How do I get out of riba-based debt?

By Mehdi, Senior Sukuk Fund Manager · Updated May 2026

If you are carrying interest-based debt, I am not here to make you feel worse — you almost certainly already do, and shame has never paid off a single pound. Let us turn it into a plan instead.

The short answer: You get out the same way you get out of any deep water — steadily, and without panic. Stop adding to it, list every debt honestly, attack the most expensive interest first while making minimums on the rest, and do not let shame stop you from asking for help.

Riba debt is one of the few things where the deen and the arithmetic point in exactly the same direction: get rid of it. No investment reliably out-earns the cost of the interest you are paying, so clearing it is the highest, safest return available to you — and it lifts something genuinely harmful out of your life at the same time. That is a rare win on both sides.

The method is unglamorous and it works: stop taking on new interest-based debt today, write down every debt with its rate, then throw every spare pound at the most expensive one while keeping the others ticking over. As each falls, roll its payment onto the next. And if the hole is deep, speak to a reputable non-profit debt advisor — seeking help is not weakness, it is responsibility.

Stop the bleeding — no new interest-based borrowing from today.
List every debt with its interest rate, honestly and on paper.
Attack the highest-rate debt first; pay minimums on the rest, then roll each freed payment onto the next.
If it is overwhelming, get free help from a reputable non-profit debt advisor — quietly, without shame.

Every payment that closes a riba debt is not just budgeting — it is removing something Allah warned us about from your life, and that is worship. Imagine the lightness of standing free of it. Move toward that, steadily, and trust that the One who decreed your rizq will not abandon you on the way.

Your Next Step · Free

This is one piece of a bigger question: is your financial foundation sound enough to build on?

The Akhirah Financial Compass walks you through that in about ten minutes, free — and tells you exactly where to focus first.

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This is education, not personalized financial advice or a religious ruling. Screening status can change, and your situation is your own. Confirm a specific holding against its current Shariah screening, and any ruling with a qualified scholar you trust. The decision, as always, is yours, before Allah.