Partnerships & Investment Structures
We’re going into business together
Capital, work, profit, loss and exit, agreed on Islamic principles and written so English law enforces what you meant.
Partnerships & InvestmentBusiness services
Good faith deserves good paperwork.
Much of Muslim business life runs on trust, and that is a strength. But trust is not a structure. We help owners, partners and family firms put their arrangements in writing so they satisfy Islamic principles and hold up under English law.
Why it matters
Agreed in trust. Undefined in law.
Much business between Muslims is built the honourable way: a conversation, an understanding, a handshake. The problem is not the trust but the silence around it. When ownership, risk, profit and exit are never written down, English law fills the gaps with defaults.
The Partnership Act 1890 is the sharpest example. Two people who simply start trading together are, in law, partners on default terms neither of them chose. Partnerships & Investment Structures sets out what those defaults are.
- Defaults you never chose. Leave the terms unwritten and statute writes them for you, rarely the way you would have.
- Principles left to chance. Standard-form documents are not drafted with riba or gharar in mind. Signing them unread is how compromises creep in.
- Memory as the only record. The best relationship in year one is not evidence in year ten. Write it while you still agree.
LawFiq’s work is making good faith legible: scholars who know what Islamic commercial principles require, alongside advisers who know what English law will enforce. Where regulated legal services are required, these are provided by our partner SRA-regulated law firm.
Where to start
Six doors into the same room
Start with the decision in front of you. The first conversation will map everything it touches.
Commercial Contracts
A contract needs to be right
Supply terms, service agreements, standard forms, reviewed clause by clause against both standards before you sign.
Commercial ContractsSharia-Compliant Structuring
We want the business itself to be sound
How the company is owned, financed and run, assessed candidly, with a realistic path where change is needed.
Sharia-Compliant StructuringBusiness Succession
We’re deciding who takes over
Ownership, management and inheritance planned together, so the business survives its founder by design, not luck.
Business SuccessionFamily Business Advisory
The family and the firm share a table
Roles, pay, entry and exit for the people who are both relatives and colleagues: clarity that protects both institutions.
Family Business AdvisoryBusiness Mediation
A dispute needs settling privately
A structured, confidential process with an accredited mediator, before the dispute costs more than the disagreement.
Business MediationHow we work
From understanding to documents that hold
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Understand
A confidential conversation about the venture as it is, not as the paperwork says. We set out where you stand in both frameworks.
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Structure
We design the arrangement: who owns what, who bears which risk, how profit is shared, what happens on exit: sound in principle and workable in practice.
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Document
The structure becomes enforceable documents, drafted to English standards.
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Keep it current
Businesses change: new partners, new capital, the next generation. We review the arrangement when the facts move.
Who you’ll be working with
Scholarship on one side, law on the other
Commercial questions get commercial answers, from people qualified to give them in both frameworks.
Shaykh Saad Al-Deen Al-Dhafiri
Islamic Board
Specialist in Islamic commercial jurisprudence and Islamic economics: graduate of the Shariah College of Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, Master’s in Fiqh and Usul, working across the four Sunni schools and the AAOIFI standards.
Syed Ali Zakir
Consultant Solicitor
An SRA-regulated solicitor associated with LawFiq, supporting matters that require regulated legal input.
Where a matter turns into a dispute, Owais Qarni, LawFiq’s founder and an Accredited Mediator, leads the business mediation practice. Meet the full team.
Practical questions
Asked before the first meeting
Is LawFiq a law firm?
No. LawFiq is a UK advisory company: we advise on how Islamic principles and English law apply to your business, and we plan and coordinate what needs to happen. Where regulated legal services are required, these are provided by our partner SRA-regulated law firm.
Do you give investment or financial advice?
No. We advise on principles, structure and documentation. We do not recommend financial products, promote investment opportunities, introduce investors or arrange investments. Activities of that kind are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and where your plans need them, they belong with an FCA-authorised firm. We are happy to work alongside one.
We already have solicitors and accountants. Where do you fit?
Alongside them. Most advisers are not equipped to assess an arrangement against Islamic commercial principles; that is the dimension we add, working with your existing solicitor, accountant or bank rather than replacing them.
Can the work be done in Arabic?
Yes. You can work with us in Arabic or English, and language requirements can be discussed when arranging your consultation.
How confidential is this?
Completely, from the first call. Commercial matters often involve family, community and competitors at once; we are careful about all three.
Book a consultation
Bring us the business as it is.
One confidential conversation, and you’ll know where the arrangement stands in both frameworks and what to do about it.
Book a consultation
Or call 020 3930 1088