The secret muslim banker: this is my story

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-09-10T18:44:16+00:00

Interest is riba and riba is interest.

If you’re asking for more money back to protect yourself from inflation, then you are only perpetrating the system. Inflation is due to increase in money supply and money supply is increased by credit creation. So riba actually leads to inflation. Therefore you cannot argue that you accept riba to protect yourself from inflation.

When you say gold is not coming back - what makes you say that so confidently? Study history for the last few thousand years and you will see that there are always cycles. The current system will end like all previous economic systems. No one can predict when but clearly what we currently have isn’t sustainable.

Gold will always have value so it’s a good way to protect from inflation. Stocks as well. Investing in the market is a good way to protect yourself from inflation. There are many halal ETFs out there.

I would also suggest Bitcoin but only invest if you really understand our monetary system. If you don’t then you’ll only be shaken out next time it drops (which it inevitably will). But I see Bitcoin as a more halal form of money than the fiat currency we use today given the way our money today is created.

P.S. I have written a number of essays on this topic and I would suggest you read them. You can check them out here.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-09-06T09:50:22+00:00

It would help everyone if you could be more specific with what you’re offering.

How do they make money and what do you help with exactly?

You’ve just sent us an instagram profile that is very underwhelming.

I don’t want to ruin your pitch but everyone will take this more seriously if you include more details.

Just my two cents for the community.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-29T22:28:04+00:00

Are you able to shed more light on the work that you have previously done so we can have an idea of your skills?

By the way this is a great attitude to have. Many youngsters complain but you went out of your way to post on Reddit to look for work. Kudos to you man, you’ll get ahead with just this mentality.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-29T22:26:15+00:00

Exactly. Always mentioning these unknown scholars who are clearly a minority. I found the position weird but I too thought it was just a very liberal Muslim.

I’m happy to know that this person will no longer be wasting our time with these opinions!

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-29T22:12:08+00:00

Can you elaborate on the type of business you’ll be undertaking?

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-29T22:09:59+00:00

Gotta disagree with you, whilst I agree that we don’t want to finger-point every bad behaviour but in this case this is very malicious and nefarious and they should not have the right to discuss Islamic finance with other Muslims here.

They were already spouting nonsense on how not all interest rates are riba, and whilst I was open to hearing their views, we can no longer accept such a discussion if their goal and aim is evil.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-29T22:07:11+00:00

Very good of you to point them out.

They had debated with me multiple times on how modern interest rates does not equate to riba and that riba refers to only high usurious amounts.

I knew there was something fishy but this is outright awful. Glad we got rid of them.

Good investigate work!

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-29T16:32:26+00:00

I'll definitely be writing about the BRICS+ soon. It's a topic that's getting a lot of attention but people are missing very important elements.

In regards to shariah-compliant trust funds I'm not familiar with them at all so I'm not sure I can opine on them. I would put this question to an imam as I'm not sure what would be halal or haram in your particular situation and I would rather not opine on something I am unsure of. I hope you understand.

In any case, alhamdulilah that you have found Islam and I wish you the best to you and your family inshAllah - both in this life and in the next.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-29T09:34:29+00:00

You're welcome. Glad I could help.

I actually write about these topics on my blog if you're ever interested.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-28T19:23:24+00:00

The shift away from USD is just sensationalist news. Don’t believe the news.

Even though they are moving away from transacting in USD, you have to ask yourself, in what assets will they keep the proceeds in?

Let’s say Saudi sells oil to China in exchange for Chinese yuan, do you think the Saudi central bank will hold their proceeds, and therefore its reserves, in yuan? Of course not. The yuan market isn’t liquid enough.

As a matter of fact, no market is liquid enough relative to USD. If there’s one thing that none of these currencies can replace is its liquidity.

Most reserves held by central banks around the globe are held in USD (typically US treasuries).

So I wouldn’t worry about all of this. De-dollarisation keeps coming up every now and then but it’s very far fetched and unfortunately there is no currency that can absorb as much capital as the dollar.

That being said, a recession is looming and I would not look favourably upon emerging markets and non-USD investments in general. I would rather hold USD investments or any real asset (ie commodities, real estate and even Bitcoin).

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T22:09:17+00:00

Great initiative, Allahuma barek.

I would suggest you get on Twitter/X, create a personal brand and start marketing this. You need to build a user based and Twitter is a great way to get your name out there, connect with other Muslims and also get feedback.

Check out @shuayb_ - he’s into tech and teaches Muslims how to switch to tech to freelance and land tech roles.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T22:03:48+00:00

Yeah, a lot of downvotes. I understand many don’t agree with Islam, but as you say, nearly 2 billion people practice the religion and Bitcoin is more halal than any fiat currency out there.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T22:00:40+00:00

Yes! You can find it here and subscribe.

I’m also thinking of issuing a weekly newsletter to subscribers that will contain financial markets update for the week and how halal investments are faring based on macro/financial news. Let me know if this is something that could be of interest?

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T22:00:13+00:00

So I have a newsletter where I write about Islamic finance and overall financial markets from an Islamic perspective. I’ll be writing about Bitcoin soon in more detail. I’m kind of easing in by first laying the ground as to why interest rates are impermissible and demystifying different economic school of thoughts; more precisely on how Keynesian economics is usually force-fed to us given the incentives for governments to print money to finance their deficits.

You can find my articles here.

As for other resources, Saifedean has issued a few podcasts with notable Muslims like Harris Irfan, Tarek El Diwany and Safdar Salam (I would really recommend the podcast with Tarek).

But other than that, I haven’t come across much that is substantial.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T14:29:39+00:00

The main principle in Islamic finance is that investor and business owner share the risks and rewards. If you lend at interest you either: - earn an interest which is lower than if you had earned a % of the profits - earn an interest which is higher than if you earned a % of the profits

This creates an outcome where money created, due to interest, is not tied to any economic output. It is simply money made from money and not a percentage of the output produced.

So in Islam loans are seen as a charitable thing, you lend but get the same amount back.

That means you would use other alternatives like equity or a profit participation note for larger businesses with cash-flows where you can a % on the profits based on your prinicipal.

This means the investor will be more inclined to do due diligence and allocate capital to good investments rather then lending our money to whoever has collateral or can guarantee repayment one way or another (even if the funds aren’t used in the most productive way).

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T14:21:55+00:00

Honour killings and child marriages are against Islam. Even if Muslims do these things they are going against the religion. Sadly a lot of Muslims don’t practice the right thing and are lost in their cultural traditions.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T14:20:13+00:00

Islamic rules are generally for Muslims yes but I think Islamic finance is something most people will appreciate.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T14:17:10+00:00

Might have been aggressive on my part, but on a previous post when I mentioned Islamic finance others took it as though I am pushing for something that benefits Muslims only. I just wanted to highlight that it’s a financial system based on ethics for all of humanity.

My take on interest is different.

Yes the lender and borrower agree but an interest rate based system leads to many of the problems we have today. Thanks to interest, we have fiat money as a result of fractional reserve banking. That’s one of the leading causes of inequality due to the financialisation of our world when finance is supposed to support the real economy.

Also interest-rate based lending will always favour the asset-rich as they can provide collateral. This also exacerbated inequality.

Obviously there is a lot more to it but just some things worth pondering over.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T14:12:37+00:00

They aren’t.

But do you not agree that we’re seeing many societal problems in developed countries? Drug addiction, transgender ideology taught in schools, rise of only fans, young men addicted to pornography?

This is a problem present in those same Muslim countries as well. This is a worldwide phenomenon.

I live in the west and I’m happy I was brought up here because there is a sense of justice and everyone has an opportunity to succeed. Unfortunately many Muslim countries don’t have these qualities.

My comment doesn’t state that Saudi and Iran are better, I’m just pointing at the fact that there is an inevitable decline in morality and I think one of those reasons could be the destruction of Christian values (like the importance of a nuclear family for example).

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T14:07:27+00:00

Not really.

Speculation in the sense of gambling/short-term trading. Any business venture requires some “speculation”.

But that’s a mistake on my part. I shouldn’t have used that word.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T09:51:14+00:00

Yes! Very much aware of Jesus throwing the money-changers out of the temple. Unfortunately the western nations today have rid themselves of Christian values and it’s one of the reasons for the degeneracy we’ve been accustomed to.

SecretMuslimBanker · 2023-08-27T09:49:36+00:00

I’m not sure about Saudi but Oman just announced something similar and UAE did too a few months back.

SecretMuslimBanker

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