IANA Financial

As-salamu Alaikum!  Peace be upon you!

Clients

By the Grace of Alllah, two new loans have been issued in this blessed month, and two other loans have been repaid in full.

Alhamdulillah, all Praise is due to Allah for honoring us with the 10th and 11th loans to-date:  the first to a brother completing his Master’s Degree in Arts with his graduate research focused on Islamic and religious studies, the other to a brother pursuing his Doctorate of Clinical Psychology with a specific focus on traditional Islamic healing methods as psychotherapeutic interventions.

Both brothers have been actively involved in the Muslim community over the years and have dedicated time to studying Islam.  May Allah help them master their fields and use their skills to benefit the Ummah and the rest of Allah’s creation.

GRAND TOTAL: More than $53,000 has been issued to-date, Alhamdulillah!

Applications continue to pour in, yet with limited resources, we must prioritize; we especially like to help people who:
- are involved in the community
- have a passion to change the world through their education and career
- are in exceptionally difficult circumstances
- are pursuing studies in areas where Muslims are under-represented like Law, Journalism, Media Studies, Academia etc.

Supporters

Although we consistently pray for those who have donated or loaned Iana funds to help others, we can’t help but continue to ask for assistance as the needs of the Muslim community far exceed our limited abilities.  This past month alone we have had loan requests for nearly $300,000!  As you can tell, we do our best to help people who will make a difference - be part of that change!  There are currently a handful of applicants with pressing needs who we believe deserve our help, yet we cannot afford to do so.  In these last few hours of Ramadan, help us help others.

Here’s how:
- contribute a small monthly donation, even $10 monthly goes a long way
- make a one time donation
- give Iana a loan
- encourage others to donate
- give us advice
- pray for the success and growth of this program

As-salamu Alaikum,

On behalf of the Iana Team (i.e. Tarick and Faraz),
Sharafe

As-salamu Alaikum!  Peace be upon you!

Iana Financial is looking for an Extra-Special Person to join our team of three.  This person will need to genuinely love helping others, be passionate about volunteering, be committed to their commitments, and other well-known good traits.  This person is needed to help us grow our organization: we want to help more people and raise more funds; this requires more work!  We offer excellent benefits and remunerations, namely: “Whosoever relieves a believer from a worldly burden, Allah will relieve him from a burden of the Hereafter. Whosoever alleviates the situation of a person in difficulty, Allah will alleviate his difficulties in this world and in the Hereafter. Whosoever conceals the faults of a Muslim, Allah will conceal his faults in this world and in the Hereafter.  Allah will continue to aid a servant (of His) so long as that servant continues to aid his brother” [Authentic Hadeeth Compiled by Muslim]

If you’re interested, email us your resume at:

Clients

Two more loans have been issued: loan #8 went to an international student studying Chemical Engineering at the University Of Alberta and loan #9 went to a student completing his Electrical Engineering Technology program at SAIT Polytechnic in Calgary with a total combined value of $5,500 bringing the grand total of loans to-date to over $38,000!  Alhamdulillah!  In the same time period, two people have paid back their loans!

Know anyone who needs an interest-free student loan?  Send them our way.  We especially like to help people who:
- are involved in the community
- have a passion to change the world through their education and career
- are in a very difficult financial situation
- are pursuing studies in areas where Muslims are under-represented like Law, Journalism, Media Studies, Academia etc.

Supporters

One supporter loaned Iana $12,000 for one year!  Another staunch supporter renewed his $5000 loan for a third year in a row!!  May Allah reward them and help them and their families for helping others.

We’re still turning away dozens of applicants due to lack of funds; here’s how you can help:

- contribute a small monthly donation, even $10 monthly goes a long way
- make a one time donation
- give Iana a loan
- encourage others to donate
- give us advice
- pray for the success and growth of this program

As-salamu Alaikum,

On behalf of the Iana Team (i.e. Tarick and Faraz),
Sharafe

A belated Eid Mubarak!

Alhamdulillah!  We have been blessed to issue another $5,250 in loans in the past couple of months!  One $4,000 loan to a brother completing his Masters in Engineering and one $1,250 loan to a sister to complete a Certified Personal Trainer program. 

Both have large aspirations to help and benefit the community, may Allah make them beneficial.

For all those who have been denied funding, please understand that our resources are incredibly limited.  Please make duah that Allah continues to bless our work and helps us expand this much needed service.

Also, as we grow, we are looking for one dedicated volunteer to join our team.  This person would help in all areas of Iana but would mainly be responsible to help raise funds (e.g. organizing events, sending letters to potential donors etc.).  The ideal candidate would be someone who has a passion about helping people, has excellent communication skills - written and verbal, is professional, trustworthy, a go-getter, organized…etc.  Let this person apply at: .

Finally, check out Why do we go to Banks?! posted on the renowned Imam Suhaib Webb’s website.

If you found this beneficial, refer others here, and encourage them to sign up to our mailing list.

As-salamu Alaikum,
On behalf of the Iana Team,

Sharafe

Alhamdulillah, by the Grace and Mercy of Allah, Iana was blessed to lend out its 5th loan to-date and the 2nd one this year: $6,500 was loaned to an active sister to complete her degree in Public Health and to help her pursue a Master’s in Health research.  We ask Allah (swt) to help this sister complete her studies in excellence and to make her skills and knowledge beneficial for His creation.

This 5th loan is at the heals of and has been partially enabled by another milestone: the sister who had taken a $5,000 loan has paid it back in full!  Alhamdulillah.  This is the first loan to be repaid in full, the first of many inshaAllah.

We believe that the snowball-effect should be kicking in soon inshaAllah: more people helped by this cause will inshaAllah lead to more people helping this cause.  Sadly, we are consistently turning away many people due to lack of funds, in the past few months alone we have received requests for nearly $500,000!  You can help the situation by donating and by encouraging others to donate.

There are only a few days left in this blessed month, we ask for your sincere prayers that Allah (swt) continues to bless this initiative so it may flourish and prosper.  Ramadan kareem.

Alhamdulillah.  All praise be to Allah.

*Fourth Loan - $3000*

As our first accomplishment in 2010, by the Grace of Allah, we recently awarded a loan to a student finishing his final year in the Faculty of Education.

That brings our tally to four interest-free loans to-date: one for a Dentistry student, two for Education students, and one small emergency loan under the Iana Now program.

*Let’s Support 10 in 2010*

Let’s pick up the momentum for 2010 and support ten people with interest-free loans this year; to do so, we’ll need your generous support!  Encourage family and friends to donate now!

*Be Responsible!*

We’re receiving inquiries from across Canada, the US, and the world that give us a glimpse into the gravity and scale of this problem.  Total inquiries are approaching a value of $750,000.  Although this saddens us and motivates us to do more, to be fair, it is obvious that some of the people seeking help have been irresponsible in their financial management - for years.

As such, here’s some advice from a brother completing Medical School without resorting to conventional interest-based loans:

Plan things before you go into Medical school or any high cost program.  Factors to earn Allah’s Help include:

1) Giving charity as it increases your rizq (wealth) and making duaa (prayers) for Allah’s sustenance.

2) Making jihad-ul-nafs (striving for self-discipline) to stay away from sins as they decrease the baraka (blessings) in the rizq (wealth).

3) Not wasting money (e.g. excessive eating out, buying coffee etc.); saving money.

4) Working in the summers (multiple jobs if need be). Working part-time if possible (you must be able to maintain a strong academic standing).

5) Studying hard and volunteering to get scholarships.

6) Family and friends are also very important blessings from Allah ta’la (the most great), where they can also help out with a student’s financial needs.

7) Riba (usury/interest) is haram (prohibited) and we must strive as hard as we can to stay away from it, and if we are sincere with Allah ta’la, He, Azawajal (exalted be He), will make a halal (permissible) way open for us.

***
We ask Allah to bless our work and to benefit countless people through our humble efforts.

Encourage others to join the mailing list.

Keep us in your prayers.

-Sharafe and the Iana Team

About two months ago we setup a booth at the University of Alberta and invited people to submit pre-screening application forms for interest-free loans from Iana Learn.

We have a handful of people asking for over $40,000 in interest-free loans that we cannot provide with our current financial situation; so we are approaching donors and lenders asking them to help out.  For example…

A Senior Reservoir Engineer needs $5,000 for two years to complete his Masters program.

A Masters Degree student in Petroleum Engineering needs $15,000 for one year; another one needs $6,000 for six months.

A person finishing his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering needs $10,000 for under six months.

An Education student in his final year needs over $3,000 for less than one year.

With your support, these people can be helped.

We do not lend to anyone; a detailed application form is submitted with specific documentation, thorough reference checks conducted, and an interview is administered to ensure the candidates deserve the loans and will inshaAllah be faithful in repayment.  So far we have had no issues Alhamdulillah.

If you can’t help out with thousands, that’s OK; a few dollars donated per month goes a long way.

“The most beloved deeds to Allah are the consistent ones even if they’re small.” (Hadith)

May Allah help us help others.

Alhamdulillah, the One through which all good things happen.

Iana will inshaAllah sponsor one child annually to attend the Edmonton Islamic School!

We are currently setting up the criteria for this program, so check the site for updates.  InshaAllah we will be accepting applications soon, and we plan to sponsor the first child before this September 2009.  If you have advice for Iana in setting up the details and criteria around this program, please email . 

If you know of a child that you feel would be an ideal candidate for this program, please e-mail with a brief description of why this student should be awarded this grant.

Tell your friends.

-Sharafe

Alhamdulillah we’ve handed out our third loan - but this one isn’t an educational loan!  This loan is a small, short-term loan.  These loans are typically to cover unexpected expenses (e.g. dental, medical, automotive etc.) or a payday loan; payback time is from a few days to few months.

So here’s our question to you: what should this new program be called?

Iana Now?  Iana Smile?  Iana Hope?  Got a better idea?  Share it with us.  Email your opinion or suggestion to:

As usual, keep us in your prayers.

May Allah (swt) pour immense blessings in our efforts and help countless people through this cause.  (something like that would be nice )

On behalf of the Iana Team,

Sharafe Elladen

Alhamdulillah, to-date, we’ve given two loans.  One of the challenges we’re having is of course in raising funds.  Now, we have a couple things that are not in our favor: 1) we don’t have charitable status yet (a 12 month process that we’ve started) 2) we’re “competing” against many other noble causes like sponsoring orphans;  helping students avoid paying interest isn’t as attractive as you may think (the fact is we need to support all noble causes).

So, in an effort to help educate the donors out there that this IS a relevant issue, and it IS important, and that they should help out, we’re looking for some help (from Allah of course!).

We want you to “Tell us your story.”

Go to the ‘Contact Us’ page and tell us your story (or email us your story: ). 

Each story should have the same format:

Name, Age, Gender (You can choose to remain anonymous of course - let us know)
a. the program you’re in
b. the size of your loan
c. the expected size of your loan upon completion
d. why you had to take a student loan
e. why you think the Iana Learn program is important/why people should support Iana in offering interest-free educational loans)

Now we’re inshaAllah going to take some of these stories and post them on the site, and some we’ll put in our brochure to give to donors (we’ll only put your name/story with your permission).  The idea is that if people can be made to realize the difficult situation students are in, they will inshaAllah help out.

Don’t forget to sign up to our mailing list to stay tuned.

“Whosoever relieves from a believer some grief pertaining to this world, Allah will relieve from him some grief pertaining to the Hereafter. Whosoever alleviates the difficulties of a person in need, Allah will alleviate his difficulties in both this world and the Hereafter. Whosoever conceals the faults of a Muslim, Allah will conceal his faults in this world and the Hereafter. Allah will aid a servant (of His) so long as the servant aids his brother….” [Authentic Hadith Compiled by Muslim]

Alhamdulillah!  The Iana Learn program has given out its second interest-free student loan, this one in the amount of $5,000 to a student completing the Education program!  This brings the total Iana Learn assistance to-date to $17,000!

As a community, it’s our responsibility to support each other, this is another step in the right direction.  The support from the local community has been great; however, in order to expand the Iana Learn program, we need more people to contribute to our cause - generously contribute to Iana Financial and encourage your friends and family to do so as well.

We ask Allah to continue to help Iana help others.

Alhamdulillah, Iana Financial is pleased to announce the first loan under the Iana Learn program!  An interest-free loan of $12,000 was given to a well-deserving dentistry student.  He is an active volunteer in his local community and has a well-defined repayment plan.  We ask Allah to help him complete his program with perfect grades and to bless his career.

This year has been fundamental in building the foundation for our organization:

Vision
Iana Financial envisions the opportunity to revolutionize the financial system by offering its flagship Islamic profit sharing student lending program. According to Standard and Poor’s Rating Services, the potential growth for Islamic Financial Services is an estimated $4 trillion (US) becoming an emerging field of interest around the world. With this in mind, Iana Financial is working towards branding themselves as a recognized name in post secondary institutions and expanding to capitalize in offering other financial products such as business loans, investments, etc.

Funding Strategy
The funding strategy of Iana Financial, is based on creating a self sustainable pool of money trickling into the system of redistributing loans. In order to do so, Iana is researching the various grants that we are applicable for and further working to develop a plan of approaching business and individual funders. This will require a concrete strategy of approaching the “right people with the right approach”. Subsequently, we would also like to invest a portion of the loan funds into investments to create a stable medium of growing funds.

Marketing
Currently, Iana Financial is developing a marketing brochure which will serve as an quick informative guide to funders and students complementary to our website, presentations and exploration into partnerships with other like-minded
organizations.

Application and Loan Process
We have consistently been working on tweaking and refining our application and loan process to provide an efficient and secure system compliant with Islamic principles. The advice of various Islamic Financial experts and scholars has been helpful in guiding us to mitigate risks and clarify questions that have arisen. Our application form will be available online shortly, once we finalize the details.

Iana Financial will be having there annual quarter end meeting this month to plan our goals for 2009 in order to take the next step. We will keep you updated on our future initiatives.