How is investment a different thing to do than gambling (which is haram)?
It depends on your intention in the end. Value/long-term investing is hardly gambling, or you're saying that buying real estate is gambling. Short-term/speculation is generally viewed as bad - even among economists and traders considering how it brings very little value to the economy - and something a good Muslim should not really take part in.
That said, short term speculation can sometimes be excused to be honest. A short term business venture for example (like taking advantage of a current fad) could be a legitimate investment.
It's a grey area really. The modern markets are too complex to be making generalised rulings on. I daresay that they are out of many scholars' depths.
your question is incorrect; A) gambling (in it's broadest sense) is based 100% on chance, no skill required:
A mentally retarded person can gamble; all they have to do is pick what to bet on. If you are just buying stock in any company you think is doing good and you assume they'll continue on that trend without reading up on them, then that is identical to gambling and in this case alone: You are correct investing is IN THIS CASE very similar to gambling, but not exactly the same, because a shareholder can always lay claim on assets to the value of his share in the company. That's a fundamental difference.
B) You always have knowledge (to some extent) of the outcome of one and never any knowledge of the outcome of the other:
The gambler has no hint or clue what the outcome will be, the only knowledge he does have is odds, and when he puts his money into the pot, he receives nothing in return
C) One is a trade, the other is not -When you invest in a company, you become an owner of that company and you own a percentage of that companies equipment/assets/debt/etc.
-When you bet on something, the only thing you get in return is hope.
I'm sure everyone can expand on this, but this is not something you need to go to the Qur'aan or Sunnah for, pure logic, so no references.
To invest is to buy and sell something, long or short term to make a profit. i.e. you could buy shares, or gold, or property, or bananas and sell it later when the value increases. and/or you can profit from what you invested in while you own it. That is basically investment, which is halaal.
To gamble is to bet, i.e. you put money down on a table and say that if my card is chosen, I win, or if my dice lands on 6, I win. That is haraam.
So as you can see, investing and gambling are 2 totally different things.
Here is a fatwa about it: http://islamqa.org/hanafi/daruliftaa/8574
One difference is that investing promotes production and manufacturing and beneficial products for Ummah and creates useful job which results in many benefits for having a healthy society. But gambling has no beneficial product. Without investing many of factories and industries will never start working.
Anyway we do not know why God has made Islam laws. Only some reasons are said by infallibles (Prophet SAWW and Ahl al Bayt).
Also difference of investment and gambling seems off-topic in this site that is about Islam.
