The Art of RF (Riba-Free) Islamic Banking and Finance: Tools and Techniques for Community-Based Banking, 2nd Edition

Acknowledgments

As I sat down to reflect on whom to acknowledge, I found it to be a very difficult task. Many people in many parts of the world contributed to making me the person I am. Mentioning a few names, as is usually done in the front of a typical book, would be unfair to the lands I grew in and the people who contributed to my life and character. That is why I decided to play back my life since I was born in Cairo, Egypt, in a religious district named after the granddaughter of Prophet Muhammad (pp). It is called Al Sayedah Zeinab district, where the masjid (mosque) of the granddaughter of the Prophet—Zeinab—figures prominently. I am deeply indebted to the teachers at this masjid, who instilled the foundations of believing in God in me and the many millions who worshipped there. I am also grateful for the main reason of my being: God. He has given me a wonderful, full life complete with wonderful parents, family, wife, children, grandchildren, teachers, friends, and colleagues.

The Qur'aan teaches that God has ordained never to worship other than Him and to excel in dealing and caring for one's parents and family. The physical reason for my being here goes back to my dear parents.

First, I want to acknowledge my dear, late mother, whose name is also Zeinab. The Qur'aan enumerates to us the hard work a mother goes through from the time of conceiving and bearing a child to the time of delivering that child, weaning him/her, and raising that child. She was educated and ...