IslamicFinanceGuru Podcasts · Islamic Finance Guru

Indian Entrepreneur: From council estate to building a global Muslim app

·47 min·3 clips

A bullied child in Oldham says he answered 'Tony Blair' when kids asked who he supported.

Shanaz begins with a memory from Oldham, where children asked who he supported and he said Tony Blair. He says he was badly bullied as a child and spent a lot of time crying. That personal story sets the tone for everything that follows. He describes arriving from Kerala, struggling with English, and later feeling lost again at LSE while studying economics. From there the conversation shifts to the Nia app and the response it has received. One recent app store review is read aloud, and it calls the app life-changing. Shanaz says the app now has users in 170 different countries. He takes that reach as proof that Muslims can build consumer products at a serious global level. He says the bigger goal is for Muslims to truly believe they can build great businesses while staying true to their values. The tone is practical, not abstract. The conversation then moves into belief. He says his reasons for being Muslim can be split into rational and emotional grounds. On the rational side, he starts with belief in God itself. He points to the design argument, using the scale of the human body and its chemical activity to argue against chance. He also raises the first-cause argument, saying there must be one cause greater than all other causes. He then turns to the Qur'an as the second major basis for belief. He argues that it is uniquely preserved. He also points to its linguistic excellence. The discussion treats these points as a structured case rather than a passing remark. Later, the conversation becomes more devotional. Ramadan comes up as a time to make the most of the last ten nights. Shanaz says the work should not stop with the month itself. He says the team plans to launch a Quran-in-a-year program. The idea is to help people work through the whole Qur'an with meaning and understanding over the year ahead. The episode closes with a gentle appeal to think about the role tech can play in deepening a person's relationship with Allah. The farewell is warm, but the message stays grounded in responsibility, belief, and long-term formation.

As heard by us

A Muslim founder story that treats business, belief, and identity as one question.

A Muslim founder story anchors the discussion, but it does not stay inside startup biography. It moves from council-estate life in Oldham to bullying, then to the drift and uncertainty of university, and it keeps returning to a harder question: how does a Muslim build something…

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Why you'd press play

You get a faith-rooted founder story that starts in Oldham and ends with users in 170 countries.

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