Halal mortgages from an Edmonton Islamic finance company are no longer validated by the Al Rashid Mosque to ensure they adhere to the principles of the Quran.
The Al Rashid Mosque, the oldest in Canada, nevertheless says it is continuing its efforts with the Alberta government to offer more halal financing options.
Islam prohibits the payment or receipt of interest, a barrier to accessing property for many Muslims in the country.
Companies, including the Canadian Halal Financial Corporation founded in 2021, offer a means for these people to have financing options that respect their faith.
Al Rashid Mosque previously certified the company’s mortgages, but ended the practice last week due to concerns.
One of the people on the mosque’s finance committee, Khalid Amin, said the mosque and the company had a memorandum of understanding to guide their work, but that issues around meeting those benchmarks raised concerns.
Khalid Amin could not specify the details of these concerns for confidentiality reasons.
Any mortgage authorized or certified by the Al Rashid Mosque remains valid, provided that it respects the conditions that we have executed, he assured however.
The company is evolving, according to one of its managers
Thomas Lukaszuk, one of the two people at the helm of the Canadian Halal Financial Corporation, says this change is a necessary step for the company’s growth.
The Canadian Halal Financial Corporation now uses more standardized contracts, endorsed by the Edmonton Council of Imams. The contracts are further validated by a fatwa, a type of religious decree, from al-Ahzar University, located in Cairo, Egypt.
Our reputation and our process are well understood by imams and mosques in Alberta, but also across Canada, declared Thomas Lukaszuk. There was no longer any need to have [les contrats] continually being examined one by one by a single mosque in Edmonton.
Another reason why the partnership with the Al Rashid Mosque was no longer really necessary, according to Thomas Lukaszuk, is because of the costs associated with the verification process. A client may prefer to get another assessment from a religious leader in their community with whom they have more ties than an Edmonton mosque, he noted.
According to Thomas Lukaszuk, customers can always get advice on the halal mortgage process within Al Rashid Mosque.
Khalid Amin, for his part, stressed that the Al Rashid Mosque is working with the Alberta government to offer more means of financing for people of the Muslim faith. A statement from the mosque said it hopes to create its own mortgage product soon.
With information from Madeline Smith
2024-01-11 03:00:33
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