When I worked as a financial advisor at Investors Group in 2007, I spent a lot of time helping Muslim Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area navigate investing, tax planning, and retirement strategies. One of their biggest concerns was homeownership–buying a home, building equity, and achieving long-term financial security. But nearly every conversation ended with the same question: “How do we plan for homeownership when traditional mortgages don’t align with our faith?”

For many Muslims, earning or paying interest, or riba, is prohibited. Because conventional mortgages are structured around lending money and charging interest, some Muslims are uncomfortable with this model. In Islam, earning a return on money alone, without sharing risk or being tied to real economic activity, is viewed as unfair. Instead, Islamic finance promotes fairness, equity, and shared responsibility in financial transactions. 

As a Muslim growing up in inner-city Toronto with Palestinian-Jordanian immigrant parents, I saw firsthand what it took to create financial stability from very little. I also saw how the prohibition on interest–and the lack of Islamic financial options–limited my own family’s choices. My parents wanted to buy a home, save, and invest, but they felt shut out of those opportunities because they lacked financial products that reflected their faith.

I believed our community should have access to financial products that allowed us to participate fully in Canada’s financial system without feeling marginalized because of our faith. Canada’s Muslim population has grown significantly over the past two decades, now accounting for 4.9 per cent of the population. Yet there were still few financial products designed to meet these needs. That gap became increasingly apparent throughout my career as an advisor and ultimately led me to found Manzil, a financial technology company that helps Muslim Canadians achieve their financial goals through products and services that respect their beliefs and values.

The foundation for that work began in 2014 when I enrolled in the part-time MBA program at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management while continuing to work as a financial advisor. I discovered a course on Islamic finance, but it was reserved for full-time students, meaning I wasn’t eligible to enroll. But after reaching out to express my interest, the professor invited me to become his teaching assistant. We went on to teach the course together for several years, giving me a front-row seat to the academic foundations of Islamic finance. 

My MBA led to a second master’s in corporate governance and finance, followed by a doctorate in Islamic finance at Henley Business School, the graduate school of the University of Reading, through a partnership with the U of T. By then, I had spent nearly a decade studying the field while also working to bring Islamic financial products and services to the bank where I worked. Despite conversations with senior leadership, there wasn’t much appetite to move forward. 

In 2017, I decided I had the academic and professional experience to take the risk of starting Manzil, named after the Arabic word for “home” or “destination.” I quit my job and spent the next three years focused on research and development, starting with Canada’s legal and regulatory framework. My research into Islamic law kept bringing me back to the United Kingdom. Like Canada, the U.K. is a common law jurisdiction, but it has spent more than two decades developing a regulatory and tax framework to support Islamic finance. 

The U.K. became my blueprint. Its depth of expertise and practical experience gave me the confidence that Islamic financial products could be designed to work within Canada’s existing system. For example, creating an Islamic home financing model required navigating tax rules that could otherwise result in additional capital gains taxes, land transfer taxes, or HST charges. The U.K.’s approach showed me how to structure those products within Canada’s legal framework while avoiding unnecessary costs for Muslim homebuyers.

Manzil launched in 2020 with two products to address the financial needs we had been hearing from Muslim communities for years. The first was an online residential mortgage financing program built on an asset-based model. Unlike a traditional mortgage, which is structured as an interest-bearing loan, this model is tied directly to the home being purchased. Instead of paying interest, customers enter into an arrangement where Manzil earns a return through shared ownership of the property or by purchasing and reselling the home at an agreed-upon profit.

The program came with one key limitation: it requires a minimum 20 per cent down payment because the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) does not currently offer a securitization framework for this type of financing. Without CMHC support, the cost of capital is higher, and those costs are passed on to customers. Expanding access to Islamic mortgages through lower down payments remains an issue we continue to raise with the federal government.

The second product was a mortgage investment fund that allows members to invest in a pooled fund used to finance home purchases for other Muslim homebuyers while generating returns for investors. It also addressed  another gap by providing a low-risk investment option consistent with faith-based requirements. Rather than earning returns through interest, the fund invests in real assets and shares the returns they generate. 

Launching the business was only half the challenge. We quickly realized that financial literacy had to be part of the solution, so we invested heavily in education–running workshops at mosques across the country and at North America’s largest Islamic conference. We focused on helping people understand mortgages, registered accounts, investing, and tax planning before introducing them to the platform. 

We knew we had to build credibility from the outset. There was skepticism, shaped by previous efforts from small Islamic financial co-operatives and community-based organizations that had not lasted. To establish trust, we emphasized that we were fully regulated and operating within Canada’s financial system, with the proper legal and back-office structures in place. We also made key documents publicly available, including governance certificates, audits, and contracts, for independent review.

Once people understood how the products worked, trust began to spread through the community. Over time, we gained a clearer picture of who was using our services: primarily Muslims between the ages of 25 and 45, with a strong base of second-generation Canadians. They were digitally fluent and comfortable with banking apps, RRSPs, and investing, but they were looking for options that respected their beliefs.

Today, Manzil operates as a digital-first financial services company, with customers accessing products and services through its website and the Manzil Invest app, which provides access to self-directed Islamic investing. Unlike a traditional bank, Manzil has no physical branches, but customers can work directly with its advisory team throughout the process for home financing, wealth, and realty services.

Related: How I Launched an App to Lower Barriers to Home Ownership

We currently manage over $250 million in assets across our platforms, including more than $150 million in our mortgage program, and serve over 10,000 mortgage clients across Canada. Its offerings are available across multiple Canadian provinces, as well as in the United States through its investment products. The company has grown to a team of 45 employees and generates more than $1 million in monthly recurring revenue. 

Our longer-term goal is to build Canada’s first Islamic bank. Looking back, the work has always been about more than creating financial products. It’s been about giving customers access to the same financial opportunities available to everyone else, in a way that reflects how they choose to live.

– As told to Shaistha Khan