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Summary: This Singapore prayer room guide visits the Muslim prayer space inside Marina One in the Central Business District. It keeps the mall setting, restaurant and supermarket context, musalla details, and travel notes intact.

There is a shopping mall in Singapore's Central Business District called Marina One. It mostly has restaurants, supermarkets, and therapy centers. The mall has a prayer room for Muslim guests to perform namaz.

It was my first time here and I spent a long time looking for it. I even ended up in the parking lot, and only found the right place after an Indian security guard helped me. Actually, it is quite easy to find. Go down the escalator, turn right into the mall, and you will see the prayer room at a glance.

































There is a round window right next to the prayer room, so it is easy to spot.

The sign for the prayer room is a simple drawing of a mosque dome with a star and crescent symbol. Push the door open and you will see two doors, one on the left and one on the right. It has been a while since Eid al-Fitr (Kai Zhai Jie), but the decorations are still up.

The door on the right is for women, and the one on the left is for men. I pushed open the men's prayer room and found a shoe cabinet and a simple washing area to perform wudu. There is a restroom near the prayer room, so it is very convenient to perform wudu.

On top of the shoe cabinet, there are perfumes, prayer caps, and a mirror. It is quite thoughtful. I entered the prayer room and found it very clean. Everyone is quite disciplined, and the environment is well-maintained. It is quite spacious inside and can hold many people.

The prayer room is simply furnished. It is just a basic place for namaz, so there are no decorations, no minbar, and no mihrab. There are some simple decorations on the wall, along with a prayer schedule. You can see this in the various airport prayer rooms I have shared before.

Let's look back at the book corner at the back of the prayer room. There are many books, including a booklet that is a selection of the Quran translated into Malay. Some books are free to take. These are actually prepared as dawah materials.

I found Chinese books among the dawah materials. One was produced by the Muslim Converts Association of Singapore. I did not know Singapore had such an organization. I will definitely go visit them if I have the chance next time. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This Singapore Muslim travel guide revisits Sultan Mosque, one of the city's best-known mosque landmarks. It keeps the author's update note, mosque visit details, and historic prayer-hall context from the original article.

I have posted about this place before, but this is an update to my previous content.

In Chinese, both the African country Sudan (which has a flag that looks like Palestine's) and the Islamic royal title Sultan are transliterated using the same two characters, 'Sudan'.









Although Sudan is a Muslim-majority country, Sudan and sultan are actually two different words. Would it be better to use a different character for the latter when transliterating?

The Sultan in Sultan Mosque has no direct connection to the country of Sudan thousands of miles away; this Sultan refers to the Sultan of Johor, whose name was Tengku Hussein.

In 1819, British colonial official Stamford Raffles landed in Singapore and signed a treaty with the local ruler Temenggong Abdul Rahman and Sultan Hussein of Johor. In exchange for an annual payment and the allocation of the Kampong Glam area, the British were granted permission to establish a base on the island.

Following this, a large number of Muslims from the Malay Archipelago moved here to follow the Sultan and the Temenggong. Between 1824 and 1826, Sultan Tengku Hussein built a mosque within the palace grounds with funding from the British. As Singapore became a center for Islamic commerce and culture, the old mosque gradually became too small to meet the needs of the community.

In 1924, the authorities approved the reconstruction of the mosque on the original site, and the new building was completed in 1928. Sultan Mosque has remained largely unchanged since then and was designated a Singapore national monument in 1975.

When I visited this mosque, I found they had set visiting hours for tourists and even seemed to have people there to explain things. I didn't follow the tourist route, though. I went straight to the ablution room (wudu room) and then into the prayer hall.

The prayer hall has a high ceiling, which makes sense for a tropical area to help with cooling. It is different from our hometown in the Northwest, where buildings need to keep the cold out. I feel like the mosques in the Northwest usually have very cramped, low ceilings.

I also noticed this place is clearly well-funded. There is a row of LCD TVs playing lectures and announcements for upcoming public events on a loop. Big fans were blowing hard, but they only pushed around hot air. It was already the end of the year, yet it was still so hot.

I actually saw another mosque in Singapore called the Temenggong Mosque, which is connected to the person who founded this one. I didn't have time to visit it, though. I will take you all to see it next time I am in Singapore. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This Muscat airport prayer room guide records a visit while leaving Oman for Iran. It keeps the author's question about Ibadi Muslim prayer practice, the prayer-room setting, and the transit details unchanged.

When I left Oman for Iran, I visited the prayer room here for the first time. I wanted to see if the way Ibadi Muslims pray is any different. Unfortunately, I did not see it then.



















Later, when I left Iran and returned to Oman, I went to the Grand Mosque in Muscat, the capital of Oman, and saw how Ibadi Muslims pray.

Unlike Sunni Muslims, Ibadi Muslims pray like this:

1. During prayer, Ibadi Muslims just stand with their arms at their sides, not folded or crossed.

2. After finishing their prayer, Ibadi Muslims only turn to the right to say the salam, not to the left.

These are the only two small differences. You could say they are only slightly different from Sunni Muslims who follow the Hanafi school.

I left Oman to head home and went to Muscat airport again. This time I was in a different terminal, and the prayer room was different too. It was much larger, bigger than some small mosques.

This airport is quite nice. You can always smell a faint, pleasant scent because they have incense burners placed everywhere. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This Qatar Doha Airport prayer room guide follows the author's return journey after Iran and Oman. It preserves the ticketing route, airport transit context, prayer-room visit, and Muslim traveler details from the source.

I left Iran and returned to Oman. After a short stay in Oman, I started my journey back home. When I bought my flight home in Oman, I found out I had to transfer in Qatar. I slept for a night on a lounge chair at Doha Airport in Qatar. After I woke up, I went to the prayer room here.

Let me show you what it looks like inside. I have been to prayer rooms in other airports, including those in Oman, Singapore, Malaysia, and Iran, but the prayer room at Doha Airport in Qatar has the largest area for wudu (small ablution) I have ever seen.



















When I entered the prayer room, the decor felt very simple, but it did not look cheap at all; the materials and design were clearly well thought out. Someone was praying in the room at the time, and there was also an old man wearing a felt cap (jianbing mao).

I remembered that my friend from Kashmir, who is now studying for his PhD in Japan, also gave me a hat like that. It is also interesting that this type of hat has appeared on ancient Greek statues.

The prayer room also had a schedule for the five daily prayers, which you can see in many Islamic places of worship. The calendar also shows the Islamic year 1447, which starts from the year the Prophet migrated from Mecca to Medina (July 16, 622 AD).

Actually, the whole airport has several prayer rooms. I ran into more than one just by walking around.

I also visited other parts of the airport, took photos of the big bear, looked at the cars, and even tried the airport light rail. In the end, I made it back home smoothly. With this, my trip has come to an end. I went to Vietnam, Singapore, the Maldives, and Malaysia.

Soon after, I went to Iran via Oman and transited through Qatar to return home. It is a pity that many videos and photos are missing. I will just have to wait until my next trip abroad to take more. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This Oman Muslim travel guide follows a transfer through Muscat and a mosque visit during a short city stay. It keeps the author's route from Beijing, overnight stop, mosque observations, and local worship details in source order.

I left Beijing and transferred at Muscat International Airport in Oman. My flight left the next day, so I slept in Muscat city before having to rush off again. I had almost no chance to see Oman, only catching a few glimpses from a taxi.

I spent a few days in Iran, and when I returned, I had more time, so I finally got a chance to see a mosque in Oman.

I paid in cash and booked the room in person, so I don't remember what the place was called. I only remember that it was a Friday. The sun was shining, and many people came to the mosque because Friday is the day for congregational prayer. The prayer hall was full, so people stood out in the courtyard.

From what I saw, the prayer line included not only locals dressed in Omani style, but also many Indians and Pakistanis. They belong to different sects, as most Omanis are Ibadi. This is a sect independent of both the Shia and Sunni branches.

The Indians and Pakistanis are mostly Sunni, with a small number of Shia.

Before going to Iran, I noticed there were a lot of South Asians in Oman. I wanted to find some local specialties around my hotel, but there were none. It was all Indian restaurants—South Indian, North Indian—or Western fast-food joints. Do Omanis not open their own restaurants?

I finished by going to a restaurant called Istanbul to have some Turkish food, but the place was packed with Indian people. It is not that I dislike Indian food, but I have already eaten so much of it in other countries that I wanted a change.

Since I arrived at the mosque, I decided to go inside and take a look. I waited until there were fewer people and then went inside. It was truly beautiful, and its style, color scheme, and craftsmanship were completely different from the mosques in Iran.

On the walls, besides the small stained-glass windows, I also found the entire Quran carved into the surface (photos 11 and 12). We actually have this back home in China, too; the Great Mosque of Xi'an on Huajue Lane, located inside the Muslim Quarter (Huimin Jie), has Quranic wood carvings in its prayer hall.

























The mosque gate has signs in Arabic, English, and Hindi (photo 14), which shows just how many Indians work and do business here.





After the namaz ended, a young Indian man got busy again, handing out supermarket sale flyers to the people who had been praying. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This Singapore Changi Airport prayer room guide focuses on the Terminal 2 Muslim prayer space. It preserves the airport setting, clear prayer-room signs, male and female rooms, and the author's transit notes.

Singapore Changi Airport is an international hub. It is more than just an airport; it is the first stop for people visiting Singapore. The airport's Jewel Changi commercial complex features a spectacular indoor waterfall that pours down from the roof all the way to the basement. It is a magnificent sight.

Travelers can also ride the free light rail (skytrain) that passes by the waterfall while moving between the airport terminals.

All four terminals at Singapore Changi Airport have a prayer room. Today, I am introducing the prayer room in Terminal 2 (T2).

This place is easy to find because the signs are very clear (Image 2). They say 'dua room' in English, with the Chinese and Japanese characters for dua room next to them.





The prayer room is divided into separate areas for men and women (Image 3). There is a sensor at the door; just wave your hand in front of it, and the door opens automatically.



The entryway of the prayer room has a bench for changing shoes (Image 4) and a shoe cabinet (Image 5).





I have visited prayer rooms at Muscat Airport in Oman, Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran, Iran, the airport in Qatar, and Narita Airport in Japan. Compared to the prayer rooms in Middle Eastern airports, the one at Singapore's airport is quite simple. It has almost no decorations, much like the one in Japan.

The prayer room already has carpet, and various prayer mats are neatly laid out on top of it (Image 7).





While praying, I noticed that the people around me included both travelers and airport staff.

After finishing my prayer, I noticed a cabinet on the left. Inside, there were not only spare prayer mats but also a type of traditional Malay and Indonesian cloth (Image 9). Malay and Indonesian people use this long cloth to wrap around their lower bodies like a skirt when they pray. I once saw this kind of cloth in Qingdao, where I met an Indonesian friend who gave me one.





The cabinet also held various religious books, perfume (using perfume is a practice of the Prophet, which is worth following), and prayer caps. This seems to be a standard feature for prayer rooms in Singapore.

I visited Singapore shortly after Eid al-Fitr, so the decorations were still up in the subway stations, the airport, and all around the city. Even though the holiday had passed, I could still feel a bit of the festive spirit.

I noticed this especially when I left Singapore for Changi Airport.

The decorations in the check-in hall were mostly shaped like lanterns (fanous) and square rice cakes wrapped in palm leaves (ketupat). The displays also featured many fresh flowers and plants, along with a greeting card. Here is a simple translation of the text:

Changi Airport commemorates the holy month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, which began on March 21 this year. During Ramadan, people fast, reflect on themselves, and give to charity.

The arrival of Eid al-Fitr (Malay: Hari Raya Aidilfitri) marks the end of Ramadan. People start the Eid al-Fitr celebration with a prayer of gratitude, then gather with family, friends, and neighbors.

The decorations are inspired by Eid al-Fitr traditions. Changi Airport wishes all Muslims a blessed Ramadan and a happy Eid al-Fitr!

In a few days, I will share a summary of the mosques, shrines (gongbei), and prayer rooms I visited in Singapore. Stay tuned





















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Summary: This Singapore Muslim travel guide visits the mosque described as the oldest mosque in Singapore, located around Kampong Malacca and built in 1820. It keeps the history, location, and mosque observations from the original account.

This place is not far from the underground mosque I mentioned last time. Located in the Kampong Malacca area of Singapore, it was built in 1820 and is the oldest mosque in Singapore. It is older than other early mosques, such as the South Indian-style Jamae Mosque, which I shared before and was built in 1826.

That is a few years later than this mosque.

Back to the main topic, the roof of this oldest mosque in Singapore (Picture 1) looks very much like a traditional Malay hut.



After entering, you can see the renovation plaque on the back of the prayer hall (Picture 2). The mosque was first built in 1820 and finished its renovation in 1984.



The founder of this mosque was named Syed Omar, and he was an Arab merchant.

Today, members of his family are buried in the tomb next to the mosque's minaret (Picture 4).





Let's look at the mosque's notice board. It says in English, Malay, Bengali, and Tamil that staying overnight without permission is prohibited (Picture 6).





This shows that the people who visit this mosque the most are Malays, Tamils, and Bengalis.

Entering the prayer hall, I feel the architectural style is very beautiful, and the door frames tilt toward the ceiling (Picture 8, Picture 9).







I remember seeing this kind of design in some old Western castles. When I came here last time, I remember the Malay imam was very young and polite. I asked him if he was the imam, and he said the imam was busy these two days, so he was filling in.

He also asked if I had encountered any trouble in Singapore and told me I could contact him anytime if I had any problems.

When I visited again this time, the imam was still very young, but it was not the same person as last time.

After the namaz ended, I went to the courtyard to take a look. There were long benches and tables set up (Photo 14), and next to the tables was a vending machine (Photo 15) selling various types of instant food.













Many of the instant foods in convenience stores here in Singapore have halal labels, so it is quite convenient to find a meal.

There is a microwave (Photo 16) nearby, so you can heat up what you buy and sit at the table to eat.



In the next article, I will take you to continue exploring mosques in Singapore. See you then.

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Summary: This Muslim travel guide visits Al-Amin Mosque in Singapore and its Malay-style design. It preserves the source notes on the main building, minaret, prayer hall, and local mosque atmosphere.

Al-Amin Mosque is built in a Malay style, with both the main building and the minaret showing distinct Malay features.

Near the elevator shaft of the mosque, there is a sign written in Jawi script (Figure 3).







At first, I thought it was Arabic, but looking closely, I saw some letters that do not exist in the Arabic alphabet. It is reasonable to conclude that this is Jawi, which uses Arabic letters to write the Malay language, fitting for a Malay-style mosque.

I took the elevator to the second floor and found a small garden (Figure 7). There is a tea dispenser nearby, and the tea tastes similar to Assam milk tea.









Sitting on a chair in the garden to have a drink helped me recover from the fatigue of my journey. When I entered the prayer hall and got ready to take photos, the elderly caretaker saw me holding my phone and turned on the lights so I could get a clearer shot.

I took photos twice, and both times, the man turned on the lights as soon as he saw me.

As you can see, the roof of this main hall looks like a shed, and there is an upper level that serves as a prayer area, likely for women.

The mihrab is quite unique because it is transparent (Figure 17), allowing you to see the lush rainforest on the mountain outside.





















There really is a small hill behind this mosque. It seems Singaporeans have plenty of places to go for weekend outings and camping.

Walking out of the mosque, you can see a poster across the street (Image 18). It says Happy Eid al-Fitr in Malay. Singapore has many electoral districts, and the person on the poster is the representative for the district where this mosque is located. Judging by the name, they appear to be Chinese.



When I last visited Singapore, the Indian festival of Diwali had just ended. Officials from different ethnic groups wore traditional Indian clothing on posters to wish the Indian community a happy Diwali.

In the next article, I will take you to see the Temenggong Mosque in Singapore. Who exactly was Temenggong? Why is there a mosque named after him? I will reveal the answer in the next article. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This Singapore prayer room guide visits the small Muslim prayer space at Singapore General Hospital. It keeps the author's walking route, hospital setting, prayer-room layout, and practical travel observations intact.

My favorite place in Singapore is actually this small prayer room. It was not far from where I was staying, just a short walk away.

This prayer room is next to a parking lot at the Singapore General Hospital. It is a small courtyard with tables and chairs, free tea to drink, and a place to perform wudu (ablution). There is a canopy set up in the yard. Singapore has strong sun and plenty of rain, so the canopy helps provide shade and shelter.









































Deep inside the courtyard is a small room, which is where the prayers take place. There are four pillars in the middle of the room, and prayer beads (tasbih) hang from them. On the front wall, there is a mihrab (prayer niche) and a minbar (pulpit). A curtain on the left side marks the women's prayer area.

The walls are decorated with calligraphy and a clock. Prayer beads also hang on the windows, and there is a book corner to the front right. This small room is a perfect example of being small but complete.

Looking at the book corner, there are quite a few books. I found a small book with a sci-fi cover. It was in Malay, which I cannot read, but it had a lenticular bookmark tucked inside. It showed English and Chinese when viewed from different angles. I do not know who left it there, but it was quite cute.

Outside the window, there is a prayer time schedule. The digital LCD clock might be broken, so they are using this old manual one instead. The clock has a picture of a minaret on it. There are also various straw mats under the corridor. When there are too many people and the room is full, you can spread the mats in the courtyard to pray.

Walking out of the room, there is a restroom on the right, along with a second place to perform wudu. Walk further inside and you will find the women's ablution room.

I guess the people who come here for namaz are mostly families of patients and neighbors living nearby. When I arrived, I saw medical staff performing namaz. The last time I was here, I saw a police officer from Singapore performing namaz.

Leaving the small courtyard, there is a little slope on the right where you can stand and see a jackfruit growing on a tree. The prayer room is just a simple little shed. Many people come and go in the courtyard, and every now and then, little birds fly in and leaves drift down.

This small prayer room is a bit messy, but it feels full of life, and I like it very much. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This Iran Muslim travel guide focuses on the Fatima Masumeh Shrine Mosque complex in Qom. It keeps the original notes on its minarets, dome, scale, Shia setting, and visual mosque aesthetics without changing the source meaning.

The Fatima Masumeh Shrine (Fatima Lingmu Qingzhensi) is the largest building complex in Qom. You can see its towering minarets and massive dome as soon as you enter the city.























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Summary: This Beijing mosque note recalls a Friday visit to Anheqiao Mosque after a trip toward the Summer Palace in September 2023. It preserves the personal memory, route choice, mosque details, and Hui Muslim context from the source.

I visited Beijing in late September 2023. September 29th was a Friday, and I headed out early with a friend to the Summer Palace. By noon, this was the closest mosque.

When I first heard the name Anhe Bridge, I immediately thought of the song Anhe Bridge by Song Dongye. I never expected to be so close to it at that moment.









I remember the elderly man in the wudu room had a thick Beijing accent, just like the characters in those old Beijing TV dramas. We visitors from out of town couldn't quite mimic it. The imam was quite young and spoke standard Mandarin.

There seemed to be an event that day, so the mosque fried some deep-fried dough (youxiang) and put them in bags by the door for anyone visiting to take. It was a pity I had to keep moving and couldn't take any.

This prayer hall is actually quite unique. Most traditional mosques in China have a hip-and-gable roof (xieshan ding), often connected to a shed-style roof (juanpeng xieshan ding). Some smaller mosques just have a simple gable roof (yingshan ding). But this one has an octagonal, three-tiered spire roof (zuanjian ding).

The lighting inside is good because the second and third levels of the roof are fitted with glass to let the sunlight in. The ceiling is also decorated with stained glass and calligraphy.

Before coming here, I actually visited Niujie. The small hexagonal-roofed building at the entrance of the Niujie Mosque was undergoing repairs at the time, so I missed my chance to see it. It was covered up, so I couldn't take a photo. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This prayer room guide covers the second-floor Muslim prayer space at Imam Khomeini Airport in Iran. It keeps the airport route, earlier first-floor mosque reference, wudu notes, and travel details in the same order as the source.

I showed you the mosque on the first floor of this airport last time, when I first landed in Iran. Leaving Iran this time, I had the chance to see the mosque on the second floor. But getting here was not easy.

Let me tell you the story of what happened before I reached the second-floor mosque.























That morning, I took a taxi from Qom to the bus station to catch a ride back to Tehran. My next plan was to go to Turkey. Turkey did not have visa-free entry then, so I spent a few hundred yuan to get an e-visa. I also bought my round-trip flight tickets.

Unexpectedly, I left my phone in the taxi. I tried to find it, but it was gone. Without my phone, I could not show my flight details or visa documents. Not only could I not go to Turkey, but even getting back home became difficult.

My backup phone was not linked to any payment methods, so I could not buy another ticket. I had my credit cards with me, but because of sanctions on Iran, I could not use any credit cards or bank cards from outside the country. What about cash? I had already spent all my Iranian rials.

Luckily, I still had about 1,000 yuan in cash in my small bag, which I got by exchanging the leftover Vietnamese dong I had when I left Vietnam. Otherwise, I would have really been stuck in Iran.

I used that yuan to exchange for some rials, then used the rials at a manual counter to buy a plane ticket to Oman, because Oman is visa-free and I had been there before, so I knew exactly what the entry process was like.

Once I successfully left Iran and reached Oman, everything would be easy because I had my cards with me and could withdraw money there to buy tickets much more conveniently.

Thankfully, everything went as I hoped. I slept one night in the airport terminal, and while I was there, I met a young Kurdish man in the prayer room who was heading to Turkey and then flying to the UK. His family was already waiting for him there. He asked me if Chinese people really eat dog meat.

I told him it is true, but only a very small number of people eat it. It seems foreigners really care about whether Chinese people eat dog meat.

Finally, let me show you the prayer room on the second floor. The prayer rooms in Iran are the most elaborately decorated ones I have ever seen. A staff member inside was holding a plastic box of food and asked if I wanted to eat.

I left the prayer room and headed to the security checkpoint. I passed through easily, and after a short flight, I arrived in Oman. That led to the two posts I wrote about mosques in Oman. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This Muslim travel guide visits Al-Noor Mosque in Hanoi, the only operating mosque described in northern Vietnam. It keeps the original route, mosque details, wudu area, local Muslim notes, and nearby halal food context intact.

Most mosques in Vietnam are in the south. There is only one mosque currently operating in the north, which is the Al-Noor Mosque (Guangming Qingzhensi) I am introducing today.

Picture one shows the mosque entrance. It says Al-Noor, which is the Latin transliteration of the Arabic word for light. You can see from the Vietnamese text at the bottom that Vietnam still uses the term Hoi Giao for Islam.



Picture two shows the minaret of the mosque.



Pictures three and four show the mosque courtyard. A simple canopy covers it to keep it clean, and you must take off your shoes before entering. I guess they have to use the courtyard as a prayer hall because the mosque is quite small.





Pictures five, six, and seven show the inside of the prayer hall. The lighting is not very good, and you have to walk through the prayer hall to reach the area for wudu. Overall, the conditions are not great.







Picture eight shows some religious materials placed at the entrance of the prayer hall. I met the imam here. He is a Cham person, which is an ethnic minority in Vietnam. His hometown is in a village in southern Vietnam. He is young and very kind.



I asked him if there were any Kinh (the main ethnic group in Vietnam) Muslims, and he said one or two Kinh people convert to Islam every month.

Later, I actually met a Kinh Muslim. He came over to greet me, and during our conversation, I could see he was very passionate about his faith. He disappeared for a moment, but when I saw him again, he was carrying some pastries, and a mother and daughter were standing at the door.

It turned out the mother and daughter were there to learn about Islam. The young Kinh man had gone to buy them pastries so they could sit down, eat, and talk.

In photos nine through thirteen, it was time to eat. There are quite a few halal restaurants around the mosque; I thought there would only be one or two before I arrived.











In photo fourteen, the young man treated me to Vietnamese rice noodle soup (pho), which was duck flavored and included bamboo shoots. He asked me if people in China also eat bamboo shoots, and I said of course.



In photos fifteen and sixteen, the next day I ate another Vietnamese specialty across from the mosque: a baguette sandwich (banh mi). You take the baguette brought by the former colonists, slice it open, and fill it with eggs, sausage, vegetables, or grilled meat skewers to finish the snack.





The baguette is very chewy, but it is not very filling, so one is not enough to satisfy your hunger.

In photo seventeen, I should mention the political posters I saw around the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. You can see these posters on every street, much like we used to have back home.



The difference is that the Vietnamese posters actually feature Buddhist monks and Catholic priests, which is a point of similarity yet a difference from what we see in China.

After that, I went to southern Vietnam. Please look forward to hearing about what I saw there. Collapse Read »

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Summary: This Beijing halal food map issue 56 starts after the author's return to Beijing and covers newly tried halal restaurants, including courtyard dining, Tianjin food, Daxing countryside food, Suzhou-style noodles, buffalo fish, Northwest dishes, snacks, and Xinjiang yogurt shaved ice.

After returning to Beijing, I can start my shop-exploring trip again. Nothing is as good as my hometown. In terms of the richness of halal food, no one in the world can compare with my Beijing!

The halal restaurants introduced in this issue are as follows:

1. Jiaqing Courtyard

2. Jinmanlou Tianjin cuisine

3. Dong Ge Shan Yuan B&B

4. Chai’s Fuhai Halal Dishes

5. Niujie Sanwang Lake Cafe

6. Guxiangzhai Tianjin shaved ice

7. Ma’s Muxiangyuan Northeastern Cuisine

8. 024 Hai Xian Music Western Restaurant

9. Jinmen Zhenweizhai

10. LIQA Turkish Restaurant

11. Xinjiang home cooking with a yellow radish

12. Decheng Li Qingzhen Shaomai Restaurant

13. Cinnara Sri Lankan restaurant

14. Bazaar Sweetheart Yili Shaved Ice

1. Jiaqing Courtyard



There is a newly opened Jiaqing courtyard in the Fayuansi neighborhood of Niujie Street. The owner is named Jiaqing, a native of Beijing, hence the name.



His restaurant is a Beijing restaurant, specializing in barbecue, shabu-shabu, Beijing-style home cooking and various traditional snacks.



The yard is not big. You can sit in the yard, enter the house, and go up to the room. There is a terrace.



Their family also has hot rice, which is the leftovers from the past cooked in one pot. Sometimes hot rice with leftovers tastes better than new dishes, and their hot rice is slightly salty.



The skewers taste great, with moderate texture and taste. It’s a great place to have skewers in summer. There is a takeout window outside the yard, selling various Beijing-style snacks, including bean juice.



2. Jinmanlou Tianjin cuisine



Three halal Tianjin restaurants have opened in Beijing, and the highlight of this restaurant is their sea sausage rice.



Sea sausage rice is a specialty of Jiaodong. I have only eaten it in Qingdao. This is the first time I have eaten sea sausage rice in Beijing.



Bazhen Tofu is a famous dish in Tianjin. Bazhen is not necessarily a fixed eight ingredients. Squid tentacles, crab sticks, scallops, and shrimps are more common. The portion is large and filling. This plate is very large, and one plate is enough for three people.



Jinwei stir-fried vegetables is also one of Tianjin's home-cooked dishes. This dish is not salty.



The homemade desserts in the store taste like pudding.

3. Dong Ge Shan Yuan



This is a halal B&B halfway up the mountain in Shengshuiyu Village, Fangshan. Driving up the mountain, the road conditions are not very good.



There are free-range chickens and pigeons in the yard, surrounded by mountains, and the scenery is pleasant.



The boss is a Hui from Haidian. Meals need to be booked in advance. There are grilled lamb chops and various farm-style stir-fries. The average per capita is less than 100.



There are guest rooms available for accommodation, standard rooms cost 380 per night, and the rooms are quite clean.



There is a swing in the yard and a vegetable garden behind it.



There are also pigeons in the small courtyard, but they are not used for eating.



Today's main course, grilled lamb chops, costs 88 per pound.



Stir-fried beef with garlic sprouts, one of the classic home-cooked dishes.



You can choose small or large portions for stewed chicken. This is a large portion and tastes great.



The toon buds were served with eggs. I watched them pick the toon buds freshly from the trees.

4. Chai’s Hock Hai Halal Cuisine



Chai started his business by making beef noodles, but now he has opened a high-end Beijing-style restaurant in Qianmen.



The store's main specialty is roast duck, and you can order half of it.



The chef will fillet the duck in front of the guests.



The pancakes for the roast duck can be refilled for free, and the dipping plate has several more options, but I am still used to just putting shredded green onions and cucumbers, and then dipping them with a little sweet noodle sauce.





A platter of Beijing-style snacks, including pea yellow, donkey rolling, kidney bean rolls and ai wowo.



Dry-fried hairtail, the fish bones are crispy and can be eaten directly. This is a cold dish.



I think their most classic dish is noodles. The noodles with soybean paste are delicious. They have eight kinds of dishes and are hand-rolled.

5. Niujie Sanwanghu Coffee



Sanwanghu Coffee is a chain store, but only the Niujie store has received halal certification.



In recent years, many cafes have opened around Niujie, and they are basically full during the day. Only this shop is relatively empty, so I brought my friends here for a chat, just to have some peace and quiet.



It used to only serve drinks, but recently it has added light meals such as burgers and sandwiches.



The American-style hamburger and fries set meal costs 83 yuan per serving, which is a little expensive.



The burger is quite delicious. The bun is soft and big. You will be full after eating one.



There is a terrace on the second floor of his house with a nice view. If the taste of the drinks is improved, the popularity will be even greater.

6. Guxiangzhai



Guxiangzhai is a Tianjin shaved ice dessert shop that has opened a new flagship store in Hufangqiao.



The old-fashioned tables, chairs and benches are still used in the store.



The store is quite spacious, with shaved ice on the left and Tianjin pastries on the right.



Here you can eat Tianjin’s special cakes, steamed cakes, and twists.





There are so many types of shaved ice and soft ice, and the portions are quite large, so it’s almost the same for two people.



This is taro ice cream with red beans on top.



The steamed cakes are large and look like steamed buns with various fillings inside. The most popular ones are chocolate and durian fillings.

7. Ma’s Muxiang Garden



Ma's Muxiangyuan is a newly opened Northeastern restaurant. It currently has two restaurants, this one is outside Guang'anmen.



They serve a variety of Northeastern home-cooked dishes and hot-pot meat, with Northeastern cuisine being the highlight.



Stir-fried beef and pickled cabbage noodles are a side dish, and their dishes are quite large.



The sweet Guobao Pork is delicious and has a similar texture to what you get in the Northeast.



The lamb liver is delicious. It has no peculiar smell at all, is not fishy or smelly, and the ingredients are fresh.



Dry-roasted sea bass, this fish is particularly delicious and the fish meat is delicious.



The meat slices taste authentic. There is a bit too much onion, which is not necessary. It is a bit overpriced. It should be all meat. The unit price can be adjusted.



Their rice is worthy of praise. It is Northeastern rice, with clear grains and fragrant aroma.

8. #024 Sea String



Hai Xian is a music-themed restaurant. Cui Jian, the godfather of rock music, is one of the shareholders. It specializes in Italian and Lebanese food, both of which belong to the Mediterranean cuisine.



The meat used in this restaurant is Uruguayan halal meat, and the chef is Lebanese. He is also the chef of Sumak Lebanese restaurant. Because there are many embassies of Middle Eastern countries around Sanlitun, where Haixian is located, a team of Lebanese chefs were invited to take care of it.



We chose this place for this group building mainly because we wanted to eat Italian food.



The complimentary bread before the meal can be paired with tapenade.



Lemon mint drink is very pure and has a sour taste, suitable for appetizing.



The setting of the restaurant is carefully designed with Mediterranean blue as the main color.



Hummus sauce platter, this is a classic Lebanese appetizer.



This kind of Arabic pancake is eaten with hummus sauce.



Next are all Italian-style dishes. This one is called porcini risotto, which is like eating Spanish paella. The Italian rice grains they use are larger and have a harder texture.



This one is called a low-carb North African egg, and it contains oriental braised eggs, assorted bell peppers and tomatoes.



Sliced ​​raw marinated Uruguayan beef tenderloin with arugula and Parmesan. The beef underneath is raw. This ingredient is delicious.



Neapolitan style salted fish pizza, a friendly reminder, the salted fish is very salty.



Wagyu beef spinach pasta, this wagyu beef has large particles and good taste, suitable for children.



This is a blue cheese pizza. The blue cheese smells very strong, and most people may not be able to accept it.



Their desserts are highly recommended. The Levant milk rice pudding pictured above is sweet and very delicious. The picture below is a combination of ashtazo, avocado, banana and nuts, which is also very delicious.



9. Jinmen Zhenweizhai



The stir-fry restaurant in the northwest corner of Tianjin has opened in Jiaomen, Beijing. I think this restaurant is the best among the three Tianjin stir-fry restaurants in Beijing.



Tianjin cuisine is characterized by large portions, salty taste, and heavier saltiness, but this restaurant is a bit lighter.



Braised beef ribs, one of the signature dishes, the beef bones are soft and tender.



Bazhen Tofu, the ingredients of Bazhen Tofu in each store are different, but they are mainly seafood.



There are three popular dishes in Tianjin: mutton kidney, mutton liver and mutton tenderloin. The portion of Tianjin food is so big that one plate is enough for two people.

10. LIQA Li Ka



The Turkish restaurant on the first floor of the Rosewood Hotel has a chef transferred from the Rosewood Hotel in Turkey.



The store manager and chef are both Turkish, and there is no halal label in the store. The two Turks told me about Selan, which means it is halal.



Rosewood Hotel is a top luxury hotel, so the unit price per customer is slightly higher, about 300 per person.



The snacks provided before the meal have a crispy texture.



Turkish bread with hummus.



Hummus is a starter, drizzled with olive oil.



The tabouli salad is innovative with the addition of squid tentacles and sliced ​​mango.



Mixed barbecue, with beef and mutton inside, and a piece of bread underneath. I eat this dish often, and my children also like it.

11. A yellow radish



The name of the store is a yellow radish, and the color of the restaurant is also yellow. This is a Xinjiang family restaurant.



Not long after it opened, it became a place for internet celebrities to check in, and there were many beautiful young men and women who came to eat.



There was a yellow radish hanging at the door. I asked the clerk and he found that the yellow radish would be replaced with new ones every day.



The owner's mother is a Muslim from Urumqi and is very good at cooking. This store restores the taste of her home.



This carrot juice is the store's signature drink. It tastes sour and sweet, as if it has added tomato juice.



The shop’s signature dish is meatball soup, and its taste is on the lighter side, making it more suitable for young people.



If you eat meatball soup, you will be given oil tart. Unfortunately, each bowl only comes with one and cannot be ordered a la carte.



The flavor of the peppercorn chicken is stronger, much heavier than the meatball soup.



The stir-fried lamb with celery is delicious and the lamb is tender. The taste of this dish is very similar to the stir-fried yellow beef of Hunan cuisine, and it goes well with rice.



Fried Xinjiang noble pumpkin, the pumpkin has a smooth and slightly sweet taste.



Glutinous rice pearl meatballs with Xinjiang spicy skin. These meatballs are filled with meat fillings, which are salty and delicious.



12. Decheng Li Qingzhen Shaomai Restaurant



The newly opened Chengde chain restaurant specializes in Chengde specialities, including Shaomai and traditional eight bowls



His family also has a store in Dongtucheng, this one in Fengtai.



The food of Chengde people is similar to that of Beijing, and their accent is also very similar to Beijing.



Beef offal soup tastes average and a bit fishy.



The filling of the shaomai is firm, but the seasoning is too heavy, but I still prefer the shaomai from Hohhot.

13. Cinnara Sri Lankan Restaurant



The first halal Sri Lankan restaurant in Beijing is opened in Sanlitun SOHO.



Sri Lankan cuisine has its own unique flavoring, like a fusion of Southeast Asian and South Asian cuisines.



The store is not big, but the setting is exquisite, clean and bright.



The complimentary biscuits are suitable for eating with Ceylon black tea.



The shop assistants here are all dark-skinned Sri Lankans.



Their dishes are more refined and their drinks are delicious.



Colombo Choupas Fried Rice



Sambora coconut



Spicy fried squid



Garlic Butter Prawns



Coconut Ceylon Pancakes

14. Bazaar Sweetheart



A newly opened Xinjiang shaved ice shop in the 798 Art District is owned by a Kazakh girl.



The color is Ili blue. You know without asking that the Kazakh girl is from Ili.



There are Yili-specific yogurt rice dumplings, yogurt shaved ice, naan coffee and Yili handmade ice cream.





The original flavor of yogurt shaved ice is delicious. There are no ingredients added to the original flavor. People who like sweet food can sprinkle dried red dates, raisins, chocolate chips, honey, etc. on top.



There are big blueberries on top of the cake. The taste and environment of this store are very exciting.
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Reposted from the web

Summary: This Kuala Lumpur halal food map issue 8 explains how halal certification works in Malaysia, then follows the author through desserts, Vietnamese food, Lebanese food, Iranian rice, burgers, pastries, coffee, and family-friendly Muslim dining around Ampang.

In previous issues of my Kuala Lumpur Halal Food Map, I've covered how to find halal restaurants in Malaysia. This time, I'll focus on explaining it further. Very few restaurants in Malaysia have official halal certification. Usually, only large chains or big establishments display the certification mark. Most small street-side eateries don't have it. This is because Malaysia doesn't allow private businesses to self-certify as halal. To get certified, you have to pay a fee. The official price is only a few hundred Malaysian ringgit. But if you go through an agent, it can cost tens of thousands. You can guess why there's such a big difference.

So, to save money, many restaurant owners hint that their place is halal in other ways. They might hire waitstaff who wear headscarves or write 'no pork' on the menu. Malaysians know this is common practice and don't only eat at places with official halal certification. Of course, some Malaysians do only eat at certified places. I don't get too hung up on this issue myself. I also don't think it's necessary to question the halal status of food too deeply. For more on this, see the article 'Egypt's Grand Mufti: Don't Be Overly Inquisitive About Whether Meat is Halal.' I've also discussed food issues in my video series.

Here's the list of restaurants featured in this issue:

1. Sugirl Desserts (Malaysian desserts)

2. RUYI ONE (Vietnamese)

3. AL-Amar (Lebanese)

4. MODU (Korean)

5. NASI KANDAR UMAR (Indian)

6. WALLANCE (Fast food)

7. Hai Ji Beef Pan-Fried Buns

8. piccoli lotti (Italian ice cream)

9. Jibby chow (Cantonese dim sum)

10. UNIVERSAL BAKEHOUSE (Bakery)

1. Sugirl Desserts



Mid Valley Megamall is the hardest mall to find parking at in Kuala Lumpur. I came here on a quiet Thursday afternoon and spent over an hour circling before finding a spot. I highly recommend taking public transport if you visit. This small Nanyang-style dessert shop is located at the top of the stairs on the third floor of the mall. It's not too crowded here, making it a nice spot to relax.



This dessert reminds me of the dessert chain Honeymoon Dessert back home. Its flavor is light and sweet, but this shop's desserts have more of a Southeast Asian flair.



Address: Lot T-045A, 3rd Floor, The Boulevard Office Mid Valley City, Mid Valley City, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur

2. RUYI ONE



A new shopping district has opened in Ampang’s education hub. We’ve been here many times; the Spanish restaurant we ate at last time is in this area. It’s not too crowded yet, and there are many boutique shops to explore. This place is one of them, serving Vietnamese food.



We came to this small shop because we wanted to drink Vietnamese coffee and have a casual meal.



This restaurant serves no pork and no alcohol. The coffee is delicious.







I visited Vietnam once and had a wonderful time. There are no halal Vietnamese restaurants in Beijing yet, so finding one in Kuala Lumpur is a must-try.



Vietnamese cuisine has a few signature dishes. The first is the Vietnamese sandwich, along with spring rolls and pho.



The spring rolls and pho here are quite authentic. After all, Malaysia and Vietnam are neighbors, so the flavors aren't too different.



Address: Unit G-15, Ground Floor, The Campus Ampang, Lot 7706, Jalan Kolam Air Lama, Mukim, Hulu Kelang, 68000 Ampang, Selangor

3. AL-Amar



This is a Lebanese restaurant on the sixth floor of Pavilion mall, decorated exquisitely. Pavilion is a popular shopping area swarming with tourists and is very lively.



When taking children out to eat in Kuala Lumpur, I prefer Arabic restaurants. The Mandi rice or grilled chicken here are suitable for kids because they aren't spicy.





Lebanese salads are also good for children. Fahim, for example, loves the cucumbers and tomatoes in the salad.



This is a small portion of Mandi chicken rice. The chicken is especially tender, and it comes with cashews and raisins. The children really like it.

Address: Lot 6.10, level 6, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, 168, Jln Bukit Bintang, Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

4. MODU



MODU is a new Korean restaurant in the TRX mall that's really popular right now. You'll probably wait about an hour for lunch, but you can grab a number at the counter and explore the mall. Your phone will get a notification when your table is ready, and the staff will also call you.





This halal sign means they're applying for certification, but it hasn't been approved yet.



Looking at the menu, it's hard to tell exactly what each dish is.



Most of the diners here are young Asian women. There are definitely a lot of Koreans here.



The restaurant has a lot of space, the decor is really nice, and the staff are very friendly.



We chose a clay pot chicken soup and a black chicken soup. They come with a bowl of sticky rice and side dishes. This chicken has sticky rice stuffed inside, and the soup is really fresh and very mild.



It has ginseng in it, which is great for women's health. A set meal costs about 70 Malaysian ringgit.



The chicken is small, perfect for one person. The meat just falls off the bone – it melts in your mouth.



Address: Lot L2T.04.0, Level 2, The Exchange TRX, Persiaran TRX, Imbi, 55188 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

5. NASI KANDAR UMAR



Nasi Kandar, or 'pole rice,' is a common fast food in Malaysia. It's a specialty of Indian Muslims, about as popular as Lanzhou beef noodles are back home. Most of these stalls are halal.



You just tell the server what you want on your plate, then pay at the cashier. A plate of rice usually costs around ten ringgit, and with a milk tea, it's usually under twenty.



The only downside is that this rice is usually a bit spicy, so it's not great for kids. But I go for it when I can't decide what else to eat.

Address: 37 3G, Jln Sultan Ismail, Bukit Bintang, 50250 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

6. WALLACE



Wallace is a fast-food joint selling burgers and fried chicken. This new spot is celebrating its opening with a deal: three burgers for just 9.9 ringgit.



These burger joints are a hit with everyone in Kuala Lumpur, young and old. Almost all of them are halal, including McDonald's and KFC.



Wallace's fried chicken burgers taste pretty good. The best part is the price – three for 9.9 ringgit. You can't ask for more than that.



My son hasn't quite fallen in love with burgers and fries yet. I wonder if he'll like them later on.



Address: M5A, 11, Jalan Pandan Indah 4/1, Pandan Indah, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

7. Hai Ji Beef Pan-Fried Buns



Next to Lanzhou Hand-Pulled Noodles on Petaling Street, there's a shop called Hai Ji Beef Pan-Fried Buns. These buns are a bit bigger than the ones from Henan and Shandong. They taste great. Petaling Street is a hub for Chinese food, mainly serving Chinese cuisine.



Address: 38, Jalan Sultan, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

8. PICCOLI LOTTI



This Italian ice cream shop on the first floor of Ampang Point is run by Malays. Italian ice cream is famous, mainly because they use good quality milk and don't add extra water. This shop's ice cream is just like that, with over ten flavors to choose from.



On hot days, I love visiting dessert shops like this. They usually also have various coffee drinks and seating areas. Kids love them too.



Address: Ground Floor, Ampang Point

9. JIBBY CHOW



A new Cantonese-style tea restaurant has opened at Ampang Point. This place serves dim sum all day, so we could still enjoy it even though we arrived in the afternoon.



Everyone eating here is Malay. Malays really love Cantonese morning tea.



The shop's decor features traditional Chinese cultural elements, but the servers are all Malay.







You can sit here all afternoon with a pot of Pu'er tea and a few dim sum dishes.



The soup dumplings, char siu bao, and shaomai here are all delicious and steamed fresh.



The chicken char siu bao has a dim sum-like texture and a sweet flavor. It's not quite as good as the lamb char siu bao at Guangzhou Hui Muslim restaurants, which is truly exceptional.



Address: Level 2, Ampang Learning City.

10. UNIVERSAL BAKEHOUSE



This popular bakery in Ampang Learning City has many branches and is usually packed. However, the branch we visited in Ampang wasn't too crowded.



These kinds of fancy bakeries are very popular in Malaysia, especially with young women who love to take photos here.





I like to eat bread with coffee for breakfast, along with a light salad. It leaves me feeling refreshed.



Actually, this shop has very few types of bread. I don't understand why it's so popular.



When you dine in, they give you butter. I like to eat bread with butter, just like I do for breakfast at the hotel.



Their coffee is also quite good. There are several other specialty coffee shops in Ampang Learning City that I'll check out later.

Address: Level 1, Ampang Learning City.
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Reposted from the web

Summary: This Kuala Lumpur halal food map issue 7 covers Limapulo Baba Can Cook, Ali-Han Muslim buffet hot pot and barbecue, Petaling Street halal malatang, Bartolo Lisboa Bakehouse, Village Park nasi lemak, Yunnan rice noodles, An Bang chicken rice, Barraca, and Hai Kah Lang seafood fish head noodles.

The restaurants in this issue are as follows:

1. Limapulo: Baba Can Cook (Nyonya cuisine)

2. Ali·Han Muslim buffet hotpot barbecue

3. Petaling Street Halal Malatang

4. BARTOLO LISBOA BAKEHOUSE (Portuguese cuisine)

5. VILLAGE PARK RESTAURANT (Nasi Lemak)

6. Steaming Era (Chaoshan Cuisine)

7. Yunye·Yunnan Rice Noodles

8. Anbang Paradise Chicken Rice Restaurant (Fujian cuisine)

9. BARRACA (Spanish food)

10. Hai Jiao Ren (seafood stall)

1. Limapulo:Baba Can Cook



This is a Malay-Nyonya restaurant that has been on the Michelin list for four consecutive years. Among Malay cuisines, I like to eat Nyonya food the most, because Nyonya food combines the cooking skills and taste of Nanyang Chinese.





The photo should be the founders. You can see that they are wearing traditional clothes and have Nanyang characteristics.



This restaurant is very popular. In Malaysia, any restaurant that can get Michelin certification is very popular because the consumption here is not expensive, with an average of 20-40 ringgit per person.



There are many things on the menu. In order to avoid being confused, I chose the most popular dishes based on the recommendations of most netizens.



Most of the people who come to eat at noon are office workers nearby, so there is no need to queue.



A cup of Nanyang-style teh tarik. The teh tarik here tastes good and moderate in taste. I don’t like drinks that are too sweet.



Satay chicken skewers, satay means grilled skewers. The white one should be Nyonya cake. The chicken itself is marinated. To eat satay, it needs to be paired with sauce. This dipping sauce is slightly sweet and not spicy. I am not used to the spicy taste in Southeast Asia.



This is one of the store's signature dishes, called shrimp tart. It is made of shrimp and crispy shell into the shape of an egg tart, with vegetable salad inside. You can dip it in the sweet and salty sauce. It is very delicious.



The restaurant is located near the World Trade Center. Parking is not easy around. You need to park in a parking lot in a nearby building. The passage in that parking lot is very narrow and the parking fee is relatively expensive. It is best not to drive here.

Address: Limapulo (Limapulo Baba Can Cook)

2. Ali·Han Muslim Buffet Hot Pot



A newly opened Chinese northwest-style self-service hotpot on Petaling Street. The owner is from Qinghai. The northwest flavor is mainly reflected in his northwest noodles such as Youxiang and bitter bean rolls.



You can choose between hot pot and barbecue, or both, and the per capita consumption is around RM40.



There is a wide variety of ingredients, including everything you should have, including desserts and ice cream.









You can choose the mandarin duck pot as the bottom of the pot, barbecue and hot pot are both available together.



The location is opposite the famous Chinese Ramen on Petaling Street, but it can’t be found on the map.

Address: Baker Street (Petaling Street)

3. Halal Malatang



Petaling Street is a Chinese food street, and next to the Muslim hotpot there is a Malatang that does a good business.



This Malatang used to be a Ma Jinlong franchise store, but it is no longer there. There are two branches in the same street.



The style is the same as in China, you can choose your own ingredients, and the vegetarian and meat dishes are the same price.



In fact, the taste is not as good as the spicy hotpot in China, but the business is booming, and the diners are mainly Malays.

Address: Baker Street (Petaling Street)

4. BARTOLO LISBOA BAKEHOUSE



This was the first time I saw a Portuguese restaurant, so I came over to try it out of curiosity. This shop specializes in Portuguese bread and also has simple meals.



The owner looks like a serious Portuguese at first glance, and the menu is all in Portuguese. I asked the waiter to recommend a local specialty to me.



This egg-like pancake is called Bolo do caco. It is a round flatbread with a shape like a fire and a soft texture. It is a traditional Portuguese staple food.



Portuguese egg tarts are probably the most famous snacks in Portugal. This authentic Portuguese egg tarts are larger, thicker and sweeter than the egg tarts we eat in China.



I ordered a strawberry milkshake for my son. The freshly squeezed strawberries and milk tasted sour and sweet, and it was quite delicious.



The prices in this store are on the high side, with the three items costing a total of RM64.

Address: Bartolo (Bartolo Lisboa Bakehouse)

5. VILLAGE PARK RESTAURANT



This is a very famous nasi lemak restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. I have been here twice, both times at noon. It is very popular and you have to queue for more than ten minutes during peak hours.



Although there are many people, the service is still very good. The waiters are unhurried and arranged in an orderly manner.



Nasi lemak is the national dish of Southeast Asia. Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia all consider themselves to be the birthplace of nasi lemak.



My experience is that just choose their signature chicken drumstick nasi lemak, the others are not as delicious as the signature.



This meal only costs RM12, so the value for money is really hard to beat.



Their store opens at six in the morning, and you can have hot spring eggs dipped in bread for breakfast.





For drinks, we recommend a cup of white coffee, which is the most popular coffee category in Southeast Asia.

Address: 5, Jalan SS 21/37, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

6. Steaming Era



When eating seafood in Kuala Lumpur, the first choice is a restaurant opened by Chaoshan people. This steamed seafood restaurant is the most delicious seafood restaurant I have ever eaten in Kuala Lumpur.





Malay seafood restaurants often sell dead frozen products. Only Chaoshan people prefer fresh seafood, because the fresher the seafood, the less fishy it smells.



The method of steaming seafood is also simple. Put the raw porridge at the bottom of the pot, put the seafood on top, cover it, wait a few minutes, and you can eat the seafood on top. After eating the seafood, the porridge at the bottom is also ready, and the seafood soup will flow into the bottom of the pot, which is delicious.



There are many kinds of seafood in this store, and there are many ways to eat them. The seafood can be eaten raw or steamed.





More than a dozen kinds of dipping sauces, mix and match as you like.



Their signature milk tea is better than other milk tea shops outside. It tastes sweeter and sweeter. The waiter even asked me what I thought of the taste. I said it was very good.



This thing is very similar to northwest pasta. It is made by Chaoshan people with Hui oil flavor. It is a thin layer with a hollow inside, which can be eaten with vegetables.



The seafood casserole porridge, the seafood in it can be tasted and the ingredients are fresh, definitely not made from frozen products.



The prawns and scallops are both alive and will jump around when put in the steamer.



After steaming the seafood, I just had porridge. This steamed dish, paired with their dipping sauce, is more delicious than eating Malatang.









Seven-star spotted fish is a fish that we all like to eat. It has no small spines and the meat is tender and firm. It has no shortcomings except that it is expensive.



I have been to this steamed seafood restaurant twice, and each time I ate different dishes, they all tasted great. If you don’t eat expensive ingredients, the per capita consumption would be around RM70.

Address: Marina Seafood (Marina Seafood Restaurant Steam Times)

7. Yunye·Yunnan Rice Noodles·Sichuan Small Bowl Dishes



Friends who want to eat Yunnan rice noodles in Kuala Lumpur are in luck, a Yunnan rice noodle shop has opened at the back of the Bank of China Building.



They specialize in a variety of small bowl dishes, but the rice noodles are what attracts me the most.



The diners at noon are mainly office workers nearby. This kind of small bowl dish is convenient to choose and the price is cheap.





The rice noodles are made in the traditional Yunnan way, with mint added and the beef soup stewed very thick.

Address: 1, Megan Avenue, C-0-7, 189, Jln Tun Razak, 50400 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur

8. An Bang Paradise Chicken Rice Restaurant



This chicken rice restaurant is one that I often visit. It is a pork-free restaurant run by a local Chinese. The chicken rice is very delicious.





This is also a traditional Nanyang Chinese craft that has been practiced in Ampang for two generations.



For chicken rice, you can choose either plain-cut chicken or grilled chicken legs. I have tried both, and they are both delicious, and the accompanying dipping sauces are amazing.



The store's homemade herbal tea and Fuzhou fish balls show that their ancestors are from Fujian.





This is for dine-in dining, and you can also choose to take it out. They will pack it in a sealed box, and the taste will not be affected at all after it is opened.



The Ampang Paradise Chicken Restaurant street reminds me of Penang, because this area is also a gathering place for Chinese.

Address: 158, Jalan Besar Ampang, Pekan Ampang, 68000 Ampang, Selangor

9. BARRACA



This is a newly opened Spanish restaurant in Ampang, and its main specialty is of course paella.



I have eaten Spanish restaurants in Indonesia before. There are also some restaurants in China that make Spanish paella, but it is difficult to eat authentic ones.



Facts have proved that Spanish paella is just that, not that good, because the rice they use is a bit hard, and it mainly depends on the freshness of the ingredients.



This shop has just opened and is very popular. There are only a dozen staff working in the kitchen.



The bread that comes with the meal is a standard feature of Western food.





This thing that looks like sushi is topped with octopus. Spanish and Portuguese people like to eat octopus.



This goat cheese salad is very delicious, mainly because the cheese has a rich milky aroma. Spain has a well-developed animal husbandry and first-class dairy products.

Address: L1-08 The Campus Ampang Jalan Kolam Air Lama, Mukim, 68000 Kuala Lumpur, Selangor

10. Hai Kah Lang



Hai Jiao Ren is an Internet celebrity Michelin restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, specializing in a variety of seafood and Nanyang Chinese snacks.



The difference between this store and Steam Times is that this one is a food stall, while Steam Times is a more high-end business dinner. In the steaming era, seafood was steamed, but this restaurant mainly specializes in spicy stir-fried, fried and various curries.



When Chinese people eat seafood, of course they still have to eat it fresh.



Haijiaoren is quite large, but it is still full, and you have to queue for more than ten minutes for lunch.



We followed the recommendations on Dianping and chose the most popular signature dishes.



A cup of Hainan tea, Hainan tea is white coffee, and a cup of lemongrass lemonade.



This is called soft fried crab, and you can eat it with the shell because it is really soft.



I still chose my favorite seven-star grouper. This kind of fish is delicious no matter how you prepare it, as long as the ingredients are fresh.



This is mixed seafood, with kway teow at the bottom. The kway teow is like vermicelli or rice noodles. The soup base is Tom Yum Goong. This bowl is very generous, with shrimps, crabs, shells, and fish in it. The meal costs 60 ringgit per person.

Address: Hai Kah Lang (Taman Cheras) Hai Kah Lang Seafood & Fish Head Noodle
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Reposted from the web

Summary: This 2025 Hangzhou halal food map follows the author's trip through Phoenix Halal Snacks, Northwest Family, Maizhou Yilongxuan, Silk Road Flames, Kosto Middle Eastern Cuisine, Pin Hui Wei, Phoenix Mosque, the tomb of Buhetiya'er, and Hangzhou Hui Muslim heritage.

I have been to Hangzhou many times. This time, I came to this popular city as one of the top 50 insurance social media influencers to receive an award. This city in the Jiangnan region left a great impression on me. The citizens are polite, the women speak in a pleasant tone, and drivers actively yield to pedestrians. Ten years ago, I only experienced this abroad. Hangzhou was the first city in China to implement a "cars yield to pedestrians" policy. As early as 2010, Hangzhou included this in traffic regulations for mandatory enforcement, with violators facing a 3-point deduction and a 100 yuan fine.

Ten years ago, as a pedestrian in Hangzhou, I naturally felt this measure was great. However, after listening to a few Hangzhou drivers complain, I realized that forced compliance is not ideal. Drivers feel that some pedestrians, protected by traffic rules, cross the street recklessly, looking down at their phones and walking slowly, leaving drivers frustrated but unable to speak up. In fact, the improvement of character should come from within. When vehicles yield to pedestrians out of politeness, pedestrians should also show gratitude. This is a natural civilized behavior. When it becomes forced, it may look like a quick improvement in character on the surface, but it is not voluntary and instead breeds resentment. Once there is no supervision, things will immediately return to the way they were.

I rented a car in Hangzhou this time and drove for three days. Experiencing Hangzhou traffic from a driver's perspective, I feel that the road rules in Hangzhou are more complex than in Beijing. It is hard to gauge the limits for yielding to pedestrians and using a phone while driving. I expect to receive a ticket in a couple of days.

1. Phoenix Halal Snacks (Fenghuang Qingzhen Xiaochi)



This shop used to be called "Halal Snacks" and is now called Phoenix Halal Snacks. They have been operating in Hangzhou for at least 10 years. The location is right at the back door of Phoenix Mosque (Fenghuang Si). The owner is a local Hui Muslim from Hangzhou, and according to the elders at the mosque, he is very devout. The shop prohibits smoking and alcohol. They mainly serve various Jiangnan-style snacks and some Northwest Chinese food, as most of the staff are from the Northwest and the waitresses wear headscarves.



They have started making hand-pulled noodles (lamian) again. Some of the photos were taken by me previously.



Hangzhou beef pan-fried buns (niurou jianbao) are quite large with thick skins, unlike the smaller ones found in Henan and Shandong.



I recommend trying the beef steamed dumplings (niurou zhengjiao), which are made more delicately than the pan-fried buns.



The clay pot dishes (shaguo) come in many flavors and taste good.



The beef vermicelli soup (niurou fensi tang) is quite similar to the version in Nanjing.



Lamb steamed dumplings (yangrou shaomai) are my favorite snack at this shop. They have a nice shape and the meat is tender; the lamb is likely sourced from the Northwest.

2. Northwest Family (Xibei Renjia)



If you want authentic halal Hangzhou-style food, I recommend Northwest Family (Xibei Renjia) by West Lake. Even though the owners are from the Northwest, the restaurant opened in Hangzhou in 1992. After more than thirty years, they are well-established here, and their Hangzhou-style dishes are truly delicious.



West Lake vinegar fish (xihu chuyu) is a famous Hangzhou dish. It is a real blessing to find a halal version right by West Lake.



West Lake beef soup (xihu niurou geng) is a must-order Hangzhou dish. I have had it in Beijing restaurants since I was a kid, but it tastes thicker here in Hangzhou.



Poached chicken (baizhanji) is a common dish in the south. Southern chicken tastes better than northern chicken.



Shrimp with fruit (shuiguo xiaren)

3. Maizhou Yilongxuan



This is a Northeast-style restaurant run by Hui Muslims from Qiqihar. I asked and found out they are related to the restaurant Gulanxuan, but Gulanxuan has already closed down.





This restaurant is located in the Xihu District. Their old branch in the Higher Education Park has closed.





The roasted lamb hooves (kao yangti) are great. Northeast-style barbecue never lets me down.



Chive pockets (jiucai hezi) are also one of the more popular staple foods here.



Sweet and sour pork (guobaorou) is a famous Northeast dish that almost every Northeast restaurant serves. However, the meat slices here are too thin, so it is not very satisfying to eat.

4. Silk Road Flames, halal barbecue, crawfish, and fusion dishes.



I wanted to eat at a halal Korean restaurant called Pu Liu Liu Korean Food after the awards ceremony, but they close at 8:30 p.m., so we changed our plans and came to this Lanzhou barbecue shop for a late-night snack.



Hangzhou restaurants are really competitive with their designs, and this shop clearly put a lot of effort into its decor.







They serve authentic Lanzhou open-flame barbecue, the kind with small skewers on iron sticks.



They also blend in local Jiangnan-style crawfish, with garlic, thirteen-spice, and spicy flavors to choose from. The crawfish tasted great and the ingredients were very fresh.



However, the snails still had a very strong muddy, fishy smell.



The roasted lamb chops and apricot skin tea (xingpishui) were both good, and the average cost per person was around 100 yuan.



5. Kosto Middle Eastern Cuisine.



This is a Middle Eastern Arabic restaurant located near Phoenix Mosque (Fenghuang Si), and the environment feels a bit rustic.



The dining area is on the second floor, and there are two tables by the door downstairs, but Hangzhou is quite hot in the summer, so sitting outside isn't cool.







The vegetarian appetizer platter includes falafel, which is a fried food I really like.



They serve mandi roasted chicken with rice. You can find this dish in Beijing too, but the one in Hangzhou is a mini portion.



This is his shop, Kesi Tuo Pizza, and the taste is quite good.



Overall, the food tastes fine. Some people say the prices are a bit high. Our table for two cost three hundred yuan, but we ordered too much. You can actually eat well for one hundred yuan per person.



6. Pin Hui Wei Halal Northwest Cuisine



The most amazing restaurant I ate at during this trip to Hangzhou was Pin Hui Wei. It is truly the top tier of the Hangzhou dining scene.



This is a chain brand in Shanghai and Hangzhou with an investment of tens of millions. They put a lot of thought into every aspect, starting with the design. The design team for Pin Hui Wei comes from the Blackstone Creative Design Studio, and this restaurant has become a signature project for them.



Pin Hui Wei specializes in halal Northwest cuisine and is an alcohol-free restaurant. It is very popular, so you need to wait for a table during peak hours.



Even though the design is unique and clever, the prices are very affordable, with an average cost of under one hundred yuan per person.



The prices at Pin Hui Wei are lower than similar halal restaurants in Beijing, but the food quality is very high.





There is a tandoor oven (nang keng) at the entrance where they bake bread on the spot, which is hard to find in Beijing.



With this freshly baked flatbread (nang) and a cup of tea, you have a full meal.







The Hui Muslim style sweet and sour meat sandwich (suan la jia sha) and the hand-grabbed lamb (shou zhua yang rou) are both delicious. The texture of this hand-grabbed lamb is just as good as what I ate in Dongxiang, and this portion costs 108 yuan.



Pin Hui Wei has many branches in Hangzhou and Shanghai. I went to the largest one, the Intime (Yintai) store, which has a parking lot at the entrance.

7. Phoenix Mosque (Fenghuang Si)



Phoenix Mosque is in a great spot. It is the first historic building at the north end of Hangzhou's famous Southern Song Imperial Street (Nansong Yujie). Hangzhou currently has two mosques. The other one is the newly built Hangzhou Mosque, located on East Canal Road in Jianggan District. To the northeast of Phoenix Mosque, there was historically another mosque called the Hui Muslim Prayer Hall (Huihui Baifotang). It was originally located next to the Hui Muslim New Bridge (Huihui Xinqiao). The mosque has been torn down, and only the name of the bridge remains.

















The rear main hall is the highlight of Phoenix Mosque. It dates back to the Yuan Dynasty and was built using the beamless hall (wuliangdian) technique, which also features West Asian architectural styles.





Phoenix Mosque is currently closed to tourists. It is also closed for Friday congregational prayer (Jumu'ah), as everyone is directed to the new Hangzhou Mosque for prayers. Jumu'ah starts at 1:00 PM, so travelers visiting Hangzhou should keep this time in mind. The new mosque is currently under renovation and is not open. For now, prayers are only held at a temporary prayer site in Haifu Building.







8. Tomb of the Arabian Sage Buhetiya'er



There are two ancient tombs near West Lake in Hangzhou. One belongs to a Persian man named Buhetiya'er. He came to China during the Southern Song Dynasty to practice medicine and preach. He passed away here, and his two attendants are buried with him.

Buhetiya'er, whose full name was Emir Buhetiya'er Sailuoniya Naluonike, passed away in 1329 (the second year of the Tianli era of the Yuan Dynasty). He was from Bukhara, which is in modern-day Uzbekistan. His epitaph records that his family served as officials for generations and held a prominent status.



The tomb is usually closed, but there is a contact number on the gate. The caretaker lives nearby and will come over to open the gate quickly, even though he is not a Hui Muslim.













9. Ding Henian Tomb Pavilion



Near West Lake is another ancient tomb of a Hui Muslim, the tomb of Ding Henian. Ding Henian (1335-1424) was a famous Hui Muslim poet during the Yuan Dynasty and the founder of the Henian Tang pharmacy in Beijing. Henian Tang was established between 1405 and 1408, making it over two hundred years older than Tong Ren Tang and even older than the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.



Ding Henian came from a very wealthy family that served as officials for generations. His father was a darughachi in Wuchang. The Ding family once spent a huge fortune to support the Yuan Emperor, so they were entrusted with important responsibilities. Ding Henian settled in Hangzhou in his later years to study Islamic law until he returned to Allah at the age of 89.













Henian Tang is located at Caishikou in Beijing, which was the site of ancient executions. Legend has it that during the Ming and Qing dynasties, families of some prisoners would bribe the executioner before the sentence was carried out. They asked him to stuff a steamed bun (mantou) into the neck cavity of the deceased when the head fell to prevent blood from splashing and the soul from lingering. This is likely the origin of the human blood bun mentioned by Lu Xun. Henian Tang originally provided these buns, but they were not meant for eating. Later, rumors spread that the blood-soaked buns could cure illnesses, and people began fighting over them. Henian Tang also provided funds to bury prisoners who had no family, acting as a charity.

When I was a child, I heard another legend about Henian Tang from the elders. Someone knocked on the door in the middle of the night asking for medicine for knife wounds. The next day, the shop assistant realized the money he received was spirit money and that he had seen a ghost the night before. Because of this, old Beijingers have a saying: 'Going to Henian Tang to ask for knife wound medicine—death is at the door.' If you look at this from an Islamic perspective, the assistant might not have seen a ghost, but possibly a jinn.
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Reposted from the web

Summary: This Beijing halal food map issue 52 introduces an AI restaurant-search tool and then covers JM CAFE & BAKERY, Zanjin Ningxia spicy hot pot, Xinjiang Aimaier Barbecue, Samarkand, Tianjin yellow-broth ramen, Lianying shaomai, Jingzhenxuan, and more local halal restaurants.

My official account now has an AI chatbot. You can ask questions in the chat, and the AI will help you find restaurant information to make searching easier.



It is still in the testing phase, so the answers might not be perfect. Even so, it is much better than the old keyword replies. Otherwise, I would have to set up countless keywords to handle all kinds of unusual questions.

The halal restaurants featured in this issue are as follows:

1. JM CAFE & BAKERY

2. Zanjin Ningxia Spicy Hot Pot (lahuhu)

3. Xinjiang Aimaier Barbecue

4. Samarkand (Hamuerhan) Workers' Stadium Branch

5. Tianjin Fengwei Yellow Broth Ramen (huangtang lamian)

6. Roma Restaurant Bar

7. Lianying Steamed Dumplings (shaomai) · Grassland Red Pomegranate

8. Zhizi Barbecue Zhang

9. Mufu Halal Spicy Hot Pot · Beef Noodles

10. Highland yak meat revolving mini hot pot

11. FIRENZE Italian Restaurant

12. Jingzhenxuan

1. JM CAFE & BAKERY



JM is a chain brand founded by a Hui Muslim. JM are his initials, and the owner is a big fan of Jay Chou, so the shop always plays his songs.



This is the White Pagoda Mosque branch. The cafe and bakery are close to each other. The owner says he insists on using halal ingredients, does not sell alcohol, and all drinks in the shop are non-alcoholic.



Their bread and desserts taste great. I tried everything for you. The business is booming now, and it is a popular spot on social media.





The cafe has a terrace on the second floor where you can take photos with the White Pagoda in the background.





Everything is a non-alcoholic drink.



They do not have a halal sign hanging outside, but the owner promises that all ingredients in his shops are halal and insists on not selling alcohol. I think this approach might be more reliable than just hanging a halal sign.





The owner of JM says they will soon open new branches on Niujie and Daji Lane. They are expected to open in August, and the Daji Lane shop will be quite large. I am really looking forward to it.

2. Zanjin Ningxia Spicy Hot Pot (lahuhu)



This is a Ningxia-style spicy hot pot (malatang) shop. Its specialties are Ningxia cold skin noodles (liangpi), spicy paste (lahuhu), and stir-fried rice with fermented chili (zaolajiao).











Ningxia-style spicy hot pot does not use sesame paste. It uses chili oil, which is very similar to Sichuan-style skewers (chuanchuan).

3. Xinjiang Aimaier Barbecue



This is a unique Xinjiang barbecue shop. You pick your meat skewers from a freezer when you walk in, and then they grill them for you.







Eating barbecue here is quite satisfying because they use charcoal-grilled skewers. It is a chain store, and they have another location at Dawanglu.



4. Samarkand (Hamuerhan) Workers' Stadium Branch



If you want to see the best-decorated halal restaurant in Beijing, just come to the Samarkand (Hamuerhan) Gongti branch.



Samarkand is a high-end brand under the Western Mahua group. They first opened at the Fengtai headquarters base, which also has a lot of style, but none are as luxurious as this Gongti branch.











The highlight of the Gongti branch is the afternoon tea. I chose the one called Chief's Afternoon Tea, which is enough for 4 to 6 people to eat, drink, and chat for the whole afternoon.



The set includes sand-boiled coffee, black tea, desserts, and fruit.



They also have yogurt with milk skin (naipizi suannai), which is now a standard item in Northwest restaurants.



Overall, Samarkand focuses more on style than substance, and the taste of the dishes needs improvement. However, I still really like the series of fast food restaurants from Western Mahua.

5. Tianjin Fengwei Yellow Broth Ramen (huangtang lamian)



Yellow broth pulled noodles (huangtang lamian) are a specialty of Tianjin, and now there is a halal version in Beijing.



This shop is run by people from Tianjin and Qinghai. The Tianjin staff handle the seasoning, while the Qinghai staff handle the pulled noodles and barbecue, keeping the flavor true to Tianjin style.



The reason the broth for these pulled noodles is yellow is because curry is added to it.





The sauce brushed on the barbecue is on the sweet side.

6. Roma Restaurant Bar



This Roma Bistro is run by a Pakistani friend. Although the place is small, the menu features a mix of dishes from Africa, Mexico, Russia, Turkey, India, Pakistan, and Italy. It is surprisingly delicious and cheap.













Their set meals are a great deal, costing only 50 to 60 yuan per person. The Pakistani kitchen staff are very particular about their cooking; the biryani is excellent, and the drinks are well-made.









7. Lianying Steamed Dumplings (shaomai) · Grassland Red Pomegranate



Lianying Shaomai, a famous restaurant from Ulanqab, has opened a flagship store in Qianmen that specializes in halal Mongolian food.



I highly recommend their Inner Mongolian pot tea (guochai), which is brewed fresh to order and contains milk tofu and beef jerky.



The Mongolian meat sausage and hand-grabbed meat (shouba rou) are also signature dishes, and all the ingredients come from Inner Mongolia.





Steamed dumplings (shaomai) are their signature dish. You can watch them make them fresh in the open kitchen, and my favorite is the lamb leg steamed dumplings (shaomai).



The most expensive dish is the whole roasted lamb for 2,000 yuan, which is actually a fair price. The meat is very tender and the skin is crispy.



You can also watch Mongolian dancing while you eat.



The stir-fried wild onion with lamb (shacong chaoyangrou) is also delicious.



The Inner Mongolian style sweet and sour beef (guobaorou) is made with strips of beef.



The lamb spine hot pot (yangxiezi guo) has a light flavor that is just right. You can add more meat after finishing the spine, making it a great choice for seniors and children.



The second floor has private rooms and a terrace for parties. It is very spacious and has an underground parking lot, with an average cost of under 100 yuan per person.





8. Zhizi Barbecue Zhang



The tomato hot pot restaurant at Caishikou has turned into a halal iron plate barbecue (zhizi kaorou) shop, but they still serve the tomato hot pot.





I saw paddlefish (yazuiyu) on the menu and decided to try it since I had never eaten it before.





The paddlefish (yazuiyu) meat is tender and has no small bones, so it is good for kids. The meat is marinated beforehand.



The rattan pepper beef (tengjiao niurou) comes from Xingji at Niujie.



Someone helps you grill the whole time, the service is pretty good, and it costs about 100 per person.



9. Mufu Halal Spicy Hot Pot · Beef Noodles



A newly opened halal spicy hot pot (malatang) in Wangfujing is owned by the same person as the beef noodle shop next door, who is from Linxia.



The owner studied Islamic scriptures in the past and has been running this shop in Wangfujing for three years.



Their spicy hot pot has many options. You can choose the dry-mixed Tianshui style or the Sichuan style. You can also pick the spice level. The mild version uses Gansu chili peppers, which are fragrant but not too spicy, and you can choose even spicier levels.









Their grilled skewers are especially delicious because the ingredients are high quality. The seasoning added to the spicy hot pot tastes just like Chongqing small noodles (xiaomian), which I really like.



10. Highland yak meat revolving mini hot pot



Alihan Grilled Meat and Mixed Noodles in Jinsong has been open for thirty years and is always busy. They recently added a yak meat conveyor belt hot pot.



There are many types of dishes and the prices are not expensive; you can eat for a few dozen yuan.







They even have two flavors of kvass (kawas) to choose from.



What attracts me most is the yak beef rolls. They taste great in the hot pot, have a good chew, and are better than the meat at typical conveyor belt hot pot places.





Their mixed noodles (banmian) and barbecue are also signature dishes, and you can choose either.

11. FIRENZE Italian Restaurant



This is the first halal Italian-themed restaurant in the capital. It used to be an Italian restaurant that struggled, but now Pakistani owners have taken over. They kept the Italian flavors and added Indian and Pakistani dishes.









The lamb chops and pasta are very Italian. It is rare to find such authentic halal Italian food in Beijing.





Seeing the crispy balls (pani puri) served with this dish reveals the chef's background.



The shop serves a special orange Americano. They stick to the Pakistani restaurant tradition of serving no alcohol. In the summer, you can sit in the small garden courtyard and eat barbecue. The average cost is over 100 yuan.

12. Jingzhenxuan



I spent Eid al-Adha (Qurban Festival) in Doudian. In the morning, I went to Jingzhenxuan and had their freshly made meat porridge and fried dough (youxiang).





Jingzhenxuan is located inside the Doudian Mosque, and they are very particular about their ingredients.



The owner gave Fahim a bottle of homemade sour plum drink (suanmeitang). It had a rich flavor and was great for cooling off.









After the Friday prayer (Jumu'ah) at noon, we came back to Jingzhenxuan to eat their traditional halal dish, braised lamb strips (pa yangrou tiao).



Their stir-fried dishes are authentic, generous, and clean. If you have a large group, you can come here for the beef head feast, which requires at least 10 people to finish.


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Summary: This Muslim knowledge guide translates and reviews Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq's discussion of whether riba is the same as interest, why Islamic finance scholars disagree, and why the article argues that there is no true consensus equating all interest with riba.

This is one of a series of articles where I translate foreign scholars' questions about so-called Islamic finance. I will share more works from time to time. These articles show that scholars have never reached a consensus on whether interest is the same as usury. The discussions are deep and thought-provoking.

This is a repost of an old article. The original was deleted, so I have edited the content.: The Riba-Interest Equivalence: Is there a consensus?

Author: Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq is an associate professor of economics and finance at the University of Bahrain and teaches in the Islamic banking department. He served as the director of the Islamic finance center at the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance. Before that, he lived in the United States for 20 years, worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and taught at Upper Iowa University. He is also a member of the technical working group for the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).
Main text:

One academic view defines usury as any profit made without a transfer of value. This includes not only interest but also transactions involving speculation, capital gains, monopolies, hoarding, and rent-free land.

Islamic banking is different from traditional interest-based banking. It is based on the Islamic claim that interest is forbidden. Of course, usury is clearly and indisputably forbidden.

There is absolutely no dispute regarding certain types of forbidden usury. Since this article does not need to explain every relevant Islamic term in detail, I will note here that interest is classified as either Riba al-nasia (interest on deferred payments) or Riba al-fadl (interest related to the exchange of goods, especially in barter trade). The latter was added mainly based on the Hadith.

In modern jurisprudence, the scope of Riba has expanded to include all forms of interest, such as high or low rates, nominal or real, and simple or compound. Riba al-fadl has also been extended to more than six types of goods based on qiyas (analogical deduction).

However, Ibn Abbas, a main companion of the Prophet and an early Islamic jurist, along with a few other companions like Usama ibn Zayd, Abdullah ibn Masud, Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, and Zayd ibn Arqam, believed the only illegal riba was riba al-jahiliyyah, which is a form of riba an-nasia [Saleh, p. 27]. The orthodox position popular today is the opposite of this record.

What is usury and what is its scope? Are interest and usury exactly the same, or is one stricter? Another word is riba. Is bank interest specifically usury? Traditional texts from the same school of thought equate riba with interest in general [Ahmed, p. 28], using the two terms interchangeably. When explaining why usury is forbidden, the literature addresses the reasons for forbidding interest, assuming the two are exactly the same.

Advocates of the Islamic banking and finance movement often claim there is a consensus that usury is the same as interest. In this article, we examine the truth and validity of this claim. In other words, the subject of this article is not whether interest is forbidden, but whether a consensus exists that usury is equal to interest.

Consensus—is the claim that interest equals usury true?

The question of whether interest is usury is important beyond just academic discussion or debate. In fact, there is a tendency to claim the debate is already over, or that there is no room for further argument. Here are some examples.

The general consensus among scholars is clearly that there is no difference between riba and interest. [Muhammad Arif]

Islamic law does not allow usury, and economists now generally believe that riba is not limited to usury but also includes interest. [Chiara Segrado, "Islamic Microfinance and Socially Responsible Investments", August 2005]

The famous scholar Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi believes the issue of banning interest is settled. He says there is no rule that allows any reformer to reinterpret it or find an excuse to claim otherwise. He points out that this is a matter that has passed the test of consensus among the Ummah, both today and in the past. [Syed Tanveer Ahmed. Attempts to defend interest are in vain,]

Jurists and economic experts agree that interest is the same as what is called usury in Islamic law, and it is strongly condemned. [Mabid Ali al-Jarhi and Munawar Iqbal. Islamic Banking: Answers to Some Common Questions, Islamic Development Bank, Occasional Paper No. 4, 2001.

Historically, all schools of thought have consistently recognized that riba and interest are the same. Based on this consensus, the Islamic Fiqh Academy of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) recently issued a ruling in its Resolution No. 10 (10/2) supporting the historical consensus on the prohibition of interest. [Iqbal and Molyneux, page 9; IFC/2000]

Riba (usury), or bank interest if you prefer, is forbidden by the texts of the Quran and Sunnah. This is the conclusion reached by all jurists. [Nyazee, page 1]

Scholars established an academic consensus that both types of riba are not allowed, which ended any debate. [Zuhayli, Abdulkader Thomas, page 29]

The ban on riba al-nasia basically means Islamic law does not allow a predetermined positive return on a loan as a reward for waiting. In this sense, according to the consensus of all jurists, usury has the same meaning and significance as the modern concept of interest. It makes no difference whether a loan is for personal consumption or business purposes, or whether the loan is provided or accepted by a commercial bank.

Discussions about economics and finance are full of this kind of pious and absolutist language. However, the reality is not like this, and claiming a consensus exists is a common practice among scholars. The concept of consensus or unanimous agreement can only be viewed from a factual level, regardless of whether this consensus exists or has existed. The use of the word consensus itself inspires awe in believers because, according to the principles of jurisprudence, the concept of consensus carries the idea of religious infallibility and is therefore binding; opposing it might lead to being cast out by the orthodox.

While a detailed explanation of the concept of consensus in legal discourse is not the focus of this article and cannot be covered here, the question of whether there is a consensus on equating usury with interest—which would mean Islam forbids interest—requires a basic understanding of consensus. On one hand, ordinary Muslims easily misunderstand these issues and get misled. On the other hand, if we do not recognize and address the reality of the nature and problems of the concept of consensus from the start, then other pious scholars or even experts might distort these issues. To fully explain the doctrine of consensus, I encourage readers to read my book, Towards Our Reformation: From Legalism to Value-Oriented Law and Jurisprudence, published by the International Institute of Islamic Thought in 2011, specifically the chapter titled The Doctrine of Consensus: Is There a Consensus? This chapter covers the doctrine of consensus.

When it comes to consensus, people run into doctrinal problems right from the start. There is no consensus on the definition of consensus. Some define it as the consensus of the companions of the Prophet. Others define it as the consensus of scholars. Still others define it as the consensus of the entire world. Some believe consensus is reached through active participation, while others think silence in the face of any dissenting voice is acceptable. While some think consensus is binding on contemporary people, others believe that once a consensus is achieved, it is inviolable and binding forever.

By the 3rd and 4th centuries of the Hijri calendar, several orthodox schools of thought emerged, and each school had a broad consensus within itself. However, the existence of multiple schools of jurisprudence is not evidence of consensus, but rather evidence of a lack of consensus.

If you flip through The Hedaya (translated by Charles Hamilton, Darul Ishaat, Karachi, 1989), one of the main texts of Hanafi law, you can pick almost any topic at random. You can then see if the three elders of the Hanafi school—Imam Abu Hanifa and his two students, Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Muhammad—agree on most of the issues covered in the book. The reality is that no matter which definition you choose—the consensus of the companions, the scholars, or the entire Ummah—there are not actually many topics or issues where a consensus exists.

This is not to suggest or assert that consensus has not played a vital role in history, or that it has no role at all. Instead, this is to help people clearly realize that one neither needs nor should claim the sanctity of a concept when that concept simply does not have such recognized sanctity. as explained in the chapter on consensus [Farooq, 2010], except for a few broad and basic issues, there is almost nothing that can reach a consensus. Therefore, one needs to be cautious when accepting any claim that there is a consensus on something.

In fact, it is reported that Imam Hanbali, the founder of one of the four orthodox schools, made a cautionary assertion: Anyone who claims there is a consensus is a liar.

The position that this interest is riba is a general, orthodox stance. However, any claim of consensus regarding the equivalence of riba and interest should be treated with great caution. This is especially true because even the orthodox position cannot clarify any workable and agreed-upon definition of usury.

This may surprise many people, but as a prominent contemporary Pakistani orthodox jurist and scholar wrote: Despite the rampant activities in Islamic banking and finance, and despite the general agreement on the prohibition of usury, there is no agreement on the exact meaning of usury. For example, the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a questionnaire in 1992, and the very first question was: What is the meaning of riba?

One would have thought that the Islamic Fiqh Academy or other religious groups would have formulated a definition for guidance, especially for investors. Although the academy's rulings are not binding on anyone and are only suggestions, a definition could have been refined through discussion for the benefit of all to suit modern transactions. A clear statement on the meaning of riba in the form of a definition would be very helpful, even for banks, especially Western banks. Unfortunately, no such definition was formulated. [Nyazee, 2000, p. 2]

Nyazee explained further: this might sound like an exaggeration, but it is not. Many scholars today insist that riba is not what we call interest in modern terms. However, most modern scholars insist that interest is forbidden. Even these scholars are not entirely sure which transactions riba covers. This uncertainty comes from the ambiguity surrounding riba and its rules.

Just as voices advocating for Islamic banking and finance grow stronger, other voices have existed in the past that challenge the relevance and overall Islamic nature of these institutions and their operations. Although only a few legal experts have provided fatwas (religious decrees), the literature on Islamic economics and finance has so far been unconvincing. It has failed to successfully clear up the doubts about the equivalence of so-called interest and usury, or perhaps not enough voices have been heard. [I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, Part 2, page 179.]

This may be the only area in Sharia or law that involves risks worth hundreds of billions of dollars. many Sharia experts can accumulate significant worldly wealth. [See Owen Matthews, "How the West Runs Islamic Banking," Newsweek (October 31, 2005)]

While the orthodox position on the evolution of riba is not necessarily tainted by secular considerations, contemporary Islamic banking and finance (IBF) discourse does note the "debate over 'selling fatwas'... 'fatwa wars' and so on" [Warde, page 227].

The classical orthodox position centers on riba, while modern, contemporary discourse centers not only on riba but also on "riba-interest." Contemporary Sharia experts have little to say about the political tyranny or the concentration of wealth among the patrons of the IBF movement.

Different positions on riba and interest

Ibn Abbas [passed away in 687 AH]. Abdullah ibn Abbas was the cousin of the Prophet and was born two years before the Hijri calendar (622 AD). He is better known for his vast knowledge of traditions than for the controversial political role he played after the Prophet died.

Ibn Abbas and some of the Prophet's companions—Usama ibn Zayd, Abdullah ibn Masud, Urwa ibn Zubayr, Zayd ibn Arqam, and leading Meccan scholars—believed the only illegal riba was riba al-jahiliyyah (usury of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance).

The lender would ask the borrower on the due date: 'Will you pay back the debt or increase the debt?' The increased interest was usually achieved by charging accrued interest on interest that had already been calculated when the loan agreement was made. In contrast, riba al-Nasaiah and riba al-Fadl were considered legal according to the six items specified in famous hadith: gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates, and salt.

This liberal interpretation of riba relies on a hadith narrated by Ibn Abbas himself, which in his view had replaced the previous hadith. The authenticity of this final hadith about usury is generally not established, but it is interpreted in contradictory ways. It essentially says: 'There is no usury except for nasiah (nasiah is understood here as the usury of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance).' Opponents of Ibn Abbas's interpretation of this hadith argue that it places more emphasis on riba al-nasi'a rather than replacing the previous hadith. [Salih, pp. 26-27]

To better understand the position of Ibn Abbas, it is important to understand that if his position is true—and we have no reason to believe it is less authentic than other hadith or accounts about usury—then all views equating usury with interest cannot stand. This hadith can be found in Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Buyu, #2178. According to the position of Ibn Abbas reported in this hadith, there is no riba except for transactions involving deferred payments. Therefore, this position of Ibn Abbas denies the other form of riba al-Fadl. Schools of thought representing orthodox views believe all forms of interest or unreasonable deferred payments are forbidden. This general stance contradicts the position held by Ibn Abbas. Essentially, the account from Ibn Abbas suggests that only riba al-jahiliyyah, or pre-Islamic usury, is illegal. (Sahih, p. 27)

If only riba al-jahiliyyah is considered forbidden, then when a borrower cannot pay back a debt in full, the prohibition only applies if the principal amount increases or multiplies in an exploitative environment. In other words, a total ban on interest cannot be inferred from the ban on riba al-jahiliyyah, which is also called forbidden usury in the Quran. This is why the position of Ibn Abbas and other companions of the Prophet, who did not consider riba al-fadl to be forbidden, is so important. Riba al-fadl established a broader ban on riba, claiming to include all interest or specified excesses. As Nyazee reflects:

Definitions given by early jurists are now considered by many scholars to be unsuitable for modern transactions. In fact, most scholars limit this definition to the area of riba al-fadl as they understand it. [Nyazee, 2000, p. 2, fn.#7]

Given the ambiguity in the definition and understanding of usury, the position of Ibn Abbas rejecting the ban on riba al-fadl is a thorn in the side of the orthodox view. Therefore, there is a tendency to dismiss his claim by saying he changed his mind later, or by arguing he only meant to emphasize the presence of riba in transactions involving deferred payments. Fazlur Rahman discusses the position of Ibn Abbas in detail in his article "Riba and Interest" [Rahman 1964] and exposes the fallacies of those who try to explain away the variant position of Ibn Abbas. See also Farooq, 2007a.

Usama ibn Zayd:

Regarding the same hadith from Ibn Abbas mentioned above, another companion of the Prophet, Usama, also held the same view. Further discussion on this point can be found in an article by Dr. Raquib uz Zaman, "Monetary and Fiscal Policies of the State: Claims and Reality" [Zaman, 1988]. The implications of this view are the same as those of Ibn Abbas discussed above. [See Abdullah Saeed, p. 30]

Zayd ibn Arqam:

The riba prohibited by the Quran is known as riba al-Duyun, riba al-Jahili, or riba al-Nasiah. Some followers of the Prophet believed this was the only prohibited usury. They relied on a statement attributed to Ibn Abbas after Usama ibn Zayd, which means: "There is no usury except in Nasiah." [Saleh, op. cit.]

This argument also reflects the views of Zayd ibn Arqam, Bara ibn Azib, and Ibn Zubayr among the companions of the Prophet. [Dr. Engku Rabiah Adawiya Engku Ali, "riba and its Prohibition in Islam," International Islamic University Malaysia].

This view means the same thing as the opinion of Ibn Abbas discussed above. See also Saleh, pages 26-27.

It is reported that Bara ibn Azib held the same view on usury as the companions mentioned above. [Saleh, pages 26-27; Ingu Ali]

It is reported that Urwa ibn al-Zubayr held the same view on usury as the companions mentioned above. [Saleh, pages 26-27; Ingu Ali]

It is reported that Abdullah ibn Masud held the same view on usury as the companions mentioned above. [Saleh, pages 26-27] Dawud ibn Ali [passed away in 270 AH]

Dawud ibn Ali is better known as the founder of the Zahiri school. An article titled Zahirism by Dr. Omar Farrukh explains the Zahiri view on usury in detail.

The issue of usury: Usury is forbidden. However, a tradition regarding it creates difficulty. Related to this, the Prophet Muhammad said: '(You may) exchange gold for gold, silver for silver, wheat for wheat, barley for barley, dates for dates, and salt for salt, only in equal amounts and on the spot.'

For all other goods, you can trade as you wish, provided the barter happens on the spot. Early jurists concluded from this tradition that no quantity of any good should be bartered for a larger amount of the same good; otherwise, the surplus taken would be usury. However, if you exchange a certain amount of forged gold for a larger amount of unrefined gold, the surplus is a gain, or better yet, a wage for craftsmanship. they believed the six goods mentioned by the Prophet were only examples; therefore, exchanging copper, coffee, leather, apples, or wool for a larger amount of those same goods was also considered a form of usury by analogy. On the other hand, Dawud ibn Ali believed the Prophet Muhammad named those goods intentionally. If he had intended to extend the list, nothing would have stopped him from doing so. Therefore, if a person exchanges a certain amount of goods, such as iron, corn, apples, or pepper, for a larger amount of the same goods, the surplus is not usury, but a gain. [Farrukh, undated]

According to al-Zahiri, the forbidden usury in riba al-Fadl (barter exchange) only applies to the six goods specified by the Prophet in the hadith. Because the Zahiri school rejects analogical reasoning, it refuses to extend usury to other goods. This contradicts the IBF movement's stance of broadly banning all forms of excess (usury), including interest. Dawud al-Zahiri was very controversial, and many orthodox scholars were highly critical of him. However, later on, Imam Ibn Hazm also accepted Zahirism and became a more important symbol of the school than al-Zahiri himself. Ibn Hazm also took the same position as al-Zahiri. In other words, according to Zahirism, the scope of the prohibition is much more limited or narrow than the traditionally expanded prohibition.

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal [passed away in 273 AH]:

Even among classical scholars, there is a lot of room for disagreement regarding the definition and interpretation of usury. Imam Ahmad is considered the founder of one of the orthodox schools of jurisprudence. His position is that only riba al-jahiliyyah is illegal usury.

The Quran strongly condemns usury, but other than contrasting usury with charity and mentioning excessive doubling, it barely explains the meaning of the word. Commentators describe a pre-Islamic practice of delaying payment for a debtor in exchange for an increase in the principal (riba al-jahiliyyah). Because this practice was recorded as already existing at the time of revelation, it is a specific example of what is forbidden. Therefore, Ibn Hanbal, the founder of the Hanbali school, declared that this practice—paying or increasing interest—is the only form of usury and is undoubtedly forbidden. [Vogel and Hayes, pp. 72-73, citing Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, died 1350, I'lam al-muwaqqa'in 'ala rabb 'alamin, edited by Taha 'Abd al-Ra'uf Sa'd, Beirut: Dar al-Jil, 1973, 2:153-4]

Some argue that even if the validity of analogy as a source of law is accepted, extending the prohibition beyond the six commodities might violate one of the conditions for a valid analogy. The fifth condition for a valid analogy is that the legal wording of the original case must not be changed once the causal relationship is determined. The reason is that, in both letter and spirit, the textual prohibition takes precedence over analogy. Analogy is invalid when there is a textual law. Likewise, it is invalid if the legal wording of the original case is changed...[For example]... the Prophet only permitted the killing of five specific types of reptiles within the holy sanctuary. The analogy of these reptiles cannot be extended to other animals because the causal relationship changes the text's wording. Consequently, the number of animals exempted by the Prophet would exceed five. Therefore, this cannot be allowed. [Hassan, 1986, p. 23]

Once again, the argument for a total and general ban on interest goes against this position, as long as pre-Islamic interest (riba al-Jahiliyyah) is illegal.

Ibn Qudamah [passed away 1223 AD]:

He is a famous scholar of the Hanbali school. He believes that when a loan involves items that are neither weighed nor measured, the creditor should get back the original value. Although this view only applies to items that are not weighed or measured, it influenced the later, more general view of Imam Ibn Taymiyyah discussed below.

"If the borrowed item is neither weighed nor measured, one may choose to ask for an equivalent to be returned on the day of repayment, or ask for the value of the item on the day it was borrowed." Ibn Qudamah argues that for items without measurement or weight, there can be no equivalent, so the debtor must return to the creditor the value of the item when it first existed, which is the value at the time the loan contract was made. [W. M. Ballantyne, Commercial Law in the Arab Middle East: The Gulf States (London: Lloyds of London Press, 1986), pp. 125-6; *refer to Al-Mughni, Vol. 4, pp. 357-8]

Imam Ibn Taymiyyah [passed away 1328 AD]:

Imam Ibn Taymiyyah needs almost no introduction, and his views build further upon those of Ibn Qudamah. He explains that a lender should be able to recover the original value or its inflation-adjusted value, which relates to the difference between nominal and real value. From his perspective, it follows that there cannot be a total ban on interest. This means that nominal interest, which only covers the inflation premium, would not be forbidden. In this case, you cannot say interest is forbidden, but positive real interest is. Ibn Taymiya, an independent Hanbali scholar whose views are often supported by legal modernists, argued that a lender should recover the original value.

There is reason to believe Ibn Taymiya's view should be adopted because the lender is not involved in the trade and does not make a real profit from it. If he cannot cover losses caused by inflation, he will be even less willing to provide interest-free loans. [W. M. Ballantyne, Commercial Law in the Arab Middle East: The Gulf States (London: Lloyd's of London Press, 1986), pp. 125-6]

Ebusuud Efendi, Mufti of Istanbul from 1545 to 1574 AD:

Perhaps the oldest statement of this kind was made by Ebusuud Efendi, the Mufti of Istanbul between 1545 and 1574 AD, who held the title of Sheikh ul-Islam toward the end of his term. Ebusuud defended this practice of collecting interest, especially for charitable foundations (waqf), arguing it was a practical necessity. As expected, this minority view, while endorsed by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman, was rejected by most scholars in the Arab world who continued to support interest-free loans and traditional partnership financing. Because of this, European banking models were not widely adopted in the Islamic world until the 18th century. [el-Gamal, 2000; online, page 2]

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan [1817-1898 CE]:

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was a reformist leader of the Aligarh Movement in India and the founder of Aligarh Muslim University. The confusing issue of banning usury or any transaction involving usury was solved by translating the word 'riba' as usury and distinguishing it from the Western concept of interest. This was the line of thinking adopted in India by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and others in his school of thought, such as Nazir Ahmad and Syed Tufail Ahmad Manglori. Some Egyptian scholars (ulama), such as Tawfik Affendi and Sh. Islamil Khalil, along with modernists in Turkey, expressed the same view. [Fazlur Rahman Gunnauri, pages 24-25]

"... His focus on social cohesion, social progress, and social justice influenced his resistance to the standard prohibition of usury (interest) held by scholars until then. He asserted that this ban should only apply to the debts of poor people who borrowed money out of necessity. It should not apply to those who contribute to public interest by constantly expanding commercial activities. [Charles Tripp, Islam and the Moral Economy: The Challenge of Capitalism [Cambridge University Press, 2006, page 26, citing J. M. S. Baljon, The Reforms and Religious Ideas of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (Lahore, 1970), pages 34-49] Muhammad Abduh [1849-1905] and Muhammad Rashid Rida [1865-1935]

Muhammad Rashid Rida:

It is claimed that according to the Grand Mufti of Egypt Muhammad Abduh (who passed away in 1905) and his disciple Muhammad Rashid Rida, what was forbidden was the form used during the Age of Ignorance. Nabil Saleh summarizes the views of Abduh and Rida by stating that, according to them, the first increase on a regular loan is lawful, but if a decision is made at the due date to postpone it for a further increase, this is forbidden. This view is clearly based on reports in the commentary of Tabari regarding how usury was practiced in the pre-Islamic period. These scholars did not explicitly and openly suggest that interest is acceptable without any restrictions. [Saeed, p. 43; For similar observations, see also Saleh, p. 28; El-Gamal: 'Rashid Rida on Usury']. Abdullah Saeed discusses the following based on Muhammad Rashid Rida (who passed away in 1935), a prominent scholar and disciple of Shaikh Muhammad Abduh.

'... Among the authentic hadith attributed to the Prophet regarding usury, there is one that seems to mention the terms loan (qard) or debt (dayn).' The fact that no loan or debt is mentioned in hadith related to usury led a minority of jurists to argue that the usury actually forbidden refers to certain forms of sales mentioned in the hadith literature. [Cited from Rida, al-Riba wa al-Mu'amalat fil al-Islam, Cairo: Maktabat al-Qahira, 1959, p. 11] Abduh's views are primarily known through the works of his disciple Rida. Their views did not receive any blanket approval. The reality is the opposite. In this context, they did not agree with any simple equation between riba and interest, and they even approved of certain forms of interest.

Whatever Abduh's exact intentions were, his ambivalence about equating all forms of interest with usury echoes the ongoing reassessment of the limits of legality in a changing environment. [Tripp, ibid., p. 127]

Ulama (scholars) from India and Mecca [1920s AD]:

Some scholars believe that only consumer loans fall under the prohibition of usury, because borrowers may be at a disadvantage for various reasons and are vulnerable to injustice and exploitation. This position and the basic argument may be questionable, but in this paper, each different position is not studied in detail. Instead, the facts being presented contradict the claims of a consensus regarding the equivalence of riba and interest.

Sheikh Muhammad Abu Zayd (1930):

He was a sheikh from Damanhur, Egypt. He earned the anger of the orthodox for his book 'Al-hidaya 'irfan fi tafsir al-Qur'an bil-Qur'an'. In 1930, Abu Zayd tried to use independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) to explain current riba practices, insisting that only excessively high interest is illegal. [Jansen, J. J. G., The Interpretation of the Modern Egypt, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1980, p. 89, mentioned by Jay Smith in January 1996,

Dr. Marouf al-Daoualibi:

In the 1930s, Syrian scholar Marouf al-Daoualibi suggested that the Quran only forbids interest on consumer loans, not interest on investment loans. In the 1940s, Egyptian jurist Sanhuri argued that only compound interest should be forbidden.

Shaikh Mohammad Abd Allah Draz was a member of the Grand Ulema institution and a professor at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Shaikh Draz earned his doctorate at the Sorbonne University. [Saleh, p. 29] mentions that his position contradicts the idea that usury is the same as interest. His position was mentioned in an appeal to the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which opposed treating all interest in the country as part of Sharia.

Zaidan Abu Karim Hassan:

[Saleh, p. 29] mentions this scholar's different position in his book. Abdullah Yusuf Ali [passed away in 1953]

Abdullah Yusuf Ali is perhaps the author of the most popular English translation of the Quran. Instead of equating riba with usury, he distinguishes between them, writing in footnote #324 of The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary [Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, 2nd edition, 1988]:

Usury is condemned and forbidden in the strongest terms, and there is no doubt about this prohibition. When we talk about the definition of usury, there is room for disagreement. According to Ibn Kathir, Hazrat Umar found this matter difficult because the Messenger left this world before the details of the issue were fully resolved. This was one of three issues he hoped to receive more revelation about from the Messenger, with the other two being the Caliphate (Khilafat) and the inheritance of distant relatives (Kalalat). Our scholars (ulama), both ancient and modern, have written a great deal of literature on usury. I agree with their views on the main principles, but I differ from them on the definition of usury. Because this topic is very controversial, I will not discuss it in this commentary, but will address it elsewhere at an appropriate time. The definition I accept is: unfair profit earned from loans of gold and silver, and from necessities like wheat, barley, dates, and salt (based on the list mentioned by the Prophet himself), rather than through legitimate trade. My definition includes various forms of profiteering, but it does not include economic credit, which is a product of modern banking and finance.

Muhammad Asad [1900-1992]:

Muhammad Asad, the famous author of The Message of the Quran, does not equate interest with usury, but rather equates riba with usury. His commentary on this matter explains:

This is the earliest mention of the word and concept of usury in the chronology of the Quranic revelations. In a general linguistic sense, the term means an increase or addition of something beyond its original size or amount. In technical terms, it refers to an illegal increase of money or goods lent by one person or group to another person or group at interest. Considering the economic conditions of their time or earlier, most early jurists linked this illegal increase to profits gained through any form of interest-bearing loan, regardless of the interest rate or economic motive involved. In summary, as shown by the vast legal literature on this subject, scholars have not been able to reach an absolute consensus on the definition of usury that would cover all possible legal situations and address all emergencies in changing economic environments.

In the words of Ibn Kathir, the subject of usury is one of the most difficult subjects for many scholars (ahl al-ilm). It should be remembered that the passages legally condemning and prohibiting usury (2:275-281) were the last revelations received by the Prophet, who passed away a few days later (see the note on 2:281). Therefore, the companions did not have the chance to ask him about the implications of the prohibition for Islamic law, to the point that it is reliably narrated that Umar ibn al-Khattab said: The last thing revealed was the passage about usury; Lo, the Prophet passed away without explaining its meaning to us (Ibn Hanbal, on the authority of Said ibn al-Musayyab). However, the harsh condemnation of usury and those who consume it—especially when viewed against the backdrop of human economic experience in the following centuries—clearly shows its nature and its social and moral impact. Roughly speaking, the condemnation of usury refers to profits gained through interest-bearing loans that involve the exploitation of the economically weak by the strong and resourceful. This exploitation is characterized by the lender retaining full ownership of the loan capital and having no legal concern for the purpose of the loan, maintaining a contractually guaranteed profit regardless of any losses the borrower might suffer from the transaction or how the borrower uses the money. Considering this definition, we realize that the question of which types of financial transactions fall into the category of usury is, in the final analysis, a moral issue closely related to the socio-economic motives behind the relationship between the borrower and the lender. From a purely economic view, this is about how both sides can fairly share profits and risks in a loan deal. It is impossible to answer this dual question in a rigid, once-and-for-all way. Our answers must change as human society and technology develop, which also changes our economic environment. While the condemnation of the concept and practice of usury is clear and final, every generation faces the challenge of giving this term new dimensions and economic meanings. For lack of a better word, this term might be interpreted as usury.

Professor Fazlur Rahman [passed away in 1988]:

Fazlur Rahman (1911-88) was perhaps the most learned of the major thinkers in the second half of the twentieth century, both in classical and Western philosophical and theological discourse. He came from a Punjabi family immersed in traditional learning. He then went on to study modern critical thinking at Oxford University under H. A. R. Gibb and Van Der Bergh. Overall, he was a dedicated teacher and research scholar, especially innovative in his Avicenna studies, and held positions at Durham, McGill in Montreal, and the University of California. From 1969 until his death, he served as a professor at the University of Chicago. [M. Yahya Birt, Information on Fazlur Rahman, 1996] As one of the most prominent scholars of the last century, his work on riba and interest is essential reading. He challenged the traditional position that equates usury with interest. [Rahman, 1964]

Allamah Iqbal Ahmad Khan Suhail:

Allamah Suhail studied under famous Indian scholars like Allamah Shibli Nomani. His book written in the 1930s, "What is Usury?" only recently became available in English. This is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the challenges of equating usury with interest. He uses classical sources to show how traditional, orthodox views on equating usury with interest are simplistic and wrong, and how Quranic verses and relevant hadith about usury are misunderstood and misused.

Maulana Sa'id was the Grand Mufti of Darul Uloom (Waqf) in Deoband. Following general Hanafi Fiqh, and specifically the Deobandi tradition, he believed that interest-based transactions are conditionally allowed in non-Muslim countries, especially charging interest to non-Muslims. In a fatwa regarding bank interest and insurance, Maulana Sa'id argued:

"...there is no doubt that giving one rupee to a non-Muslim and taking back two rupees from him with his consent is correct, because this [excess amount] is not usury." (Suhail, page 192)

In fact, this is the consistent position of Deoband and its leaders and scholars. The meaning of this position is that it does not align with any total ban on usury, let alone interest.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad:

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958) is a famous figure in modern Indian history. He is also a famous scholar. I have not yet confirmed his views directly from his own writings. However, his views are mentioned in testimony given during the Pakistan Supreme Court hearings on the issue of banning interest.

To support the argument that charging interest on bank loans does not violate Sharia, the lawyer mentioned Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz pointed out that Maulana Azad's Quranic commentary (tafseer) is incomplete and only covers 17 sections. The lawyer replied that this made no difference to him because the commentary on the Chapter of the Cow (Surah Al-Baqarah) he wanted to mention is complete. He said that the application of the verse is limited to the poor class and does not apply to all transactions.

Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltut:

Sheikh Mahmoud Shaltut (1893-1963) was a prominent Egyptian scholar. From 1958 to 1963, he was also an imam at Al-Azhar University in Egypt. Dr. Fathi Osman mentions the following on page 919 of his book.

Muhammad Abduh, the prominent Egyptian mufti, believed that interest paid by post offices on savings there was halal. This view was later supported by former Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mahmud Shaltut [who passed away in 1962]. he allowed interest on national bonds if economic development and personal or public interest required issuing them [al-Fatawa, Issue 8, Cairo: 1975, pp. 351-355]. Shaltut also agreed in advance to any fixed-interest transactions offered by the state, state-affiliated institutions, or any agency connected to the state, assuming there was no exploitation by any party in those cases.

Dr. Said Ashmawi, an Egyptian religious reformer and former chief justice:

Ashmawi's argument is interesting. He points out that in the early days, usury led to the enslavement of debtors, such as debtors being sold as slaves by the Prophet according to the hadith. For the interpretation and dating of this hadith, which stands in opposition to later laws, see Irene Schneider, Kinderverkauf und Schuldknechtschaft (Stuttgart, 1999), p. 74ff., which is a response to H. Mozki, “Der Prophet und die Schuldner,” Der Islam 77 (2000), p. 1ff. [Book review of Schari'a und Moderne: Diskussionen über Schwangerschaftsabbruch, Versicherung und Zinsen, by Rüdiger Lohlker. (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes) 156 pages, bibliography. Stuttgart, Germany: Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, 1996. (Thesis) ISBN: 3-515065-822; Reviewer, Adam Sabra, University of Michigan, note #1]

Shaykh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi was the highest-ranking scholar and cleric at Al-Azhar and the Grand Mufti of Egypt.

A more extreme and recent example is the view of Egyptian Mufti Shaykh Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi. In 1989, he declared that interest from certain government investments based on interest was not forbidden usury. He argued that the earnings were little different from sharing in the profits of the government's use of funds, or that bank deposit contracts were new. By doing this, he joined a small group of famous religious figures who issued fatwas declaring clear interest-based practices to be permissible. This fatwa caused a storm of controversy. Almost all traditional religious scholars opposed it, while secular modernizers praised it warmly. Later, he went even further, saying that interest-bearing bank deposits were completely lawful, especially compared to accounts that imposed unfavorable conditions on customers. He suggested that the law should change the legal terms used for bank interest and bank accounts to clarify that they were free from the stain of usury. [Vogel and Hayes, page 46]

Although he was a traditional and orthodox scholar in every way, his position was met with harsh and flat rejection by other scholars. However, this is an illustrative case for those who think, argue, or claim that only heretical or deviant scholars or intellectuals could possibly hold a different position challenging the equivalence of interest to usury. Yet, as Mahmoud Jamal pointed out, the basis for this fatwa goes back at least a century. The basis for this fatwa is at least a century old.

Abd al-Wahhab Khallaf [1888-1956]:

Dr. Abd al-Wahhab Khallaf was a famous scholar and jurist from Al-Azhar. Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (Usul al-Fiqh) was one of his main fields, and he made valuable academic contributions in these areas. Sheikh Tantawi drew on some important opinions from Dr. Abdul Wahab Khallaf when he formulated the aforementioned religious ruling (fatwa).

Tantawi (2001, p. 131) quotes word-for-word similar statements from Khallaf (pp. 94-104), Al-Khafif (pp. 165-204), and others (pp. 204-211), saying: 'In this era of corruption, dishonesty, and greed, not fixing the profit (as a percentage of capital) will leave the principal at the mercy of the investment fund's agent, whether it is a bank or another institution.' [Quoted from Mahmoud El Gamal's introduction, available on the La Riba Bank website]

Sheikh Nasr Farid Wasil, Tantawi's successor as the Grand Mufti of Egypt:

Sheikh Nasr Farid Wasil echoed his predecessor, Sheikh Tantawi, in 1997 by simply stating that the controversy over bank interest should end because 'there is no such thing as an Islamic bank and a non-Islamic bank.' [Tripp, ibid., p. 130]

'I will give you a final and decisive ruling (fatwa)... as long as the bank invests the money in permissible venues, then the transaction is permissible.' Otherwise, it is forbidden... there is no such thing as an Islamic or non-Islamic bank. Therefore, let us stop this controversy over bank interest.' [Al-Ittihad (UAE), August 22, 1997]

Dr. Fathi Osman:

Dr. Fathi Osman is a famous scholar. He has taught at famous universities in the Middle East, Asia, and the West. In his highly praised work, Dr. Osman responds to Muhammad Asad's views on this issue and adds the following commentary on verses 275-281 of al-Baqarah:

The verses above deal with illegal riba, followed by other verses involving loan contracts between people. Usury, or riba in Arabic, was mentioned earlier. Riba can include any illegal increase on the principal if that increase is unfair and therefore harmful to individuals and society. As Ibn Kathir noted in his commentary on verse 2:275, and as other commentators and jurists have noted, riba is one of the most difficult subjects in law. This is because the verses prohibiting riba, along with what the Prophet said about riba during his Farewell Pilgrimage sermon, appeared in the final days of the Prophet's life. Therefore, according to a manuscript by Ibn Hanbal, the companions did not have the chance to ask him about this matter, and even Caliph Umar expressed a wish that the Prophet could have provided some explanation. Generally, riba relates to loans that involve exploiting the economically weak: the borrower might only be using the money to meet basic living needs. Even if he or she uses the loan for investment, the interest they receive might be less than what the lender gets in any case, or the borrower might lose everything. In his commentary on the above verses, Muhammad Asad correctly points out: "...we recognize that the question of which types of financial transactions fall into the category of riba is closely related to socio-economic motives." The motives mentioned here are the motives for lending and borrowing, which, beyond the genuine agreement of the borrower and lender, relate to mutual gains and losses and the circumstances upon which fair interest in a transaction is based. So, this is a question of how both sides fairly share the profits and risks of a loan deal. Our answer must change as things change. These changes might happen in the situation of the parties involved, the society, or the economy.

What Muhammad Asad clarified is vital. Usury is not the name of a specific physical object. It is a transaction between two or more people that can only be understood within its historical and social context. Explaining usury as an increase or addition does not explain the issue, because any legal profit is also an increase. Linking the word increase to a loan might not be convincing enough. You must consider the situation of the society and the traders, because a loan might provide mutual benefit or social usefulness. Therefore, the socio-economic background is necessary to define socio-economic practices and to clarify the harm and injustice in a transaction that provides a legal basis for prohibition. The scriptures about usury are few, and the Prophet passed away before detailing answers to questions about it. In his Farewell Sermon, he mentioned usury only in the context of loans between Arabs before the time of ignorance (al-jahiliyyah), which emphasizes the historical and social context of this transaction.

Some modern jurists ignore historical development and socio-economic differences and changes. They tend to treat the word interest used in modern transactions, such as banking, insurance, and mortgages, as if it were the exact synonym for usury. This ignores the modern development of banking and insurance businesses and independent institutions. It leads to a separation between financing and financial investment on one side, and production, whether agricultural, industrial, or commercial, on the other. Also, the time factor has become vital in modern transactions. Revolutionary changes in transport and communication have had a huge impact on the circulation of money, the flow and availability of cash, and therefore the demand for credit.

Transactions made by phone, fax, or computer have sped up, which increases the risk factor. The modern global village we live in has developed mass production and mass marketing, which require huge capital. An Australian company might have businesses in Malaysia or Pakistan and might rely on financing from American or European banks. This creates a need for specialized institutions to handle financing and provide financial services that differ from the long-term or medium-term operations and risks of agricultural, industrial, or commercial businesses. These financial institutions benefit a wide range of shareholders, depositors, and borrowers, and they are usually not owned by individuals. Legal protections can therefore prevent monopolies and various forms of fraud and exploitation. The central bank has a supervisory and controlling role over financial activities and financial institutions. Also, money no longer exists in the form of gold or silver, so it cannot keep its value stable. Over time, fluctuations in currency value and inflation in commodity prices affect the purchasing power of money. All these qualitative changes in the contemporary world economy must be considered deeply to accurately determine the nature and role of interest.

The famous Egyptian jurist and professor of Islamic law at Cairo University, Abdel-Wahab Khallaf (who returned to Allah in January 1956), cited late Hanafi sources in his distinguished book Ilm Usul al-Fiqh (first edition, 1942). This source allows borrowing if the borrower is in need, and the loan can be repaid with an extra amount (page 210). 12th edition, Kuwait, 1978. here that, in general, even if there is a clear and explicit prohibition against something, Allah allows an individual to do it in cases of necessity (for example, 2:173; 5:3; 6:119, 145). 16:115], he allows society to do the same in cases of common need [for example, see Khallaf, 'Ilm Usul al-Fiqh, pp. 208-210; al-Juwayni, Imam ul-Haramayn Abdul-Malik, Ghiyath al-Umam, edited by Fu'ad Abdel Mun'im, Mustafa Hilmi, Cairo: no date, p. 345])

Dr. Ibrahim Shihata [1937-2001]:

Dr. Shihata was a legal scholar who served as General Counsel of the World Bank and Secretary-General of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. "There is no doubt that usury is prohibited by the two main sources of law—the Quran and Sunnah. However, neither of these sources defines the scope of this prohibition. A rational interpretation of these sources suggests that as an exception to the general rule of freedom of contract, this prohibition should be interpreted strictly according to its underlying rationale, which is to help transactions rather than complicate them. Therefore, prohibited usury can cover cases of clear enrichment in trade and loan operations without justification, to ensure the fairness of these transactions and protect weaker parties from unfair exploitation and excessive uncertainty. [Some comments on the issue of usury and the challenges faced by 'Islamic banking']

Dr. Syed Nawab Haider Naqvi:

Dr. Naqvi is a leading economist in Pakistan and holds a PhD from Princeton University. From 1979 to 1995, he served as the Director of the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics in Islamabad. He also wrote Ethics and Economics: An Islamic Synthesis [UK: Islamic Foundation, 1981]. He is very cautious about equating interest with usury, especially when trying to abolish interest while keeping the capitalist system mostly intact. He is also unwilling to take a clear stand on the issue of banning interest. Because of this, he hedges his observations by saying, "if [interest] is identified as usury." In the article Banking: An Assessment, he writes:

Banking theory is caught between two related logical statements: (i) usury is equivalent to all modern interest-based financial transactions, including bank interest; (i) usury is equivalent to all modern interest-based financial transactions; (i) usury is equivalent to all modern interest-based financial transactions; (i) usury is equivalent to all modern interest-based financial transactions; (ii) profit-based banking—more accurately, a banking system proposed according to general profit and loss sharing (PLS) principles, without any guaranteed support for bank deposits or bank advance returns—is superior to capitalist interest-based banking. These two assertions, although (wrongly) viewed by most thinkers as absolute truths not limited by space and time, do raise difficult theoretical and empirical questions, and there are no simple answers. As for the first assertion—that bank interest is usury and therefore forbidden, while profit is allowed—the root of the difficulty is that in a capitalist system, interest and profit are inseparable; in fact, the two are connected like Siamese twins. The mainstream view among secular economists is that average interest rates are determined by the same set of forces that determine the rate of profit on capital invested in production, independent of monetary variables (Panica, 1991). Changes in the rate of profit are caused by changes in interest rates, speculative trading, and productivity (Pindyck, 1988). Therefore, separating the twins requires a complex surgical operation on the economic structure.

in a world without a surplus of capital, the possibility of zero interest rates is flatly denied, because it is hard to imagine people having enough savings to drive the net productivity of capital down to zero. However, this does not mean we should not abolish bank interest if it is considered usury, but we should clearly realize that once interest is permanently abolished as a source of income in a capitalist economy, we simply do not know what the results of this step will be. In the same article, Naqvi also asserts: "Contrary to popular concepts, risk and uncertainty do not necessarily constitute the characteristics of interest that are illegal in Islamic law, which is the meaning of usury." echoing those who believe exploitation and injustice are the focus of scholars and experts, Naqvi wrote: "Economists have widely pointed out that the reason for prohibiting usury ('illat al-hukm) is not just the mathematical formula used to calculate it itself;" Instead, it is its so-called adverse effect on the distribution of income and wealth.

Professor Salim Rashid:

Professor Rashid holds a Ph. D. in economics from Yale University. Currently, he is a professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In an unpublished, privately circulated paper titled 'The Value of Time and Risk in Islamic Economics' (1983), he explains his questions regarding the equivalence of riba and interest, and why denying the 'time value of money' from an Islamic perspective leads to anomalies and makes economics inefficient from an economic standpoint. He wrote: "If Islam truly does not allow any time discrimination regarding economic value, then the Islamic system must be economically inefficient." This is not the case.

Dr. Imad-ad-Deen Ahmad:

He is an American scholar and the president of the Minaret of Freedom Institute. His views are explained in an article titled: "riba and interest: Definitions and Implications."

Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina:

Dr. Sachedina is a professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia. His views are explained in an article titled: "The Problem of Usury in Faith and Law."

Dr. Omar Afzal:

Dr. Afzal earned a doctorate in linguistics from Cornell University, is an alumnus of Aligarh University, and holds an Alim degree (Islamic and Arabic studies) from IHIS Rampur. He is a distinguished linguist who is fluent in many languages from the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe. He has expertise in Islamic law, Islamic history, contemporary Islamic movements, the Islamic calendar, and modern Islamic thought. He worked at Cornell University for twenty-six years. He guided several research projects and earned his doctorate and master's degrees. He is a prolific writer, an editor of The Message, and a member of the law faculty. He also served as the chairman of the Center for Research and Communication and the Committee for Crescent Observation International.

In an article titled "Riba: Interest, Usury or Both?", he wrote: "[It] is an attempt to open a debate on 'interest'—a term well-known in modern monetary transactions and legalistic views." Modern banking is largely based on the traditional interpretation of "usury," which does not distinguish between "usury" and "interest." It is also an undeniable fact that modern financial institutions like banks and insurance companies must be corrected to reduce fraud and provide better service. However, any Islamic solution must also be judged by similar standards of "justice" and social responsibility.

Banking is a new phenomenon, and so is interest, which is different from usury. Over the past few decades, it has become an essential part of normal human life. Even those who call interest usury have bank accounts, write checks, use credit cards, and take out loans to buy homes. All Muslim countries, including those that are officially Islamic states, actively participate in interest-based banking. Islamic scholars (ulama) should sit down with economists and experts in finance and development to find ways to align the intentions of Allah with the needs of modern economy and development.

Dr. M. Raquib uz Zaman:

Dr. Zaman served as the Charles A. Dana Professor of Finance and International Business and as chair of the Department of Business Administration at Ithaca College in New York. He has published many academic works in the fields of Islamic economics, finance, and banking. Please visit his webpage for a complete list. Several of his articles are available on the learning resources page. "In Islamic law, there is no preliminary evidence to prove that all interest is usury. So-called Islamic banks are neither Islamic banks nor commercial banks in the true sense. Islamic fiscal policy is more like a lofty slogan than a practical policy tool for today's governments to adopt." [Monetary and Fiscal Policies of Islamic Countries: Claims and Reality]

Dr. Hormoz Movassaghi:

Dr. Movassaghi is a professor and associate dean at the School of Business at Ithaca College (New York). He has co-authored many research works on Islamic finance and banking with Dr. M. Raquib uz Zaman (mentioned above).

Dr. Abdullah Saeed:

Dr. Sayyid is a professor of Arab and Islamic studies for the Sultan of Oman and the director of the Centre for Contemporary Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne. From a critical perspective, his book, Islamic Banking and Interest: A Study of the Prohibition of Riba and its Contemporary Interpretation, is a must-read.

Dr. Mahmoud El-Gamal:

Dr. El-Gamal is the chair of the Islamic economics, finance, and management department at Rice University, and a professor of economics and statistics. He has published many academic works in this field. He also maintains an active blog. He is known for emphasizing the mutual benefits of organizing Islamic financial institutions, which is not the case at present. Therefore, we discard overly simplistic and incorrect assertions that Islamic finance is 'interest-free' or that it denies the 'time value of money'. [El-Gamal, "The Economic Wisdom of the Prohibition of Riba", Thomas, p. 123]

While Dr. El-Gamal does assert that "...no one can correctly deny that interest on loans is the prohibited riba an-nasiah," he also challenges the simplistic and general equation of riba and interest. "Not all interest is prohibited riba,... [and] not all riba is interest."

Dr. Muhammad Shawqi al-Fanjari:

Dr. al-Fanjari once taught economics at Al-Azhar University in Egypt. He wrote a book titled The Essence of Economic Policy in the Importance of Islamic Economics, which is available online. Like any Muslim, he views usury as forbidden. However, when discussing public interest or common interest, he wrote that interest changes depending on the situation. He acknowledged, without criticism, the views of some scholars who avoid making a blanket statement between riba and interest.

What is considered beneficial in one situation might not be considered beneficial in another. Imam al-Shatibi said on this matter: We believe most things we call good or bad are relative, not absolute. Things are good or harmful in one situation but not in another, and for one person but not for someone else. They are that way at a specific time, but not at another time.

Perhaps this is why some scholars believe interest from savings accounts, government bonds, and investment certificates is not usury (see Sheltout 1969 303, and Khallaf and Abou Zahra 1951).

Dr. Rasul Shams:

Hamburg Institute of International Economics: Religion can promote the development of science, but it is not meant to establish different branches of science. We cannot find any basis to prove that Islamic economics is a science based on the prohibition of interest. ["A Critical Assessment of Islamic Economics", Hamburg Institute of International Economics, 2004]

Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, University of Alberta, Canada:

Professor Noorzoy distinguishes between nominal terms and real terms. Although he seems to genuinely consider excessive behavior, distinguishing between real interest and nominal interest does not align with the traditional position held by schools of Islamic law, which maintain that any indexation based on inflation is singular. "Traditional interpretations of riba laws show that when usury is converted into average interest, the loan principal is not allowed to 'increase'. However, is this 'increase' measured in real value or nominal value, and therefore, should a real interest rate or a nominal interest rate be applied to the loan? The interpretation of 'increase' in laws involving usury includes both nominal and real forms. According to usury of delay (riba al-nasi'ah), 'increase' refers to the nominal measure of the loan principal. However, according to usury of surplus (riba al-fadl), growth is measured by real value because the law refers to non-monetized barter transactions, where any change in value is measured in real terms. ["Islamic Law on Usury (Interest) and Its Economic Implications"]

Dr. Mohammad Fadel:

Dr. Fadel is an assistant professor of law at the University of Toronto. He holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago. In a conference discussion on page 7 of Volume 1, Issue 2 of the International Journal of Islamic Financial Services, Dr. Fadel explained his position on the equivalence of riba and interest. The type of usury that applies to credit sales is called usury of delay (riba nasi'a). Nasi'a means delay. The same structure applies here as well. Credit sales are not restricted by the rules of usury of delay (riba nasi'a) unless there is evidence that the traded goods have been marked for special regulation. However, the reason for prohibiting this type of usury is solely the delay in exchange (nasi'a), not the difference between the cash price and the credit price. To give another example, selling a car for a cash price of $10,000 or a credit price of $12,000 to be paid over 5 years is not prohibited under the rules of usury of delay (riba nasi'a): according to the jurists (fuqaha'), goods simply have two different prices, a cash price and a credit price. This transaction does not involve usury because the buyer is taking on a debt, rather than increasing the value of an existing debt in exchange for more time to pay it back. Therefore, it also does not involve pre-Islamic usury (riba al-jahiliyya). However, according to economists, the price difference is a function of the time value of money, which is interest. Therefore, the words riba and interest are not synonyms, and we should stop confusing them. Some usury is interest, but not all of it. For example, trading one pound of high-quality dates for two pounds of lower-quality dates does not involve the time value of money at all, yet it is described as usury. Similarly, some interest is usury, but not all of it. If I owe a bank 100 dollars and agree to delay payment by increasing the debt I owe in exchange for the debt, this is both interest and usury. However, if I buy a car on credit, I will pay interest, but I will not be paying usury.

Dr. Muhammad, also known as Abu Yusuf Khalil Correnti, studied in Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen according to the religious beliefs of Sunni, Shia, and Zaydi followers, specializing in law. He earned his doctorate in Islamic law (sharia) from McGill University. His academic works include books on eschatology, faith, and practice, as well as translations of religious literature by other scholars. He is currently a professor of religious studies at San Diego State University. In answering a question put to him, he wrote: Let us not consume usury many times over (3:130). This statement exists because, according to the mufassir, when a person borrowed money in the pre-Islamic period and promised to repay it within a year, they were asked to pay the amount due at the end of that period. If they could not pay, they would extend the time for another year, but the amount owed would double. Da'f means doubling (3:130). If they could not pay at the end of the second year, the amount owed would double again, which meant that in many cases, the amortized amount would become several times higher than the original loan amount. This practice is called riba, which translates to usury in modern terms.

In my view, many scholars, experts, and professionals in Islamic finance do not believe that riba and interest are the same thing. For example, read the book Islamic Finance in the Global Economy by Ibrahim Warde (Edinburgh University Press, 2000) and see if you can determine his personal stance on whether riba equals interest Collapse Read »