About us
Rebuilding the economic life of a community, from the ground up.
Madinah Commonwealth Foundation is a South Florida organization working to restore the community institutions that once let Muslims hold land together, trade fairly and train skilled people. We serve the Muslim ummah first, and we remain open to everyone who respects the rules.
Who we are
A community building for itself, and for its neighbors
Our mission is to rebuild the economic infrastructure that allows Muslim communities to keep wealth circulating among themselves, while contributing to the wider communities where they live.
Every community builds its own welfare: its schools, its banks, its markets, its hospitals. The Muslim community is doing the same, using a pattern it knows better than any other community on earth, because it has fourteen centuries of history to learn from.
We are not a company selling a product. We are a standards-setting and teaching organization that helps communities build institutions they will own, govern and pass on.
How we got here
An old pattern, lost by law and ready to be rebuilt
622 CE
Madinah
When the Prophet (peace be upon him) arrived in Madinah, he set aside two things for the whole community: a mosque and a public market. Of the market he said:
“This is your market. Do not build anything of stone on it, and do not let any tax be placed on it.”
Centuries of growth
Cities across the Muslim world
Wherever Muslim cities grew, the pattern followed: a mosque, a public market held for the people, and groups of traders and craftspeople who worked together. In Al-Andalus, workshops gathered around the market. In Anatolia, the guild system flourished from the 13th century, until almost every worker in Istanbul belonged to a guild.
1455
The Grand Bazaar of Istanbul
The Ottomans built the Grand Bazaar as a waqf for the people of the city. It became the model for markets across their world, and it is still one of the most visited places on earth.
Late 1700s
The turn
New economic ideas swept through Europe. Laws were passed that opened markets and land to private ownership and abolished the guilds. This was a change made by law, not a natural decline. Public markets and shared property faded from memory, even among Muslims.
Today
The restoration
We are bringing the pattern back, starting in South Florida: shared land, a public market and guilds, rebuilt for the way people live and work now.
In the American context
What this looks like in America
The model comes from history, but it is built for here and now. These are five things it changes for people living in an American town.
Land that stays ours
In America, land is usually bought, sold and mortgaged. When a neighborhood improves, the price of land rises, and the people who built the neighborhood are often the first to be priced out.
We will place land in trust as a waqf, held by an independent nonprofit land trust. It can never be sold. Changing that would take a supermajority of the trust’s board and a vote of the community. A neighborhood can grow in value without pushing its own people out.
Markets for neighbors, not just shoppers
In a big-box store, thousands of people buy from one company. In a public market, thousands of people buy and sell from one another, and the money keeps circulating in the same community.
Instead of charging each vendor rent for a stall, the market keeps the trading floor free. It earns its keep by renting the services traders need, like storage, a commercial kitchen, delivery and workshop space. A family with a good recipe or a trade can start selling without a heavy upfront cost.
Work with ownership and dignity
Many people in America work for someone else for life, or piece together gig work with no security. A guild offers another road: skilled people share a workshop, equipment and a trusted name, train the next generation, and look after one another.
A young electrician, baker or software builder can start a business without borrowing a fortune for equipment, and can grow with the support of masters who have done it before.
A fair way to start a business
Starting a business in America usually begins with debt. We want to offer another way: an investor and a business owner become partners. The investor provides money, the owner does the work, and they share profit by a written agreement. If the venture loses, both bear it.
No one is trapped by interest, and the investor has a real reason to see the business succeed.
Our community first, and our neighbors with us
This work is built on Islamic principles and serves Muslims first. It is also open to anyone who respects the rules. A market open to every neighbor, a lodge for visiting traders and a spirit of hospitality mean that when the community prospers, the whole town feels it.
We build on what America already allows and values: community land trusts, nonprofits, cooperative businesses, small enterprise and religious freedom.
The bigger picture
From one neighborhood to a network
We plan in generations, not quarters. Each step has to work before the next begins.
Step one
One neighborhood
One plot of land held as a waqf, one public market and the first guilds. A small place where anyone can see the model working, and where we learn what has to be adjusted.
Step two
A whole city
More markets and guild clusters across a city, working with local governments and community groups. Cities that support public markets and guilds with fair rules help them grow and keep them honest.
Step three
A national network
Markets in many cities, linked by traveling traders who are welcomed as guests and welcomed back in return. Shared standards and simple digital tools make it easy for a business that starts in one town to sell in all of them.
What we hold to
Seven commitments that do not change
These are written into how we are built, so that the mission cannot be bought, sold or drifted away from.
- No riba. We never charge or accept interest, which means extra money demanded only for lending money.
- Halal in all we do. Everything we build follows what Islam permits.
- The community’s money stays the community’s. Money earned by a community’s markets, mosque, school and guilds stays with them. Our foundation takes none of it.
- Land is protected for good. Land placed in trust cannot be sold without a supermajority board vote and a referendum of the community.
- Open to all, rooted in Islam. Anyone who respects the rules is welcome to take part.
- Never for sale. The foundation can never be sold or taken over by outside owners.
- The mission cannot change. Those who come after us cannot alter the core mission.
Walk with us
Help build what comes next
Whether you can give land, give funds, give your skills or give your time, there is a place for you in this work.
Madinah Commonwealth is a public brand of Madinah Commonwealth Foundation LLC.