big company (like Microsoft) that has low levels of interest bearing debt (high levels being against shariah)—purchased with the investor's cash. a contract involving two mutually exclusive promises (hence "double"): that on an agreed day in the future the investor will receive a return linked to a given benchmark; that the bank will purchase the investor's asset "for a price equal to the benchmark" So despite the fact that benchmark involves non-compliant investments, the contract is not "bilateral", because "the two undertaking promised are mutually exclusive", and this (proponents say) makes it in compliance with shariah. In 2007, Yusuf DeLorenzo (chief sharia officer at Shariah Capital) issued a fatwa disapproving of the double wa'd in these situations (when the assets reflected in the benchmark were not halal), but this has not curtailed its use. Put and call options Like the Islamic equivalent for short sales, a number of Islamic finance institutions have been using the down-payment sale or urbun as an sharia-compliant alternative to the conventional call option. In this mode the Islamic equivalent of the option "premium" is known as a "down-payment", and the equivalent of the "strike price" is called the "preset price". With a conventional call option the investor pays a premium for an "option" (the right but not the obligation) to buy shares of stock (bonds, currency, and other assets may also be shorted) in the hope that the stock's market price will rise above the strike price before the option expires. If it does, their profit is the difference between the two prices minus the premium. If it does not, their loss is the cost of the premium. When the Islamic investor uses an urbun they make a down-payment on shares or asset sale in hope the price will rise above the "preset price". If it does not their loss is the down-payment which they have the right to forfeit. A put option (where the investor hopes to profit by selling rather than buying at a preset price) is called a 'reverse urbun` in Islamic finance. Criticism The urbun and reverse urbun has been criticized by Sherif Ayoub, and according to El-Gamal and Feisal Khan, the procedure has many critics among scholars and analysts. Microfinance Microfinance seeks to help the poor and spur economic development by providing small loans to entrepreneurs too small and poor to interest non-microfinance banks. Its strategy meshes with the "guiding