Italian Millionaire Investment Banker Accepts Islam

this is a story of an Italian millionaire Banker's fascinating Journey towards Islam Ruggiero lamonico achieved extraordinary success in the investment industry in the early 1990s he was a young Italian and a graduate internship studying Finance he was Keen to make a life in the field of banking but something happened that made him reconsider his choices in life he had three dreams in the first one he saw himself standing on the day of qiyamat engulfed in the Noor of Allah he describes it as an opaque light that was eternal and had stopped time and space he felt that his past life was a distant and far away his troubles had vanished and he was extremely at peace he woke up in the middle of the night longing for that feeling to return that was a good feeling he thought he wondered how he could stay in this light forever but at that time he was agnostic he did not believe in any God and therefore did not realize that he was standing in Allah's Noor the minute he drifted back into sleep he had another dream he saw himself hanging upside down in darkness again he was out of time and space he felt a feeling of desperation and he wanted to get out of that state the next day he spent a lot of time thinking about what he had seen the next night when he went to sleep he saw himself in a position of sajdah he felt that a force was keeping him in that state he could see a mountain with a burning tree and a voice behind him said don't deny my existence when he woke up in shock he found himself in prostration and thought that he needed to take some action he was sure at this point about the existence of God but he wanted to find out how to communicate with him he started going to the Christian School and started learning about religion from scratch one day during his military service he was standing guard and staring at the floor he saw some ants coming in and out with some sticks on their head when Sunset came they put the sticks in a hole closed the opening and then two of them stood guard Ruggiero thought nobody could have taught them to do this so there must be a higher power governing them when his service finished he hopped on a bus to go back home he was staring out the window and pondering over nature the mountains leaves Etc a woman was sitting next to him Ruggiero started a conversation with her about the existence of God this woman turned out to be a Muslim and later on she sent Ruggiero a copy of the Quran with the Italian translation when rugiero opened the Quran he felt like the words were spoken by the same entity that spoke to him in his dream they were the words of a king a master Rogero started going to the mosque with one of his Muslim neighbors and during one iftar dinner he started a discussion on finance when rugero told his neighbor that he plans to work in a bank he was surprised to hear that interest was in halal in Islam and therefore he should ideally look for some other job for some time Ruggiero felt that all his plans and dreams about the future had been shattered but it was a test of his faith he could have still started working in a bank but his intention was pure he did not want to do anything unislamic he stayed steadfast on the religion but also was determined to find Halal jobs in the banking sector he printed out copies of his resume and started going around in different Islamic countries looking for work he went to the Middle East but had no success he then went to Malaysia and had no success there but he was advised to go to London as he would find Opportunities there he joined the graduate training program in the treasury Department of JP Morgan but he still had doubts about the permissibility of his job and that's why he kept on researching Islamic Finance for two years in a library in Holland Park came to London Stratford Maryland station J.P Morgan one day in the library he saw two men talking about Islamic Finance he asked them if I could join in on the discussion one of the men was Farid who was the illegal advisor for Islamic Banking and Institute and the other gentleman was an Islamic scholar Ruggiero soon became great friends with Farid and this connection paved the way for his success in the world of Finance Fareed called a few months later and told Ruggiero about Iqbal Khan who was looking for young Muslim professionals to work on global Islamic Finance Institution for HSBC Ruggiero jumped at this opportunity and wrote a letter to Iqbal Khan telling him that he is studying Islamic finance and has good experience with the derivatives as well he had an interview with Iqbal Khan and entered into the world of Islamic Finance finally from this point onwards Ruggiero got massive opportunities he was approached by the Finance Minister of Qatar to arrange financing for the new Doha airport through experience he soon learned that he would have to move away from the theoretical models of Islamic financing and focus on the Alternatives like murabba and ijara with a promise to buy back soon Ruggiero joined hands with one of his colleagues from neither bank and together they set towards establishing a product to deal with others Islamic Banks the other Islamic Banks wanted to deal with conventional Banks but they couldn't just deposit their money into the money market Deposit they had to come up with an Innovative solution rugero's colleague showed him a triangular structure with Islamic Bank buying Commodities and then selling those Commodities to the inner bank and then the inner Bank was selling them back to the market Ruggiero spoke to the scholars who advised that they had to start somewhere even though this model wasn't ideal the scholars believed that it would pave the way for more Sharia compliant opportunities rugero believes that the scholars were very right to agree because if they had continued to insist Ruggiero and his team wouldn't have gotten anywhere because to operate a bank account you need to have banking license and that puts you under the supervision of the central bank so to start an Islamic Bank they had to sacrifice feisty Theory fast forward to 2023 everyone is talking about Islamic Finance even in Saudi where people were very doubtful of Islamic banking rogero's team introduced some Islamic products and within a few months ninety percent of new products were Islamic within a couple of years the whole of saudi's British Bank was Sharia compliant rogero's story is proof that if someone leaves something for the sake of Allah Allah replaces it with something better despite envisioning a future in the conventional banking system rugero kept himself protected from Haram he kept studying Islamic finance and persisted in his quest for finding a Halal alternative using his determination along with Allah's help he eventually found Sharia compliant ways of banking and investment today Ruggiero is the leading rasmala Bank as a fund manager he invests in long-income real estate and infrastructure Assets in UK Continental Europe and North America hope you found today's video informational and inspiring don't forget a like subscribe and share foreign

Channel: Muslim Convert Stories

Views: 59,570

Keywords: investing, Accepts Islam, Millionaire

Id: yDOIZLAcn4k

Length: 8min 15sec (495 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 17 2023