Structuring, certification and ongoing Shariah supervision across equity, real estate, ETF, mutual fund and REIT mandates, for managers in Oceania, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
The operational challenge
Screening tells you what a fund may hold. Whether the fund is compliant is a separate question. That depends on the constitutive documents, the mandate, the treatment of cash and leverage, the handling of dividends from partially non-compliant income, the redemption mechanics, and what happens when a holding falls out of compliance mid-quarter.
Most of the Shariah questions a fund faces are operational rather than analytical, and they arrive after launch.
Investment mandate
What the fund may hold, and what treatment it receives
Cash and leverage
Treatment of non-productive assets and borrowing
Dividend handling
Treatment of income from partially non-compliant holdings
Mid-period compliance
What happens when a holding falls out mid-quarter
What we do
Constitutive documents, investment mandate and prospectus disclosure reviewed and certified before launch.
Including real estate and property ETFs, and alignment with a client-specified index methodology where a mandate requires it.
Structuring and ongoing Shariah advisory across retail and institutional mandates.
Tenant screening, income mix, financing structure and the treatment of non-compliant rental income.
Funds constituted on trust, and the Shariah treatment of the trust relationship, the trustee's role and the beneficiaries' entitlement.
Holdings monitored through the life of the fund, with a defined process for divestment and purification when a holding falls out.
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 build pronouncements primarily on AAOIFI standards and reconcile them with the applicable local regime. A pronouncement 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.
We assess against the objectives of Shariah and value-based criteria as a matter of course, informed by frameworks this market pioneered.
Startups at ideation stage and central-bank-supervised institutions; markets with mature Islamic finance regulation and markets with none at all.
Best Shariah Advisory in Islamic Asset Management, presented in Jeddah in February 2026.
Members of our team have served as Shariah adviser to mutual funds and have been invited to advise on real estate and property ETFs across Oceania, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
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 business model before we quote.
Scope, timeline and fee agreed, agreement signed.
The deep stage: the structure, the parties, the layered agreements, the documentation and the disclosure.
Findings returned and worked through with your commercial, legal and technical teams; the structure is adjusted.
Issued by a certified Mufti.
Issued under a reference any counterparty can verify independently.
The Shariah report your board and regulator require feeds straight back into the next cycle of supervision.
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 legal and compliance 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 startups at ideation stage and with central-bank-supervised institutions, in markets with mature Islamic finance regulation and in markets with none at all. One size does not fit all. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you what it takes.
Evidence
Real estate funds (Oceania)Structuring and Shariah advisory across a series of property fund mandates.
Real estate fund (Southern Africa)A further real estate fund structuring and certification engagement.
Trust company (Southeast Asia)The company takes funds on trust and deploys them across a range of fund structures. We advised on the arrangement and on the funds it invests into.
Members of our team have served as Shariah adviser to mutual funds and have been invited to advise on real estate and property ETFs.
Questions
It is divested within a defined window and the income attributable to the non-compliant period is purified. What matters is that the process is written down before it is needed, not improvised when a holding is downgraded.
Yes. We advise and audit funds domiciled in the Middle East, the Caribbean and British Overseas Territories.
We build primarily on AAOIFI standards and reconcile with the applicable local regime. A pronouncement grounded in AAOIFI travels. One built only on a local resolution may not.
You should not. Under international Shariah governance standards, including AAOIFI, and under most regulated regimes, an Islamic financial service provider is expected to have its own Shariah adviser or Shariah board. Without one there is no mechanism by which Shariah governance can actually be assured; there is only an assertion.
What matters is that the ongoing Shariah compliance function exists, which is the requirement under AAOIFI standards and the IFSB framework, not that it sits on your payroll. The governing principle is proportionality. For most institutions the function can be discharged by an external Shariah advisory firm.
The process must be clearly defined in the fund documents before launch. It includes identifying non-compliant income streams, calculating the purifiable amount, and directing it to charitable purposes. The method depends on whether the non-compliance is structural or incidental to the fund's operations.
Our certification confirms Shariah compliance. It is not an assessment of whether a fund is well-managed, whether its financials are sound, or whether the team running it can execute. Look at both questions, and do your own due diligence on the second.
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 with our Shariah team. We will tell you at the first meeting whether the structure works, and what it takes if it does not.