Shariah compliant stocks
A Shariah compliant stock is a share in a company whose business is permitted and whose balance sheet stays inside published limits on interest-bearing debt and interest-bearing cash. Both halves have to hold: a company in a permitted industry still fails if it funds itself largely with interest, and a company with a clean balance sheet still fails if it brews beer.
Akinda screens 12,500+ listed companies across United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Uzbekistan, and 3,585 funds through to their own holdings, under five separate standards. The five disagree, and we publish all of them rather than reconciling them into one number.
The four tests, in the order they are applied
These are AAOIFI’s, the standard Akinda’s own verdict follows. The first test can end the question on its own; the rest are measured from the audited accounts, which is why a verdict carries a date.
What the company does
An excluded activity ends it immediately, whatever the accounts say. The list runs from alcohol, tobacco and gambling to conventional banking and insurance, because interest-bearing lending is itself the objection rather than a side effect. The full exclusion list.
Rule The base list: conventional banks and regional banks, mortgage lenders, asset managers, stock and securities exchanges, derivatives dealers and clearing houses, insurance and life insurance, healthcare plans, tobacco, alcohol (brewers, distillers, vintners), gambling and casinos, and pork / non-halal meat.
Impermissible income
A permitted company can still earn a slice of revenue from something that is not — interest on deposits, a leased-out concession. Under the tolerance it stays compliant and the slice is purified; over it, the company fails.
Rule prohibited income (interest + prohibited) > 5% → NOT HALAL; impure income (including half-weighted doubtful) > 5% → DOUBTFUL
Interest-bearing debt
Measured against what the market says the business is worth, not against its assets. That denominator is why a share price fall can push a company over the limit with no new borrowing at all.
Rule (short-term + long-term debt) ÷ 12-quarter average market cap — fails at ≥ 30%
Interest-bearing cash
The mirror of the debt test: cash and short-term investments parked in interest-bearing instruments, against the same denominator. A cash-rich company can fail this one while carrying no debt whatsoever.
Rule (cash + short-term investments) ÷ 12-quarter average market cap — fails at ≥ 30%
Five standards, and they disagree on purpose
Each index provider writes its own thresholds and its own denominator. A stock can be Shariah compliant under one and not under another, and neither is wrong — they are measuring different things and saying so.
| Standard | Debt test |
|---|---|
| AAOIFIAAOIFI Shari'ah Standard No. 21 | (short-term + long-term debt) ÷ 12-quarter average market cap — fails at ≥ 30% |
| DJIMDow Jones Islamic Market Indices | interest-bearing debt ÷ 24-month average market cap — < 33% through 2026-09-18, < 30% from 2026-09-19 |
| FTSEFTSE Shariah Global Equity Index Series | debt ÷ total assets — < 33.333% |
| MSCIMSCI Islamic Index Series | total debt ÷ total assets — ≤ 33.33% |
| S&PS&P Shariah Indices | debt ÷ 36-month average market value of equity — < 33% |
Lockheed Martin is the standing example: doubtful under AAOIFI, compliant under Dow Jones and S&P, not compliant under FTSE and MSCI. One company, five published answers, all of them correct readings of their own rulebook. A product that shows a single verdict has quietly chosen one on the user’s behalf.
Compliance is not permanent
Two of the four tests divide by market capitalisation, so a stock can cross a limit on a price move alone, with nothing about the company having changed. The others move when new accounts are filed. Neither event is announced, which is why the useful thing to subscribe to is the change rather than the snapshot — an append-only feed of verdict changes and webhooks that push them as they happen. How the change feed works.
Common questions
What is a Shariah compliant stock?
A Shariah compliant stock is a share in a company whose business is permitted and whose balance sheet stays inside published limits on interest-bearing debt and interest-bearing cash. Both halves have to hold. A company in a permitted industry still fails if it funds itself largely with interest-bearing debt, and the verdict is recalculated from each new set of audited accounts rather than fixed once.
How do I know if a stock is Shariah compliant?
Four things are checked in order: what the company does, how much of its revenue comes from impermissible sources, how much interest-bearing debt it carries against its market capitalisation, and how much interest-bearing cash. Akinda screens 12,500+ listed companies across United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Uzbekistan and returns the verdict with the ratio behind it, so the result can be reproduced rather than taken on trust.
Why do two apps give different answers for the same stock?
Because they are applying different rulebooks, and the rulebooks genuinely disagree. The debt limit is measured against a 12-quarter average market cap under AAOIFI and against total assets under FTSE and MSCI, so the same company can clear one and fail another. Lockheed Martin is the standing example: doubtful under AAOIFI, compliant under Dow Jones and S&P, not compliant under FTSE and MSCI. All five are correct readings of their own standard.
Can a Shariah compliant stock stop being compliant?
Yes, and it happens without any announcement. The ratios are measured against market capitalisation, so a share price fall raises the debt ratio with no new borrowing at all, and a company can cross a limit between one quarterly filing and the next. That is why a verdict carries a date and why the useful thing to subscribe to is the change, not the snapshot.
Are Shariah compliant stocks the same as ethical or ESG stocks?
They overlap in the sectors they exclude and differ in everything else. An ESG exclusion is usually a revenue-share policy the fund manager sets; a Shariah screen is a rule from a published standard with a stated threshold and a stated denominator. Shariah screening also applies balance-sheet tests that ESG screening has no equivalent of, which is why a company can pass one and fail the other in either direction.
Is there a Shariah API for checking stocks programmatically?
Yes. A Shariah API is how a product answers the permissibility question without building a screening team of its own: you pass a ticker and get back the verdict plus the ratios behind it. Akinda returns five verdicts on the same call rather than one, because the standards disagree and hiding that picks a school of thought on the user's behalf.
Is there a list of Shariah compliant stocks?
There is no single fixed list, because the answer changes with every filing and with the share price. Akinda publishes the screen rather than a frozen list: the free tier gives 10 calls a day against the compliance endpoint, which is enough to run a watchlist and see the ratios behind each verdict before deciding anything.
Check a ticker against all five
The playground sends a real request and returns the verdict with the ratio behind it, so you can see what the screen did rather than only what it concluded.