“If someone wants to make a career in the field of finance then is it possible for him to keep himself away from any kind of Interest (Sood/Riba), as it is prohibited in our religion (Islam).”
I mean if we look at financial institutions and corporate entities of these days, almost all of them do get involved in any kind of “Interest” and a person cant keep himself away from getting involved in interest based activities while being a part of finance teams of such institutions.
So what are the other avenues left in the field of finance where a person can enjoy a good career as well as total religious satisfaction?
The concept of Islamic Financial Institutions have emerged like Islamic banks and Insurance companies, but I think they are in their nascent stages and right now they are mere manipulations.
Your replies would be highly appreciated as right now I am quite confused whether to remain in the field of finance or not??? I am a banker by profession having 3 years experience in the field but soon I will be quitting my job due to the reason being it UnIslamic. So kindly suggest me any field in finance where there is no Interest involvement or any sort of Haram dealings.
I understand your confusion Irfan .. most of my family is in finance and banking ... there are two thigns one can do .. either change the career ...
Or if you have no choice but to work in the field then dont accept any interest. For example we as users dont take the money ... the bank can do with it what ever .. we dont touch it.
there are varying levels of involvement of 'interest' in any field of finance...
100% in conventional banking.....because the sole business of the employer is earning of interest....so thats totally wrong...
there are other avenues, like brokerage, equity firms, mutual funds, or finance management of a company whose principal business is NOT haraam.......or its not heavily leveraged......in which case...your job responsibility would not be too much related to earning of interest...mere management of finances....
One way you can identify a halal employer is to look for the criteria that some islamic banks/investment houses have.....before they invest in a company..... they have criteria like...whether the business is halaal (eg 80% or above of the operations)....whether its leveraged (eg....amount of debt it has..eg..belove 30%) etc etc.....
so now.....you have two options..
1.continue in banking (with your experience) into Islamic Banking......it will be easier, you could get into a good position etc...
2.Start from scratch....i.e.....the other avenues i mentioned.......in those you will have to start from bottom up and work your way upwards......
Also....if you have qualification which is not purely finance....you can switch to other possible career paths which that qualificatiion allows....
My brother has specialised in financial planning and now that we have started our own business he has decided not to practice it. Our competitors, both muslims and non muslims do offer financial planning and mortgage services but we have decided nt to. This does limit our services bt we do nt want to offer or advice something thats nt halal.
It comes to u as an individual whether u can afford to leave ur job and start allover again.
There are so so so many opportunites in Finance without interest. My sister majored in Finance and works for one of the top hospitals in their Finance Department. Her job is to take care of the grants being issued to different programs. She may not be working in Wall Street but she is pretty happy with her job. You can also work as a consultant. I know few people that do that and its not interest based jobs.