Building and maintaining a compliant investment universe, against AAOIFI criteria, the applicable securities regulator's methodology, or a mandate-specified standard.
The methodology question
Sectoral exclusions and financial ratios are published and largely settled. What is not settled is everything around them: which financial statements the ratios are run against, how often, what happens between reporting dates, how a conglomerate with a small non-compliant subsidiary is treated, and what the tolerance is when a company crosses a threshold by a fraction.
Two screeners applying the same published criteria routinely produce different universes. The difference is method, and method is what a client is buying.
Financial statement timing
Which statements, reporting period, and time lag
Threshold tolerance
Handling borderline cases and near-misses
Complex structures
Conglomerates, holding structures, diversified groups
Mid-period events
What happens between reporting dates
What we do
Business activity assessment, including revenue mix analysis for diversified groups and holding structures.
Financial ratio testing against AAOIFI standards, the applicable regulator's methodology, or a client-specified standard.
Building the compliant universe and maintaining it through reporting cycles, with a defined process for entries, exits and borderline cases.
For investing platforms, robo-advisers and equity crowdfunding operators screening issuers before they list.
One-off or periodic assessment of an existing portfolio, with a remediation and purification path for what fails.
Quantifying non-compliant income and advising on its treatment.
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 screening system, we review the logic.
Registered Shariah Adviser with the Securities Commission Malaysia and with Labuan Financial Services Authority.
We build screening methodologies primarily on AAOIFI standards and reconcile them with the applicable local regime.
Beyond applying Islamic finance standards, our team has been commissioned by a standard-setting body: research towards a governance standard and participation in the drafting of a preliminary standard.
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.
We have built end-to-end screening systems for equity crowdfunding operators and robo-advisers, and advised venture capital funds on portfolio screening methodology.
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
Equity crowdfunding platform (Southeast Asia)End-to-end qualitative and quantitative screening carried out against the assessment framework applied by the securities regulator.
Venture capital fundEvery startup in the portfolio screened before funding, with ongoing review.
Portfolio and fund screening across mandates in Oceania, Southern Africa and the Middle East.
Questions
AAOIFI standards as the default, reconciled with the applicable securities regulator's methodology, or a client-specified standard where a mandate requires one. We tell you which standard produced which result rather than presenting a single unattributed answer.
No. Screening decides what a fund may hold. Audit verifies that the fund did what it said it would. Screening is advisory work performed before and during; audit is assurance work performed after.
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.
That depends on the mandate and the reporting cycle of the underlying companies. A screened universe must be updated through every reporting season and on ad-hoc basis when holdings are downgraded or otherwise materially affected.
The process for handling borderline cases and exits must be written down in advance, not improvised when a holding is downgraded. The decision framework should specify the remediation window and whether divestment is required.
Yes. We perform one-off and periodic portfolio screening assessments, and can provide a remediation path for holdings that fail to meet your Shariah criteria, including purification of non-compliant income.
Our screening 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 methodology works, and what it takes if it does not.