About this site
An independent research publication for English-speaking Muslims who want to understand why an investment is or is not permissible, and who have been handed labels instead of reasoning.
Why this site exists
Most people who look into halal investing hit the same wall. One app marks a company as compliant and another marks the same company as not. A certificate turns out to cover the fund’s holdings but not the account features layered on top. A forum answer arrives with confidence and no citation. Meanwhile the money sits in cash, losing value, because nobody has given a straight answer with the reasoning attached.
That gap is not caused by a shortage of scholarship. It is caused by a shortage of translation: published standards exist, they are detailed, and almost nobody outside the industry reads them. This site reads them and shows the working, so that you can follow the argument rather than take a verdict on trust.
A verdict describes an instrument as documented, under a named standard, on a stated date. It is not a fatwa, not advice, and not a judgement about any investor’s intention.
— Our editorial standard
Scope
What we do and what we do not do
What we do
Explain the principles in plain English
Riba, gharar and maysir, and the contract structures used in their place, without assuming you read Arabic legal texts.
Assess product types against a named standard
One kind of product per note, measured against a published standard we cite by clause.
State disagreement openly
Where recognised scholars differ, we name the positions and say whose view is whose.
Publish our corrections
Marked as corrections, with the original reasoning left visible above the amendment.
What we do not do
Issue rulings
We are not a Shariah board. A ruling on your circumstances comes from a qualified scholar.
Give personalised advice
We are not licensed to, and we will not answer what you should buy, sell or hold.
Certify or rate providers
We are not a certification body, and no verdict is for sale at any price.
Assess named companies
Notes cover product types, so the reasoning transfers and no business carries a claim we cannot defend.
Methodology
How an assessment is made
Name the standard
Each note states the published standard it is measured against and cites the clause rather than a summary of it.
Read the documentation
Prospectuses, key investor information, account terms and scheme rules as published. Not marketing pages, not a certificate badge.
Record the disagreement
Where recognised scholars reach different conclusions, the note sets out each position and attributes it.
Date it and list the sources
Standards and documents change, so every note carries a review date and the list of documents it was read against.
Where our limits are
We are not a Shariah board, and we have no standing to issue a ruling. We are not licensed to give financial advice, and in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada it would be unlawful for us to tell a particular reader what to do with a particular sum of money. We do not certify products, and we do not sell a verdict.
We also do not assess named companies or named funds. Every note takes a product type — a fixed-return deposit, a screened index fund, a staking arrangement — because the reasoning is what transfers, and because a compliance claim about a named business is a claim we are not in a position to defend.
Where scholars differ
Where recognised scholars reach different conclusions, we set out each position and attribute it, and we leave the question open. Presenting one view as the only view would misrepresent the state of the scholarship, and readers would have no way to know it had happened.
How this is funded
The site is funded by readers and, where they appear, by disclosed affiliate arrangements. An affiliate arrangement is disclosed on the page where the link appears, in plain words rather than a footnote, and it never changes an assessment. No provider has ever paid to be assessed, and none can.
Who writes it
Editorial team
Halal Sarmaya is written by a former investment operations analyst who spent nine years reading fund documentation for a living, and who started this publication after failing to get a citable answer about a workplace pension default.
Research notes are read for accuracy against the standards cited before publication. Where a note turns on a contested point of law, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved. Reader corrections are welcome and are published as corrections.
This is educational content, not a fatwa or personalised financial advice. Investment carries risk, including loss of capital. Verify any specific product with a qualified Shariah scholar and a licensed financial adviser before investing.