Can I invest in mutual funds or SIPs, and how do I check if they're Shariah-compliant?

A SIP (Systematic Investment Plan) is just a payment mechanism — investing a fixed amount regularly — so it's neither halal nor haram by itself; what matters entirely is what the underlying mutual fund actually invests in. Most conventional mutual funds in India hold a mix of interest-bearing bonds/debt instruments and conventional stocks across all sectors, which generally makes them non-compliant, so you specifically need a fund marketed and screened as Shariah-compliant.

In India, dedicated options exist — such as Tata Ethical Fund, Taurus Ethical Fund, and Nippon India ETF Shariah BeES — which apply stock-level Shariah screening (the same business-activity and financial-ratio criteria described in Q8) to their holdings and generally avoid interest-bearing debt instruments. Even with a Shariah-compliant fund, the same purification principle from Q8 typically applies to the small impermissible-income portion, and it's worth checking the fund's current Shariah advisory/screening methodology directly, since fund holdings and compliance status can change over time.

Source: general application of stock-screening standards (see Q8) at the fund level; see FundsIndia and Rupeezy overviews of Shariah-compliant mutual fund schemes available in India.