A question from Yahoo! Answers:

Which is the muslims investment instrument?

Most Islamic scholars agree that investing in stocks is generally consistent with the norms of Islam. Exceptions include companies that are involved in gambling, lending, and production of alcohol and pork; some scholars add to the list companies that manufacture tobacco and weapons, others, companies that have unacceptable labor practices.

Investing in fixed income is typically not okay. Not all scholars agree that Islam forbids all interest (there are scholars who argue that only excessive interest is forbidden, but they are a relatively small minority). So Muslims worked out quite an array of financial instruments that get around the prohibition of interest. Search the Web for “murabaha” and “sukuk”; these are probably the most popular lending structures in Islamic countries…