Wallets, payments, remittance and digital deposit products, including stablecoin and fiat rails, structured and supervised for Shariah compliance across multiple licensing jurisdictions.
The problem
Moving money is not, in itself, a Shariah problem. The problems arrive with everything attached to it: how the fee is characterised, how currency exchange is executed and settled, whether float earns anything, what a stablecoin actually represents, and whether a credit line extended to smooth settlement is a facility or a loan carrying benefit.
A platform licensed in several jurisdictions has to answer these questions in a way that holds in each of them, on one technical stack.
Fee characterisation
For a service rendered, not for time or money
Exchange and settlement
Sarf timing where value moves faster than counter-value
Float treatment
Whether customer balances earn anything
Settlement credit
A facility, or a loan carrying benefit
What we do
Fee basis, agency relationships and settlement mechanics structured so the charge is for a service rendered rather than for time or for money.
Sarf requirements applied to real-world settlement timing, including where value moves faster than the counter-value.
What the instrument represents, how reserves are held, and whether the arrangement supports the contract it is used for.
The Shariah treatment of customer balances held pending settlement.
One structure that satisfies Shariah while working within several different licensing frameworks.
Cross-border transfer where value and counter-value move at different speeds, and the sarf requirements that constrain how that is settled.
The stored value relationship itself: what the balance represents, whether it is a deposit, an amanah or something else, and what that means for how the balance may be used, invested or lent.
Structuring profit-bearing and non-profit-bearing digital deposit products, and the treatment of any return paid on a wallet balance.
Cross-linked to our Islamic banking practice for institutions building a licensed digital offering.
Why ADL
Our team pairs certified Muftis holding AAOIFI qualifications with people who understand code, systems and product architecture. We hold Malaysia Digital Status from the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation, a technology credential, held by a Shariah advisory firm. Where there is an app, we go into it. Where there is a core banking system, we review the configuration.
Registered Shariah Adviser with the Securities Commission Malaysia and with Labuan Financial Services Authority.
We work primarily against AAOIFI standards and reconcile with the applicable local regime. An opinion grounded in AAOIFI travels across borders.
Beyond applying Islamic finance standards, our team has been commissioned by a standard-setting body: research towards a governance standard, participation in the drafting of a preliminary standard, and a series of training assignments.
Auditing against another adviser's pronouncement is ordinary work for us, as is being audited by another firm. Independence is the point of the exercise.
We work in jurisdictions with mature Islamic finance regulation and in markets with none at all, where the structure has to satisfy Shariah while operating entirely within a conventional rulebook.
Best Shariah Advisory in Islamic Asset Management, presented in Jeddah in February 2026.
Members of our team hold Shariah board and committee seats across the institutions we serve, so our advisory work is informed by governance experience, not only by external review.
How we hold ourselves
Our measure of a good year is not only revenue. It is whether we helped one more business get to halal. That is why we will take a call from a founder at ideation stage, and why our pricing bends to what a client can actually carry. We would rather a small platform get its structure right at the start than be priced out and get it wrong at scale.
A business built on an Islamic label still has to be a good business. Sound fundamentals, capable people, honest disclosure, and a high standard of compliance with local regulation, because that is what protects the customer and the investor. Shariah compliance sits on top of that foundation. It is not a substitute for it, and we will say so if we see it being treated as one.
The Lifecycle
Compliance is a state you maintain rather than a certificate you obtain, and the audit cycle is how you maintain it.
We understand the rails, the corridors and the licences before we quote.
Scope, timeline and fee agreed, agreement signed.
The deep stage: the fee basis, the settlement timing, the float treatment, the agency relationships and the licensing constraints in each market.
Findings returned and worked through with your product, treasury and compliance teams; the structure is adjusted.
Issued by a certified Mufti.
Issued under a reference any counterparty can verify independently.
For a payments platform the cycle runs for as long as the rails are live: the structure is re-tested every year, and every time a corridor, licence or settlement partner changes.
We commit to two to four weeks for a first pronouncement. In practice it often runs longer, and in our experience the reason is the round trip rather than the review. We raise amendments, and your product and engineering teams need time to work through them. We would rather set that expectation now than surprise you in week three.
Engagements are scoped and priced individually. We have worked with wallets at licensing stage and with payment platforms settling live volume across several jurisdictions. One size does not fit all. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you what it takes.
Evidence
Payment platform licensed in three jurisdictionsNorth America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. An ongoing engagement advising on the delivery of Shariah-compliant payments using stablecoins and fiat currency, across the platform's licensed markets.
Questions
It depends on what backs it, how the reserve is held and invested, and what the holder's claim actually is. The category has no single answer; the specific instrument does.
As consideration for a service actually rendered, priced to the service rather than to the amount transferred or the time the money is held. Where a platform prices as a percentage of value, that needs a justification the contract can support.
Before engineering commits to a build. A Shariah issue found at design stage costs a change of structure. The same issue found after launch can cost a rebuild, a re-papering of customer contracts, and the purification of income already earned.
A pronouncement is the scholarly ruling, the reasoned opinion that a product, as described, complies. A certification is the instrument that evidences it, carrying a reference your counterparties can check. The pronouncement is the judgment; the certificate is the proof.
Usually yes, but it has to be designed for it. We build the structure to satisfy Shariah while working within each licensing framework, rather than certifying one market and hoping the opinion travels.
It varies by client. Some stay with us for ongoing advisory as corridors and partners change; others come back for audit at specific points. Both are normal, and we would rather set the arrangement to what you actually need than sell a retainer you do not.
Our certification confirms Shariah compliance. It is not an assessment of whether a business is viable, whether its financials are sound, or whether the people running it can execute. Look at both questions, and do your own due diligence on the second. Every ADL certificate carries a reference you can check independently.
Book a consultation, whether you are applying for a payments licence or already settling volume. We will tell you at the first meeting whether the structure holds.