AAOIFI Standard 21 · auto-updated daily · free
invest-like.com runs every public stock through the AAOIFI Standard 21 halal screen at each quarterly refresh - the institutional benchmark cited by central banks in 40+ jurisdictions. The compliant cohort is then cross-graded against 7 documented value-investing frameworks (Buffett, Graham, Fisher, Lynch, Greenblatt, Munger, Smith). Free. No signup required.
How the screen works
Every stock must pass all four tests to be marked Shariah-compliant. The thresholds below are the AAOIFI defaults; we use the stricter version (30 percent debt) rather than the looser DJII version (33 percent) so the resulting cohort is the conservative subset most scholars accept.
The company's core business must not be in a prohibited category. Excluded: conventional banks, insurance companies, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pork, adult entertainment, conventional weapons, cannabis, conventional credit/lending, bond/income/leveraged funds, mortgage REITs. Specific industries above are excluded regardless of financial ratios.
Total interest-bearing debt / 36-month average market cap must be below 30 percent. Above 30 percent but below 40 percent: borderline (some scholars allow with purification). Above 40 percent: non-compliant on the financial-ratio test alone.
Income from haram sources / total income must be below 5 percent. Above 5 percent: non-compliant. Between 2 and 5 percent: passing but the investor is expected to purify the corresponding fraction of dividends (donate to charity). Below 2 percent: clean.
(Cash + interest-bearing securities + receivables) / market cap must be below 30 percent. Excludes companies whose value comes primarily from cash piles earning riba rather than from productive operating businesses.
v1 limitation: tests 1 and 2 are applied to every stock. Test 3 (non-permissible income) is applied where the company discloses revenue at the product-segment level - typically retailers and conglomerates with explicit segment data; hotels and travel companies rarely break alcohol revenue out, so we apply ticker-level overrides for the most-common cases (Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt). Test 4 (liquid assets) is documented but not yet automated in v1 - that's on the roadmap. Full methodology at /methodology/halal/.
Live universe
All 25 pass the AAOIFI Standard 21 screen AND score 60+ on the Buffett-Fit composite. The intersection of halal-eligible AND quality-screened is where the institutional Muslim investor cohort lives. Click any ticker for the full per-stock 4-test breakdown.
Which standard to follow
| Test | AAOIFI 21 | DJII |
|---|---|---|
| Debt / Market Cap | < 30% | < 33% |
| Non-permissible income | < 5% | < 5% |
| Liquid assets / Market Cap | < 30% | < 33% |
| Primary business exclusion list | stricter (broader exclusions on financial conglomerates) | slightly looser |
| Resulting universe size | smaller (stricter) | larger (looser) |
invest-like.com uses the AAOIFI thresholds as the default because they are the most-cited institutional benchmark in 2026 and align with the position of AAOIFI's chairman, Mufti Taqi Usmani. Investors whose scholar or madhhab uses different thresholds should treat the screen as a starting point.
Frequently asked
Halal investing is the practice of building a stock portfolio whose underlying businesses comply with Islamic commercial law (sharia). The main prohibitions are riba (interest income), maysir (gambling), gharar (excessive uncertainty), and dealing in haram goods (alcohol, pork, conventional weapons, adult entertainment). In practice this excludes conventional banks, insurance companies, alcohol producers, tobacco, gambling, and highly leveraged businesses, and favours real operating businesses with conservative balance sheets.
AAOIFI (Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions) Standard 21 is the most-cited institutional screen for evaluating whether a listed stock is Shariah-compliant. It uses four tests: a primary-business test (excluding banks, alcohol, gambling, etc.), an interest-bearing debt ratio test (debt / 36-month average market cap must be below 30 percent), a non-permissible income ratio test (income from haram sources must be below 5 percent), and a liquid-assets ratio test (cash + interest-bearing securities / market cap must be below 30 percent). AAOIFI is stricter than the Dow Jones Islamic Index methodology and is considered the institutional benchmark in 2026.
Both standards use the same four-test structure (primary business, debt ratio, non-permissible income, liquid assets) but with different numerical thresholds. AAOIFI caps interest-bearing debt at 30 percent of market cap; DJII caps it at 33 percent. AAOIFI is stricter; the resulting list of compliant stocks is consistently smaller. Most institutional Islamic funds follow either AAOIFI or DJII; invest-like.com uses AAOIFI as the default screen.
Every stock in the indexed universe is run through a programmatic AAOIFI Standard 21 implementation at each quarterly refresh. The activity screen checks the company's primary business against a documented exclusion list (banks, alcohol, gambling, tobacco, etc.). The financial-ratio screen checks interest-bearing debt against the 30 percent threshold. The result is a per-stock halal_status: compliant (passes both screens), questionable (borderline ratio), non_compliant (fails one or both), or insufficient_data (data missing). Methodology is published at /methodology/halal/ and the per-ticker page at /halal/[ticker]/ explains exactly why a given verdict was reached.
Yes under most institutional Islamic screens including AAOIFI. Visa and Mastercard are pure payment networks - they process transactions and charge fees, they do not extend interest-bearing credit (the issuing banks do that, not the networks themselves). Major Islamic index providers (Dow Jones Islamic Market, S&P Shariah, MSCI Islamic, Saudi Tadawul Shariah) all classify Visa and Mastercard as Shariah-compliant. invest-like.com applies the same treatment.
Conventional commercial banks earn the majority of their income from interest on loans, which is riba (prohibited under Islamic law). The prohibition is structural, not behavioural - even a well-managed conservative bank earns income in a way that AAOIFI excludes. Islamic banks (which use profit-sharing structures like murabaha and ijarah instead of interest) are separately permissible but are rarely available as listed stocks outside specific Gulf and Southeast Asian markets.
AAOIFI Standard 21's debt ratio test divides the company's total interest-bearing debt (long-term debt plus current portion of long-term debt) by the trailing 36-month average market capitalisation. A ratio above 30 percent means the company is structurally dependent on interest-bearing financing and is therefore non-compliant. The market-cap denominator (rather than total assets) is deliberately chosen because it reflects the equity-investor's view of the business: how much you're paying for the equity versus how much of the company is financed by interest-bearing debt.
No. invest-like.com is not staffed by Islamic scholars and the AAOIFI Standard 21 implementation is a mechanical pattern-match against published criteria. It is a structured filter, not a religious ruling. Investors with a specific scholar or madhhab ruling that differs from AAOIFI Standard 21 should treat the screen as a starting point and consult their scholar for the final word. AAOIFI is the institutional default we follow because it is the most-widely-accepted screen in 2026 and is referenced by central banks in over 40 jurisdictions.
Full methodology
/methodology/halal/
Every test, every threshold, every ticker override explained.
Comprehensive guide
/blog/complete-guide-halal-investing-2026/
3,000-word walk-through: AAOIFI vs DJII, scholar disagreements, beginner checklist.
Halal Conviction Portfolio
/consensus/
Stocks passing 5+ frameworks AND halal-eligible. Toggle Halal Mode in /consensus/.
New: the Halal Consensus 7 Index
A rules-based, equal-weight index of every stock that passes all 7 investor frameworks AND the AAOIFI Standard 21 screen. Daily levels, monthly reconstitution, and a tamper-evident public record of every constituent. The only index of its kind.
See the indexEvery Monday: the stocks that newly pass 5 or more of the 7 legendary-investor frameworks (Buffett, Graham, Lynch, Greenblatt, Munger, Fisher, Smith), plus every grade change that matters. The 5-year track record of this screen is published openly. One email a week, unsubscribe anytime.
The invest-like.com halal screen is a mechanical implementation of AAOIFI Standard 21 against current public fundamentals. It is a structured filter, not a fatwa. If your local scholar or madhhab has different guidance, follow that guidance - the screen is a starting point, not a final ruling. Educational only. Not investment advice.