Your grandmother probably ran one. Your aunties run one now. We're not reinventing anything — we're just removing the spreadsheet, the WhatsApp confusion and the trust risk.
To make the rotating savings circle — gam'iyya, kameti, hagbad, pardna — work the way it always has, but safer, more transparent, and at internet scale.
Hundreds of millions of people already use this model. Most do it on trust, with no record-keeping and no protection if something goes wrong. We're building the trust layer that lets the model leave the WhatsApp group without losing what makes it work.
No jargon. Just numbers.
10 trusted people form a circle on HalalPot. They agree: £500 each, every month, for 10 months. Order: random ballot.
Month 1: Slot 1 winner is Ayesha. The other 9 members each transfer £500 to Ayesha's bank account directly. Ayesha receives £4,500 in her bank that day. (She's also paying her own £500 — into… well, herself, so really she just doesn't pay this month.)
Month 2: Slot 2 is Omar. Same flow — 9 transfers of £500 land in Omar's account. He gets £4,500.
Month 10: Slot 10 is Khaled. He's been paying £500 every month for 9 months (£4,500 total) and now receives £4,500. He's effectively used the circle as forced savings.
By the end:
HalalPot's role: generate the schedule, send the reminders, verify each member's identity at signup, run fraud checks, log every confirmation, store the audit trail. We never see, hold or move a single pound.
The rotating savings circle has been examined by Islamic Finance Guru — the UK's leading Islamic finance commentary platform — alongside Mufti Billal Omarjee. Their public verdict: the model is Sharia-compliant. No interest is charged or earned. Total in equals total out. The only revenue is a flat administrative fee for running the platform — which is a service charge, not riba.
HalalPot follows the same model and is open to formal review by any independent Sharia board or scholar. We will publish any rulings or certifications we receive.