslims

Almost all, if not all, customers of Islamic banking and finance are Muslims. But most financial institutions that provide Islamic banking services are Western and owned by non-Muslims. Supporters of Islamic banking believe that the interest Western banks have in Islamic banking is proof of strong and growing market demand, and therefore an "achievement of the Islamic movement."

However, critics complain that these banks lack a deep commitment to the faith of Islamic banking, which means:

The Muslims hired at these institutions have almost no input into actual management. This leads the Muslim public to sometimes have well-founded doubts about how seriously these institutions follow Sharia law. A traditional Malaysian bank offering Islamic investment funds was found to have invested most of these funds in the gambling industry. The managers running these funds are not Muslim.

The interest from traditional banks does not show that Islamic banking is growing stronger. Instead, it shows how similar Islamic and traditional banks are, so the latter can enter the Islamic banking sector without making any real changes to their business. El-Gamal doubts whether the interest of large non-Muslim banks in Islamic finance comes from the profitability of Islamic financial business.

When the market hits a downturn, these banks are more likely to exit the industry. Harris Irfan believes that non-Muslim banks like Deutsche Bank lack an ideological commitment to Islamic banking, which has led and will continue to lead them to exit the industry when the market hits a downturn. In early 2011, during the bursting of the real estate bubble, Deutsche Bank did not keep a single dedicated Islamic structurer or salesperson. Islamic finance has become a luxury that banks cannot afford. Perhaps partly because of this, in February 2011, the Central Bank of Qatar ordered traditional lenders to close their Islamic operations in the country by the end of the year. The central bank insisted that it was too much for traditional banks to follow alternative capital adequacy rules for Islamic finance, and it was hard to supervise and monitor the Islamic and traditional operations of commercial banks because depositors' funds would get mixed together.

Stability/Risk

Opinions differ on whether Islamic banking is more stable and carries less risk than traditional banking.

Supporters, such as Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, believe that Islamic financial institutions are more stable than traditional banks because they forbid speculation and, in theory, the two main types of Islamic bank accounts—current accounts and profit-sharing accounts (mudarabah)—pose less risk to the bank.

In a current account, customers do not earn any return, and there is theoretically no risk of loss because the bank does not invest the funds in the account.

In a profit-sharing investment account (mudaraba), an Islamic bank faces less risk from loan defaults because it shares this risk with the depositors. If a borrower cannot repay some or all of the money the bank lent them, the amount distributed to depositors decreases by the same amount. In a traditional bank, depositors receive fixed interest payments regardless of whether the bank's income drops due to loan defaults.

Critics complain that this stability comes at the cost of the stability of the account balances for depositors or partners—a term Islamic banks often use instead of customers or depositors—who face risks that those in traditional banks do not. a critic named Mahmoud A. El-Gamal argues:

In these institutions, investment account holders have neither the protection of creditors in an Islamic financial institution nor the protection of equity holders represented on the institution's board. This introduces many other well-documented risk factors to the institution.

On the other hand, Habib Ahmed wrote shortly after the 2009 financial crisis that the practice of Islamic finance has gradually moved closer to traditional finance, which exposes it to the same dangers of instability.

When looking at the practice of Islamic finance and its operating environment, one can find trends similar to those that led to the current crisis. Recently, stock and real estate markets in the Gulf region have also experienced speculative events. Finally, the Islamic finance industry has grown rapidly with the innovation of complex financial products that comply with Sharia law. The risks of these new Islamic financial products are complex because these tools involve multiple types of risk.

In any case, several Islamic banks have failed over the decades. In 1988, the Islamic investment company Ar-Ryan collapsed, causing thousands of small investors to lose their savings. Later, an anonymous donor from a Gulf country covered their losses. This was a heavy blow to Islamic finance at the time. In 1998, the management of Bank al Taqwa collapsed. Its annual report stated that depositors and shareholders lost more than 23% of their principal. It was later discovered that management violated bank rules by investing more than 60% of the bank's assets into a single project.

Turkey's Ihlas Finance House closed in 2001 due to liquidity problems and financial distress. Faisal Islamic Bank also ran into difficulties and closed its operations in the UK for regulatory reasons. According to The Economist magazine, the 2009 Dubai debt crisis showed that Islamic bonds could help inflate debt to unsustainable levels.

Economic recession

According to a 2010 survey by the International Monetary Fund, Islamic banks showed stronger resilience on average than conventional banks during the 2007 to 2008 financial crisis, but they faced greater losses when the crisis hit the real economy.

At the start of the 2007-2009 Great Recession, Islamic banks were unscathed. One supporter of Islamic banking wrote that the collapse of major Wall Street institutions, especially Lehman Brothers, should encourage economists worldwide to look at Islamic banking and finance as an alternative model. However, the impact of the financial recession gradually shifted to the real sector, affecting the Islamic banking industry. According to Ibrahim Warde, this shows that Islamic finance is not a panacea, and a faith-based system is not automatically immune to the unpredictability of the financial system.

Concentrated ownership

Munawar Iqbal and Philip Molyneux believe that concentrated ownership is another danger to the stability of the Islamic banking and finance industry. They wrote:

Three or four families own a large portion of the industry's shares. If anything happens to these families, or if the next generation of these families changes their priorities, this concentration of ownership could lead to serious financial instability and potentially cause the industry to collapse. Similarly, the experience of national-level trials is mostly based on the initiatives of non-elected rulers.

Macroeconomic risks

Harris Irafan warns that the macroeconomic risks of Islamic banking create a multi-billion dollar ticking time bomb of unhedged currency and interest rates. The difficulty, complexity, and cost of hedging these currencies and interest rates in a proper Islamic way are so high that as of 2015, the Islamic Development Bank was losing cash rapidly, as if it were funding a war. Without relying on conventional markets, it simply cannot consistently exchange dollars for euros or vice versa. Regional Islamic banks in the Middle East and Malaysia do not have trained professionals to understand and negotiate Sharia-compliant treasury swaps, nor are they willing to hire consultants with experience in this area.

High costs and low efficiency

Mohamed El-Gamal believes that because Islamic financial products mimic traditional ones but operate under Sharia rules, they require extra fees for jurists and lawyers, plus costs for multiple sales, special purpose vehicles, and ownership documentation. There are also costs linked to the special structures Islamic banks use for late payment penalties. Because of this, their financing costs are often higher than traditional products, while account returns are often lower.

El-Gamal also argues that another reason for the inefficiency and higher costs of Islamic banking, and why it always lags behind new financial products in the traditional industry, is the reliance on classical nominal contracts like cost-plus financing (murabaha) and leasing (ijara). These contracts follow classical texts written during a time when financial markets were very limited. They cannot untangle various risks, whereas modern financial markets and institutions like money markets, capital markets, and options markets are designed specifically to do that. On the other hand, improving the efficiency of these contracts or products alienates pious customers who believe they should follow classical forms.

In a major part of the financial market—home buying—Islamic finance could not compete with traditional finance in countries like the UK, Canada, and the US as of 2002 in the UK and 2009 in North America. According to Humayon Dar, the monthly payments for Sharia-compliant leasing contracts used by the Islamic investment banking division of Ahli United Bank in the UK were much higher than equivalent traditional mortgages. According to Hans Visser, the cost of Islamic home financing in Canada was 100 to 300 basis points higher than traditional financing, and 40 to 100 basis points higher in the United States. Visser believes Islamic loan financing costs more because Islamic loans have higher risk weights compared to traditional mortgages under international standards for minimum bank capital requirements set by Basel I and Basel II. In some cases, the Islamic profit rate is the same as a traditional mortgage rate, but the closing costs are several hundred dollars higher.

Reports by M. Kabir Hassan in 2005 and 2006 show that Islamic banks dominated by cost-plus financing (murabaha) are not very efficient. The banks studied had an average cost efficiency of 74% and an average profit efficiency of 84%. Although Islamic banks are less efficient at controlling costs, they are generally more efficient at generating profits. A later report on efficiency indicators like cost, allocation, technology, pure technology, and scale noted that, on average, the efficiency of the Islamic banking industry is relatively low compared to traditional banks in other parts of the world.

Other studies found that the efficiency of Islamic banks is, on average, slightly lower than traditional banks in non-Muslim majority regions, measured by bank revenue minus the profits paid to depositors.

This includes studies of Malaysian banks from 1997 to 2003 and Turkish Islamic banks between 1999 and 2001.

In contrast, a multi-country study covering a similar period from 1999 to 2005 found no significant difference in overall efficiency, according to a 2008 study that measured the cost, revenue, and profit efficiency of 43 Islamic banks and 37 traditional banks across 21 countries.

Common explanations for the flaws in the Islamic banking industry from the Islamic finance movement, as noted by M. O. Farooq, are:

Industry problems and challenges are part of a learning curve that will be solved over time.

Unless the industry operates within an Islamic society and environment, it will be hindered by non-Islamic influences and cannot operate according to its true nature.

While the truth of the second explanation cannot be verified until a complete Islamic society is established, Feisal Khan points out regarding the first defense that the industry has shown little evidence of progress since that argument was first made in 1993. That year, critic Timur Kuran highlighted problems in the industry, noting that Islamic banks are basically similar to traditional banks in practice, marginalizing equity-based, risk-sharing models while embracing short-term products and debt-like instruments, while supporter Ausaf Ahmad defended the industry by saying it was in the early stages of transitioning from traditional banking.

Seventeen years later, Islamic finance supporter Ibrahim Warde lamented that murabaha and similar sales products have not disappeared but have grown significantly, and today they make up the bulk of most Islamic banking business.

Most critics of Islamic banking call for more orthodoxy, doubling down on efforts to strictly enforce Sharia law. Some people, like M. O. Farooq and M. A. Khan, blame the industry's problems on treating loan interest as forbidden interest (riba) and the impracticality of trying to enforce that ban.

Finally, I am borrowing an article written by Talha Ahmed Iftikhar on his blog:

Not long ago, my friend wanted to buy furniture from a company that advertised that customers could use interest-free loans for up to 6 months provided by several banks to purchase their products. He decided to get this loan from an Islamic bank to stay compliant with Sharia, but he was shocked when the bank told him his invoice would increase by 30% because it included a profit margin. Then, the deal would be converted into a credit sale contract, and the amount would be paid back in installments over 6 months.

I asked the CEO how an Islamic bank could charge a 30% profit to someone who did not have the money to pay the full amount at once. Isn't this the strong exploiting the weak? Is this the same as the riba or usury that is condemned? His answer left me very confused: "We charge the same fees as the market." For those in need, we have a charity department. They call it a transaction. I left the meeting right away.

Murabaha is not a form of trade, but a banking product designed to trick Muslims into interest-based debt traps. Using it as an Islamic financing model must stop immediately, or at the very least, banks should be banned from using Islam to sell this product. Usury, or riba, is at the heart of an unfair economic system where the strong get stronger at the expense of the weak. Top officials at Islamic banks admit that this product hides the same interest rates used by other banks, which clearly shows these products will never help achieve social justice. view all