How do Islamic investments make money without charging interest?

The return comes from owning something real - an asset, a business, a trade - rather than from lending money at a fixed rate.

Money itself is not treated as a commodity that can be rented out. A predetermined return charged for the use of money is riba, and it is excluded. What replaces it:

• Rent on an asset that is genuinely owned and leased (ijarah)
• Profit on a real sale, where the seller owned the goods and the mark-up is disclosed (murabaha)
• A share of a venture's profit, with the loss shared too (mudarabah, musharakah)
• Dividends and capital growth from owning shares in screened companies

Sukuk are often described as "Islamic bonds", but a sukuk holder owns a share of an asset and receives the income it produces; a bondholder holds a debt and receives interest.