Notes from Shaykh Joe Bradford's 'Buying a Home Islamically' Seminar
In 2017, Shaykh Joe Bradford delivered a seminar on the fiqh and practical mechanics of purchasing a home in accordance with Islamic law. Audience notes from that event offer a useful summary of his key arguments.
In January 2017, Shaykh Joe Bradford delivered a seminar on the topic of buying a home through Islamic finance. The session covered the foundational fiqh of permissible and impermissible financial transactions, the classical conditions for murabaha, and the practical landscape for Muslims purchasing homes in America at the time.
Audience notes captured from the event — shared via The Thinking Muslim — outline Bradford's argument that understanding the objectives of Islamic commercial law (maqasid al-muamalat) is a necessary foundation before evaluating whether any specific product is halal. He addressed the common concern that Islamic mortgage products are "just the same as a conventional mortgage with extra steps," offering a framework for evaluating whether the structural and risk-bearing differences are substantive or cosmetic.
Read the audience notes published on The Thinking Muslim.
Joe Bradford is an American scholar of Islam, ethical finance advisor, and author who concentrates on the intersection of Islamic commercial law and contemporary Western financial systems. He holds a graduate degree in Islamic Law and Legal Theory from the Islamic University of Madinah and a PhD in Islamic Law from the International Islamic University of Malaysia, along with the CSAA certification from AAOIFI. Through his practice, joebradford.net, he advises individuals, institutions, and startups on Shariah-compliant financial planning, estate structuring, and investment.
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