Meet Our Amazing Team
Our Team Makes It Possible For Ansar To Be What It Is Today
Our Team
Our Ansar is a family of volunteers, only 2 to 3 people are employed at the office, the rest are involved because of our passion and love. So keep a look out on this page as more details of everyone at Ansar will follow soon.
Ali Akbar Mohammed
Founder
Ali was born in Pakistan but brought up and educated in the UK since 1962. After qualifying as an Optometrist in 1980 he became involved in Islamic youth work and in 1983 was heavily involved with the Muslim Youth Foundation in Manchester. In 1990, Ali became the Manchester Branch Coordinator of the Islamic Society of Britain. Ali realised that even though interest was forbidden, it wasn’t even possible to get an interest-free loan and so decided to do something about it. In 1994, with the help of some excellent and very committed Founding Members, Ansar was born and the very first community based interest-free loan facility in the UK was established. Ali was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) medal in 2020 for Services in Finance and Charity.
To contact Ali please e-mail Ali.Akbar@ansarfinance.org
Umm Isa
Operations Manager
Umm Isa joined the Ansar team in April 2018 as an executive who leads the Marketing team and works with trustees to support nationwide events and conferences . She believes networking with Ethical international financial institutes is essential to the growth of Ansar.
Anjum Zulfiqar
Chair, Ansar Trustee
Anjum Zulfiqar joined the Ansar Finance Board of Trustees in 2015 with several years of senior finance experience in various public sector organisations including NHS, Greater Manchester Police and British Rail. He is currently the Chair of Ansar Finance.
Mohammad Rafiq
Ansar Trustee
Mr. Rafiq has been supporting the cause of Ansar soon after it was established in 1994. He has also been involved with Islamic work for over a decade and is a specialist Auto Technician by trade. Through his business he comes into contact with mainly Muslim clients who rely heavily on credit card transactions oblivious to the fact that interest is forbidden.
Mr. Rafiq is passionate to help the Muslim community establish an alternative to interest-based finance and free people from economic suffering caused by this modern-day slavery of Riba’. Being a Trustee and Volunteer of Ansar is a great opportunity to earn the pleasure of Allah (swt) and at the same time give back to the community.
Abid Ahmed Satwilkar
Ansar Trustee
Abid Satwilkar is a founding member of Ansar Finance and has been a Director of an English Language and Management training company since 1996. He passionately believes in developing the Muslim community and has been involved in a range of organisations that develop spiritual, physical and vocational qualities for over 40 years, in order to improve individuals as well as positively impact wider society. Abid believes his involvement in Ansar is encouraging people to help each other and themselves to tackle the often-ignored evils of interest and offer true Shari’ah-based finance.
Naseer Nazar
Ansar Trustee
As one of the founding member of Ansar Finance, Naseer believes supporting such a fantastic cause is a blessing from Allah. Contributing to the Muslim community and the wider community has been a life-long passion. As a Trustee, his role is to promote and raise awareness of Ansar Finance to better serve the community. His profession since school has become a lifelong passion which has developed into product design. Since leaving Salford University with BEng in Electronic and Electrical Engineering and joining a start-up company the experience and team work has been inspiring. Since then he has continued to work in start-up companies. The current start-up company, Multisensor Systems Ltd, he is the Senior Design Engineer and is designing cutting edge instruments for the environmental water industry.
A Truly Interest Free Loan
Ansar – literal meaning ‘helpers’ in the Arabic language. This was the name given to the helpers of Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon him) in Madinah. We aspire to take lessons from the ‘Ansar’ and bring them to life in the 21st Century. As a result, we have been providing life-changing support by means of granting interest-free loans, since 1994, as one of the first providers of Shari’ah based finance in the UK. We are an established and registered charity passionate about building a better financial future in the UK.