Why this exists
One friend got me curious about a real gap in halal investing tools. The principles below are what keep it honest as the product grows.
I'm not Muslim. Here's why I'm building this.
My name's Gordon. I build software in Hong Kong. I'm Chinese, not Muslim, and until two years ago I didn't know what “halal investing” meant.
What changed: a close friend of mine — devout, careful, the kind of person who actually reads the fine print on his retirement account — showed me his screen on one of the popular halal investing apps. The app said a stock passed. He didn't believe it. The numbers his scholar would have used weren't in the app at all. The verdict was just there, take it or leave it. No math, no citation, no way to argue with it.
That moment didn't feel like a finance problem. It felt like someone being told what their religion permits by a black box. And once I saw it, I couldn't stop seeing it. The Hanafi following Mufti Taqi Usmani's stricter rule, the Ja'fari Shia with a different framework entirely, the zero-tolerance community — all of them squeezed into one app's single default.
I built Mizan because I'm a builder, and because the gap was obviously real, and because the fact that I have no religious stake is exactly what makes me the right person to represent all the scholars fairly. I will never claim authority I don't have. I cite the sources. I show the math. I don't tell anyone what to follow.
If you're Muslim and you find Mizan useful, that's the whole point. If you find something wrong, email me at hello@mizaninvesting.com. I read every message personally.
Four operating principles
Scholars hold religious authority. Mizan does not.
Mizan summarises what scholars have publicly said and cites the source. Mizan never issues a ruling of its own. Disagreements between scholars are surfaced, not hidden.
Show the math.
Every verdict is reconstructable from the published thresholds and the financial data. No black-box scores. Open the 'Show the math' section on any verdict to see exactly what was checked and against what limit.
Credibility through citation.
Every threshold in the screening engine traces back to a public, primary document — AAOIFI Shariah Standard No. 21, Mufti Taqi Usmani's published works, the S&P DJIM methodology PDF, the Sistani office's Code of Practice. Until a Shariah Supervisory Board is formally seated, the citation chain is the credibility.
The strict view is a first-class profile.
Most apps either ignore the zero-tolerance regime or hide it. Mizan ships it as one of six profiles, with the same care as AAOIFI or DJIM.
Who's behind this
Gordon Louie
FounderSolo founder. Leads product, engineering, methodology research, and every other surface of Mizan today. Not a scholar — defers every religious question to the cited primary sources and to qualified scholars the project will engage as it grows. Reads and replies to every substantive email personally; no support tickets.
Contact: hello@mizaninvesting.com
Mizan does not yet have a formal Shariah Supervisory Board, a named co-founder, or paid scholar engagements. Until those happen, credibility comes from the primary-source citations on /methodology and from the honest scoreboard on /trust. Both pages are updated as facts change.
Facts on file
- Founded
- 2026
- Base
- Hong Kong
- Operating entity
- Mizan Operations (HK) Ltd · in formation
- Holding company
- Mizan Holdings Ltd, Cayman Islands · planned Q3
- Funding status
- Bootstrapped, applying to Cyberport CIP (deadline Aug 3)
- Team size
- 1 — Founder, building solo today
Direct lines
- General
- hello@mizaninvesting.com
- Methodology challenge
- methodology@mizaninvesting.com
- Investors
- investors@mizaninvesting.com
- Privacy / data
- privacy@mizaninvesting.com
Every substantive email is read by the founder personally. No support tickets, no auto-responses.