u/sobadatchess

Salam. So I’m writing this, not to show off, but to try to guide people in something that has so many misconceptions. And let me say to begin with that I am genuinely an average day-to-day Muslim. I don’t attend Islamic classes, I work a 9-5, I don’t sit down and reflect on the Quran all that much, I don’t usually pray tahajjud. I just do the mandatory stuff and a little more than that. Many of you if not most will be better Muslims than me.

What I’ve noticed is that too many people are hyper focused on “life-hack” style advice. Make dua at this time or wake up at this time and you’ll get what you want etc. but my tip is to just stick to the basics of Islam. It really just comes down to abstaining from sin, repenting a lot, and remembering Allah often. I have phases in my life when almost all of my duas get answered, and in those phases I do the following:

- No music, no movies, no shows, no TikTok. Abstain from any regularly repeating sin in your life. Regularly repeating sins that you feel no remorse over will kill your chances at having an accepted dua
- Lots of repentance, istaghfar through the day
- Plenty of dhikr (stick to the authentic, prescribed stuff)
- Pray all of your Sunnah
- Make dua for others and for matters relating to your faith - eg I make dua to wake up for fajr on time
- Attend the mosque as much as you can
- Learn about the best things to do/say in the dua itself

That’s it.

Wallahi I have had the most obscure, most unlikely duas being answered. And you quickly notice a pattern of that happening.

Allahu Akbar

Just did mine today. Not too bad

For the sake of context let’s take Birmingham as the city of residence. So what’s the salary needed to support a family on one income? £60,000?

My previous post on almost all stocks being haram was a bit controversial and I find it baffling how many people defend the 33% haram income rule. Consider this example:

Let’s say I buy a company worth $1m, and 100% of its revenue comes from riba. Haram to make this purchase, agreed? Now let’s say I buy a company worth $3m and 33% of its revenue comes from riba and the remainder is halal. This investment is now halal? Yet I’ve consumed the same amount of haram wealth?

This is so easy to exploit. Wealthy Muslim X who owns a consulting firm now really wants to start a riba based bank. He says, “I know how to make it halal, I’ll absorb it into my consulting firm such that the new banking arm forms 33% of the overall company revenue”

Do not corrupt and delude yourselves and sacrifice your religion all to chase wealth

Almost all publicly listed stocks and ETFs in the world are haram. We all know the 5% haram income and 30% debt/equity ratio thresholds are nonsense. Gold ETFs are also haram, and buying gold from dealers charges a hefty premium.

So what, if any, investments do you guys make?

Let’s be real. No where in the Quran or Hadith does it say “if a company earns less than 5% haram income its halal” or “if its debt/equity ratio is less than 30% it’s halal”. This is genuinely dumb like come on. And the argument that investing is a necessity is nonsense.

Buying gold ETFs are also haram for other reasons, and buying them from gold dealers is hardly an investment at all given you have to pay 10-15% premiums over market value.

Genuinely, what is the solution here? Is the only option to start a business?