Our Story

Our Story

Idafa Investments was started in 1994 by Ashraf Abdul-Haq Mohamedy, an entrepreneur and a student of Islamic Economics and Finance. Coming from a strong family background of investors, the choice of a profession in stock broking was natural for him, but he preferred to offer these services following the Shariah based investment philosophy.

Ashraf is of the opinion that Shariah is not the exclusive domain of Muslims, but is for the whole of humankind. Shariah consists of the teachings of the Qur'an and Hadith. Qur'an is Allah's message to humankind and it forms the primary source of instructions to all of us and Hadith or sayings and actions of the Prophet being the secondary source.

Alhamdulillah (All praises are for God alone) our efficient services and business dealings has brought us to the stage we are. With offices in Bombay and Surat and over 3000+ clients, we have transformed steadily from a plain sub broking company to an all round investment advisory and training institute offering pioneering services in the Shariah based investments sector.

We have a sincere and dedicated team of consultants who continuously monitor the stock markets to generate profits for you, without compromising on Shariah by avoiding any dealings in companies involved in:

• production and sales of alcohol,
• production and sales of tobacco,
• production and sales of vulgar entertainment
• lending and borrowing on interest (banks and finance companies

There are some financial parameters required for Shariah compliance like:

Debt to Assets:Exclude companies for which Total Debt divided by Trailing 12-Month Average Market Capitalization (TTMAMC) is greater than or equal to 33%. (Note: Total Debt = Short-Term Debt + Current Portion of Long-Term Debt + Long-Term Debt)

Debt to Assets:Exclude companies for which Total Debt divided by Trailing 12-Month Average Market Capitalization (TTMAMC) is greater than or equal to 33%. (Note: Total Debt = Short-Term Debt + Current Portion of Long-Term Debt + Long-Term Debt)

Receivables to Assets:Exclude companies if Accounts Receivables divided by TTMAMC is greater than or equal to 33%. (Note: Accounts Receivables = Current Receivables + Long-Term Receivables). receivables (current + long term) should not be more than 45% of the total assets.

It is often understood by people at large that Stock Exchanges are Gambling Dens and thus an unethical avenue for investment. This understanding is flawed, if we consider the criteria of investments listed above and the fact that any form of speculative trading, swing trading, margin trading, day trading, short selling or trading in derivatives is prohibited. In fact every investment has to done on the basis of the fundamental analysis of a company and its activities.

Investment Philosophy

We not to deal in certain prohibited industries. This philosophy is based on the Shariah requirements and the logic that what ever is bad for our personal consumption is bad for the society as well, and thus it is not permissible to be a part of such anti-social industry. All the industries we abstain from have serious implications.

Interest

The first and foremost amongst the industries in which we do not deal is interest-based investments. The institutes of Ribaa; through the financial houses like the World Bank and the International Monetory Fund (IMF) govern and practically control every country in the world.

Every individual in a country contributes towards the repayment of financial aid to his country. Thus a child is born into this world already indebted. Debtorship is the unique inheritance and heritage bestowed on him by his country.

The power of the "hidden hand" in international politics has always been economics. Economic Aid is too often the Trojan horse of all other ills. Political independence is an aspect of government that is not too particular with the appendages of the "hidden hand" The South African, Malaysian and Indonesian experience in late 1990s is clear proof of how instruments of debilitating power can emasculate those that consume the sweetened hemlock!

Interest and its consequences such as debt, joblessness and crime have entrenched a new and insidious kind of servitude. Entire nations have become bounded to the interest warlords and bankers. The mass enslavement of even the future generations has no parallel in the history of human race.

Alcohol

Investments in liquor companies are a strict no at Idafa Investments. Ethically speaking, alcohol has been a scourge of human society since time immemorial. It continues to cost countless human lives, and causes terrible misery to millions throughout the world.

It is a root cause of several problems faced by our society. The statistics of soaring crime rates, increasing instances of mental illness and millions of broken homes throughout the world bear mute testimony to the destructive power of alcohol.

Alcohol inhibits the inhibitory centre possessed by human beings in their brains. This inhibitory centre prevents a person from doing things that he considers wrong. But, when a person consumes liquor, the inhibitory centre itself is inhibited. That is precisely the reason that an inebriated person is found to be indulging in behaviour that is completely uncharacteristic of him.

According to National Crime Victimization Survey Bureau of Justice (US Department of Justice) 8 per cent of Americans commit incest i.e. one in every twelve to thirteen persons is involved in incest. Almost all the cases of incest are due to intoxication of one or both the persons involved.

Moreover, diseases attached with consumption of alcohol are many. Also one of the major factors associated with the spread of AIDS is alcoholism.

If alcohol is a disease, it is the only disease that . Is sold in bottles . Is advertised in newspapers, magazines, on radio and television . Has licensed outlets to spread it . Produces revenue for the government . Brings violent death on highways . Destroys family life and increases crime . Has no germs or viral causes.

Islam is called the Deen - ul - Fitrah or the natural religion of Man. All its injunctions are aimed at preserving the natural state of man. Alcohol is deviation from his natural state, for the individuals and the society. At Idafa Investments it is our solemn pledge not to deal in the alcohol industry and promote the industry that degrades a man to a level below that of the beasts.

Tobacco

Tobacco was discovered by the Spanish sailors on the American shores at about 1500 CE (900 AH). Since its discovery, the epidemic of smoking has continued to spread all over the world. In our times, one seldom finds a house not afflicted by it.

As early as the Seventeenth Century, the European countries realized the dangers of smoking and fought against it Laws were ordained in England, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, and other countries, prohibiting smoking and punishing violators.

Nowadays, the several governments continue their attempts to protect their peoples from the harms of smoking. They employ media means, ordain laws and regulations, and apply other methods to discourage people from smoking. Because of that, the rate of smokers has declined to a certain degree in those countries.

Smoking has become the rule, and abstaining from it is the exception. Often, people look with astonishment and disdain at a person who when a cigarette is offered to him, declines to smoke, explaining that he does not smoke.

Offering cigarettes to the guests has become among the first rules of hospitality. Anyone who does not offer them to his guests or insist on them to smoke would be violating the ethics of hospitality and generosity!

No one can deny the harm of smoking to the human body. The medical evidence for this is well established and overwhelming. Because of this, the law requires including a warning on any packet of cigarettes or chewable tobacco that smoking is injurious to health. Moreover the health ministry now has prohibited any display of smoking in TV commercials, serials and even movies.

Smoking contains poisonous materials, such as nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, arsenic, benzopyrene, etc., that the smoker swallows in small proportions. Their harm accumulates with time to result in a gradual killing of the human organs and tissues. The hazards of smoking to health are hard to enumerate. Cancer, tuberculosis, heart attacks, asthma, coughing, premature birth, infertility, infections in the digestive system, high blood pressure, nervousness, mouth and teeth diseases, etc., are among the many health hazards that have been strongly linked to smoking.

These diseases may not appear all at once, however a smoker is most likely to suffer from some of them, and his suffering increases as he grows older. Furthermore, statistics have established that smokers' age is, on the average, ten years less than other people's.

This is sufficient to prohibit smoking. Islam prohibits any action that causes harm to oneself or to other people.

START INVESTMENTS

The critical point to remember is that the earlier in your life you start investing in shares, the better the returns you can generate.

The money that you use to buy shares must necessarily be money that you do not need in the next three to four years. So you can start investing only when you have surplus money (after taking care of personal debts if any). Never borrow to invest in the stock market.

The surplus money that you have should be invested wisely in shares to reap the rewards. Of course investing is risky. Higher returns always come with higher risks. However the risks of investing need not deter one. After all, the rewards outweigh the risks.

A ship is safest in the harbour, but it was never built to stay anchored. Similarly, your surplus money is meant to create wealth for you. And it can't generate wealth for you unless you invest it in shares.

WHY INVEST

Investing means committing funds for financial gains in the future. It is extremely important to save regularly and invest wisely as the short time span in which we are able to earn money needs to provide for our future so that we can achieve our financial goals or retire peacefully.

But inflation destroys the value of what we save. A sum of Rs. 10,000.00 saved this year will not have the same purchasing power ten years down the line. Hence we need to preserve the purchasing power of what we save.

The only way to hedge inflation in an Islamic manner is to invest in equity shares, gold or real estate and to earn returns from these assets that compensate for the decline in our purchasing power

Investing in equity shares is like owning part of a business. A profitable business keeps ploughing back profits to earn more profits or rather "compounding profits".

Hence unlike investing in assets like gold, which are not productive, investing in shares, which represent ownership in productive assets (business), hold very high upside potential.

The "power of compounding" is what makes investing in stocks very attractive. In very simple terms it means that the returns on the principal also earn returns. In other words, Rs 10,000 that earns mere returns of 20% per annum becomes Rs 30,000 in ten years whereas Rs 10,000 compounding at 20% per annum turns out to be Rs 62,000 in ten years!

As you stretch the time horizon, your money appreciates further. Compounding at 20% per annum Rs 10,000 becomes Rs 62,000 in ten years, Rs 1,54,000 in 15 years and Rs 3,83,000 in 20 years. Hence the longer the duration of investment, the better are the returns.

If you top your original investment with regular savings, the return would be exponential, as you can see in the table given below:

The Power of Compounding with additional investment every month Here and excel sheet converted to image will come