.. but I am a muslim, Alhamdolillah. Few things before I start:

“And no moving (living) creature is there on earth but its provision is due from Allaah” [Hood 11:6]

“Allaah will destroy Riba” [al-Baqarah 2:276]

“O you who believe fear Allah and give up what remains due to you of interest if you are indeed believers. And if you do not, then be warned of war (against you) by Allah and His Messenger, while if you repent you shall have your capital. Do not do wrong and you shall not be wronged.” [Surah Al-Baqarah: 278-279]

Narrated An-Nu’man bin Bashir: I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, ‘Both legal and illegal things are evident but in between them there are doubtful (suspicious) things and most of the people have no knowledge about them. So whoever saves himself from these suspicious things saves his religion and his honor. And whoever indulges in these suspicious things is like a shepherd who grazes (his animals) near the Hima (private pasture) of someone else and at any moment he is liable to get in it. (O people!) Beware! Every king has a Hima and the Hima of Allah on the earth is His illegal (forbidden) things. Beware! There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the heart. [Bukhari, Book 1, Volume 2, Hadith 49]

“but do not help one another in sin and transgression” [al-Maa’idah 5:2]

Allah Almighty says, “If a person is forced by necessity without willful disobedience or transgressing due limits, thy Lord is oft-forgiving, most merciful.” [Al-An`am: 145]

An answer for – I work in a bank in a particular country, in a department that does not deal with riba-based transactions, but the central bank does deal with interest and it is a government foundation. What is the ruling on working in this bank? I hope you can advise me.

It took me 4-5 months of job search and interviewing to find a Software Engineering job that suited my extremely fine grained criteria:

  1. I don’t want to relocate,
  2. I don’t deserve a below market-standard salary,
  3. The company must sponsor my *h1 visa*,
  4. The work must be exciting and learning-oriented,
  5. The company can hire non-citizens,
  6. It should be easier for me to practice my religion,
  7. The company should allow me to survive without shaking any female hands,
  8. &  again, I don’t want to relocate!

In today’s economic crisis, none that I know who is looking for a job has any criteria – people JUST need jobs! So perhaps, this was a perfect time for Allah SWT to test me – and it happened.. I got my first job offer after clearing 3 interviews & guess what, the job suited almost perfectly against my criteria.

But, there was something missing in my list –

  • The company must primarily depend on halal sources of income.

And unfortunately, this company was dealing in interest. Although I was a just a leaf-node who was not supposed to be directly concerned with the company’s main buisness, but I don’t give this idea any weight.. because I was supposed to be a “part of it”, while helping it flourish, & taking it easy. I always wanted to avoid such companies, but I was far from making it a solid filter in my job search. But it took me mere seconds to categorize this as a test from Allah SWT.. and hence I decide to pass the trail and reject the offer.

It was not a big deal at all, Alhamdolillah. Although, the offer attracted me in many ways – from a decent salary to free covered parking, & from a cool boss to lamborghini showroom just across the street .. it wasn’t bad 😀 But the more it had to offer, the stronger became my will to decide against it. And just moments ago, I did it.

I feel no insecurity & I feel no hopelessness. I am sure that something good is coming up, be it comprehensible as good in my terms or no, but I am sure that Allah swt has better options in reserve for me!

Now, I may sound like boasting about something I did that I feel is good.. but I had to write this. I just want many to understand that we must not ‘make up’ strong cases of need when we find ourselves facing such trails. There is no need other than finding more ways to please Allah SWT because none of us has signed any contract about the time when we are supposed to meet Azra’eil A.S. (Malakul Mawt). And deep inside, I am dead sure, that we all know that most of the times we choose luxury over hardships by ignoring the commandments of Allah SWT. We abuse the definition of ‘neccessity’.

So be it a beard, a hijab, a strong denial to mix up beyond limits in office parties, to deny to shake opposite gender hands, or the numerous other things that we commit or ignore (while pleasing or displeasing Allah SWT).. trust me, the GOOD is always doable. And, it always end up in something better for us, we don’t see it sometimes, but we can always realize it from the eyes of our Iman.. if we try.

p.s. SCW -> SW -> W -> DONE -> W 😀