Halal investing forbids investing in debt, making many traditional investment vehicles off-limits to Muslims seeking to follow Sharia guidance. As a result, many in the Muslim community have limited their investments to cash savings and real estate, leaving them poorly diversified. Junaid Wahedna decided to fix that.

Wahedna, who graduated from Columbia University and spent years working in finance in New York City, was in a good position to launch Wahed Invest, making Halal investing easy.

What we do is run an ethical filter over all our investments. So, what that means is we screen for excessive debt, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, pornographic material and a few other you know minor unethical things

Halal investing has not been especially difficult for wealthy investors. A variety of products and advisors have been available to the high-net-worth individuals for generations. The challenge has long been finding compliant investments for small investors.

One key to building a successful platform for ordinary investors to conform to Islamic investing standards was to give them access to sukuks, a Halal fixed income product traditionally sold in $200,000 minimum increments. “Sukuks are in essence Islamic bonds,” Wahedna explains.

Wahed Invest allows ordinary investors to open an account with just $100 and to participate in Sukuk investments along with carefully screened equity investments.

Read the full article on Halal investing by Devin Thorpe at Forbes