Zakat calculated on the right base, for companies and institutions that have to get it right and report on it. And waqf structured to outlast the person who founded it.
The problem
Individual zakat is largely settled. Corporate zakat is not, because it depends on how the company's own accounts are constructed: which assets are zakatable, how work in progress and inventory are treated, what happens to receivables of doubtful recovery, whether the base is net current assets or something else, and how group structures and minority holdings are handled.
Two competent scholars applying the same fiqh to the same company can reach different numbers because they were handed different accounts. That is why this work sits between Shariah and accounting rather than in either one.
Which assets are zakatable
Depends on the balance sheet, not a fixed list
Inventory and work in progress
Treated differently depending on the accounting
Receivables of doubtful recovery
Included, excluded, or partially so
Group and minority holdings
Change what the consolidated base actually is
What we do
Base determination, asset classification and the calculation itself, worked from the company's actual accounts.
For funds, financial institutions and endowed bodies, including the treatment of investments held on behalf of others.
Including complex holdings, private company shares, investment portfolios, property and receivables.
Policy, methodology documentation and the disclosure a board or a regulator will ask for.
Cash and property waqf: constitution, governance, permissible investment of the corpus and distribution of returns.
Campaign structures for platforms and institutions raising against these categories.
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 company's accounts and asset structure before we quote.
Scope, timeline and fee agreed, agreement signed.
The deep stage: asset classification, inventory and receivables treatment, group structures and minority holdings.
Findings returned and worked through with the company's finance team; the base is agreed.
Issued by a certified Mufti.
Issued under a reference any counterparty can verify independently.
For corporate zakat the cycle runs every reporting year: the base is recalculated against the current accounts, and the methodology is re-tested every time the accounts change materially.
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 companies calculating zakat for the first time and with institutions running it as an annual process. One size does not fit all. Tell us what you are building and we will tell you what it takes.
Evidence
South Asia and other regionsCorporate and institutional zakat, together with zakat advisory for individuals, a repeat practice rather than a single engagement. Waqf and zakat campaign structuring for a charity crowdfunding platform, covering both the campaign models and the treatment of funds raised.
Questions
The principles are the same; the application is not. Corporate zakat turns on how the company's balance sheet is built, which assets are zakatable, how inventory and work in progress are treated, and how receivables and group holdings are handled. It is as much an accounting exercise as a fiqh one.
It depends on the jurisdiction, the corporate form and the shareholders' own positions. Both approaches exist in practice and the choice should be documented as a policy rather than left to be re-decided each year.
Yes, and cash waqf is the more practical form for most founders today. The structural questions are how the corpus is preserved and invested, and how the return is distributed. Both of which need to be settled at constitution.
A pronouncement is the scholarly ruling, the reasoned opinion that a calculation or structure, 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.
Yes. The base depends on the current accounts, so it is recalculated annually. The methodology itself should stay consistent year to year unless the business or its accounting materially changes.
Typically yes. Most clients return annually once the methodology is settled, since the base changes every reporting year even when the policy does 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 calculating zakat for the first time or constituting a waqf meant to outlast you.