Islamic Businesses

[Arabian Princess]

I found this intresting website : www.muslim-investor.com

I hope it would benefit you all.

What type of Businesses are prohibited in Islam?

Food and Beverage Related


Alcoholic Beverages

Islam forbids a Muslim to manufacture, consume or sell all intoxicating material, which include all Alcoholic beverages (such as Wine, Beer, ...etc.)

Pork and Pork Products

Tobacco products
Even though many Muslims do consume Tobacco, its harmful effects on one's own health (as well as other passive smokers) is undisputed. Therefore, many scholars are of the opinion that Tobacco products are prohibited in Islam.


Gambling

Gambling in all its forms is prohibited.
This includes Casinos, Internet Gambling Outfits, betting, such as Horse and Dog racing, ...etc.
Lottery schemes can also be considered as a form of gambling, regardless if it is run by governments or not.

Pornography and Adult oriented Material

Whether in the form of Video tapes, Magazines, Internet images, or stripping clubs, all Adult oriented material is prohibited, whether fo minors or adults alike.


Interest and Businesses based mainly on Interest
Interest is considered Usury (Riba) and therefore business that have a significant portion of its income from interest are considered prohibited. This includes Banks, Credit Card, Financing, Mortagage, ...etc
(this website said that some proportion of intrest is "not haram" if it was insignificant to the amount of income, but what I know that any cent earned from Intrest is Haram)

Illegal Activities

Many illegal or unlawful activities are prohibited in Islam, either explicitly of implicitly. These include:

Prostitution

Extra marital sexual relationships are forbidden in Islam. Therefore, it goes without saying that profiting from such activities are also prohibited.

Drugs

Because of their intoxicating effect, drugs are considered the same as alcohol (see above). Moreover, because of the deeply addictive nature of drugs, and their effect on ones health, finances, family and society, they are prohibited



(these things express the website opinion, I have no authoirty to say if its true or not, I just wanted to give a general overview of what is accepted and what is not)

[mimosa]

Princess,

This relates to the other threads on Islamic banking etc. The safest form of investment for a Muslim wanting to ensure that their investment is made in an 'Islamic' way, is to invest diretly in companies they approve of.

This looks like a useful guide to finding those companies. But then again, 99% of internet content is rubbish, so best to check the companies out yourself.

Also, it is always good to invest in companies across a range of different industries and countries, so that problems arising in one industry or region do not affect you so much.

If you don't have enough money to invest in several companies directly, then some sort of unit trust bought through an Islamic bank (or approved Islamic branch of a regular bank like HSBC or whatever) would be another good option.

[Arabian Princess]

Well yah it related to ISlamic banking but I did not want to include it there because this could provide a guide for people who want to open thier own businesses too (and who are muslims)

I also beleive like you that sometimes it is hard nowadays to know what company is really dealing islamicly, and therefore you should put ur money in places where at least they are not dealing with a "haram" business.