Amana’s Reality Check: Muhammad Rasoul on Swap-Free Accounts, Financing, and Fair Access to Markets

I recently caught up with Muhammad Rasoul, the CEO of amana in their office in Dubai, along with VPs of Business Development Elie Harfouche and Amr Masri. As Muhammad says, he is “an open book”. A very refreshing conversation with a very candid CEO about some of the approaches he has brought to amana to create a quiet, honest, consistency and long-term approach to customers. Listening to someone who has been in the industry from both sides, as a trader and then as a broker, and who is applying life-lessons to create a fair trading environment was really refreshing.

The company culture is to provide a trusted and safe place for clients to do business, and this is paying off. The word ‘amana’ in Arabic, generally means trust, honesty, loyalty, or responsibility. It refers to the deep moral duty to uphold a safeguard or entrust something valuable to another person or entity.

Under the leadership of Rasoul, the Dubai-based, multi-regulated broker embodies the meaning of the company’s name and has grown its direct-to-consumer business ten-fold in three years — while refusing to aggressively market products that Rasoul says are not grounded in how markets actually work. Personally, I love what they have done with their branding, having known amana for many years. I am sure this change from what (I hope they don’t mind me saying this) looked like a Craig’s List type website in the past to where it is today (fresh, modern and open), has really helped with growth and trust.

“The goal that I told the guys when I started was we’re gonna create something that I would want like my mom or my cousin or my brother to trade on,” Rasoul says. “… we’re just trying to give people fair access.”

“Financing Exists Everywhere Leverage Exists”

One of his most pointed observations concerns the notion of swap-free trading. At a time when many retail brokers promote “swap-free” or “Islamic” accounts to attract clients in the Middle East, amana has chosen a different route.

“If you are dealing with a broker that offers you swap-free, they have to be internalizing your order flow, and they have to want you to lose,” he explains. 

“Because if they externalize your order flow, swap-free doesn’t exist. That’s not how the markets work. Anytime you use leverage, there’s a financing component, always.
It doesn’t matter if you’re JP Morgan or a startup broker — there’s always that. That’s the reality.”

Rasoul stresses that amana does not build its marketing around such products.

“We don’t promote things like swap-free,” he says. “The amount of swap-free accounts that we have are so small, they don’t even show up.”

The Religious and Economic Reality

When asked whether amana’s Middle-East focus means it must offer swap-free accounts, Rasoul replies bluntly:

“No. Because it goes against the first premise, which is reality.”

He elaborates that leveraged derivatives, by their nature, carry financing.

“Anytime you use leverage, there’s a financing component,” he says. “So if you are dealing with a broker that offers you swap-free, they have to be internalizing your order flow and they have to want you to lose.”

For traders seeking products aligned with Islamic principles, Rasoul’s advice is candid: “If you have a practicing Muslim that is worried about financing, then the way that we should speak to them is to say, well, we don’t offer that, because even if I didn’t offer you that … it’s still haram.”

He notes that the underlying issue is not onlymerely the interest/riba charge but the leverage itself. “You’re basically buying and selling more than what you actually have money to control, which is a part of what makes it not permissible. The interest and/or the Riba associated with it also makes it not permissible.”

What Is Permissible? Fully Funded Trading

Rasoul distinguishes between leveraged speculation and fully funded investing.

“Fully funded FX is fine. Fully funded gold is fine,” he says. “Speculation is not haram. Gambling is haram. So if your speculation bleeds into ‘oh my God, I gotta make this money back no matter what, I think it’s going up,’ you’re kind of gambling.

If you spend a couple of days analyzing the market and you think gold is going to break out … and you buy $100,000 worth of gold with $100,000, okay? There’s no interest or ribaebate inon it — you’re just speculating on price movement. It’s like buying a house… and hoping that over time it will appreciate in value. Wwe don't really cater to that kind of fictitious world, because the dynamic between you and the customer is very, it just starts from a bad spot, you know what I mean?”

That, he says, is the moral line amana operates within: enabling funded speculation (like physical gold) while offering fair and transparent access to leveraged products—not disguised gambling.

“Well, that was a condition, actually, with me accepting this job, and the shareholders have been great, because there was lots of things that I told them that I wouldn't do. I'm just not gonna do this, you know? What I've managed to convince them on is that I think that we can create a great business that's not deceptive, that tells it like it is, and then we have a really good value proposition to customers”

And we hope that they have a good experience. And if a customer doesn't have a good experience, and it's something that we've done wrong, then we make them whole. And that's our promise to the customer base. 

Building a Business on Honesty

For Rasoul, refusing to disguise leverage as “interest-free” or “shariah compliant” is part of a broader ethical framework.

“We’re just trying to provide a fair place,” he says. “Whether or not I agree with if people can make money over the long term, they still deserve a fair place to do their business, and whether or not I agree with leverage, they still deserve, if they choose to use it, a fair option.”

Sam Low, Founder, LiquidityFinder & Elie Harfouche VP Business Development, amana

Elie Harfouche also confirmed the approach to leverage “We offer them this product and it's up to people how to use it.”

Rasoul: “It's like everything in life. We try to caution them, I mean, our standard onboarding of customers is 25 times leverage (lower than ESMA’s minimum)…but any more than that is just Russian Roulette.” The hope is to have longer-term customers, so that amana is not playing the churn game the whole time. 

Rasoul says that some customers still ask for more leverage, “But about 15% of our customer base come in and immediately say, can I get more leverage? And about half of the 15% are like, can I get even more? So when they request it, we basically tell them, okay, but, you know, this is dangerous. That's why I put the lightning bolt on all the products in the app with leverage.”

“Then we tell people that. If you look at some of the content on our website, you know, we're pretty clear with people about it. If you choose to use leverage, the vast majority of these people lose money.”

All Rasoul’s videos on social media are very clear about the cautious approach to trading - don’t over trade and don’t overleverage:

Elie Harfouche, who has been with amana through the transformation, credits that candour for changing both the culture and the client base.

“Before, it was a mix of IBs, corporates and some retail,” Harfouche recalls. “Now we’re 90–95 percent B2C. The culture is completely different — open, healthy, transparent.”

A Fair Place to Trade

That philosophy also shapes amana’s product design and client communication. The broker’s onboarding leverage is capped at 25 times, and clients are warned explicitly about the odds.

“If you use leverage, nine out of ten people are gonna lose money. Then we tell people that,” Rasoul says. “Just understand that going into it.”

In an industry where marketing often overshadows meaning, Rasoul’s pragmatism feels unusual.

“Free markets for free men and women,” he adds. “That’s a key first principle.”

Contact Elie Harfouche at amana to learn more

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Author

Sam Low is the Founder of LiquidityFinder. With over 18 years in working with FX trading technology, Sam has deep experience in the FX (forex) trading industry, working with brokers, liquidity providers and end traders themselves.  You can message Sam directly here.

Risk warning: CFDs and other leveraged derivatives are complex instruments and carry a high risk of rapid losses due to leverage. Consider whether you understand how these products work and whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money.