Structuring, documentation and pronouncement for sukuk issuers, arrangers and trustees, including in markets issuing their first.
The recurring issue
The recurring Shariah issue in sukuk is not the contract chosen but the asset behind it: whether it exists, whether ownership transfers, whether the risk sits with the certificate holders, and whether the purchase undertaking quietly returns it all to the obligor.
Those questions are answered in the transaction documents, not the term sheet, and they are answered differently depending on whether the deal is being read by AAOIFI, by a local regulator, or by an investor in a third market who has to hold the paper for seven years.
Does the asset exist?
Identifiable, and capable of being owned
Does ownership transfer?
In the documents, not only in the term sheet
Who carries the risk?
It must sit with the certificate holders
What does the undertaking do?
Whether it quietly returns it all to the obligor
What we do
Choosing the contract that fits the asset, the cash flows and the investor base, not the one that is easiest to document.
Purchase and sale undertakings, service agency, lease, declaration of trust and the offering document.
Issued by a certified Mufti in the form required for regulatory approval and investor assurance.
For sovereigns, corporates and institutions issuing in markets without an established Islamic capital market.
Periodic review through the life of the instrument, including asset substitution and early redemption events.
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. One built only on a local resolution does not always.
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. Our founder co-authored Responsible Finance, Ethical and Islamic Finance: Meeting the Global Agenda (November 2019) with Tan Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, former Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, and Azleena Idris: a study of what ethical finance and Islamic finance hold in common and what sets them apart. That work informs how we assess a product’s value proposition, not only its contractual form.
Startups at ideation stage and central-bank-supervised institutions; markets with mature Islamic finance regulation and markets with none at all. Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, West and Southern Africa, Oceania, North America and Europe, and funds domiciled in the Caribbean and British Overseas Territories.
Best Shariah Advisory in Islamic Asset Management, presented in Jeddah in February 2026.
Members of our team advise a central bank Shariah board on sovereign sukuk, chair the Shariah committee of the largest corporate sukuk issuer in its market, and review sukuk through Shariah board seats at several banks.
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 asset and the issuance 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.
For a sukuk the cycle runs to maturity: the asset, the lease and the undertakings are re-tested every year the paper is outstanding.
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
Southern AfricaSukuk structured in Southern Africa. Structuring and Shariah certification for an issuance in a market outside the established Islamic capital market centres.
In progressIssuances in progress in West Africa and Central Asia, including sukuk-like fund structures where the local framework does not yet accommodate a conventional sukuk.
Members of our team advise a central bank Shariah board on sovereign sukuk and chair the Shariah committee of the largest corporate sukuk issuer in its market.
Questions
That is a large part of what we do. The structure has to satisfy Shariah while operating within whatever legal framework exists, trust law, securities law, tax treatment, and that is a design problem, not an obstacle.
All three, though not on the same transaction.
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 varies by jurisdiction and by size is the form that function takes, not whether it is needed.
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. We perform that role, can carry out the Shariah audit, and can form and support a Shariah board that conforms to your local regulation.
Yes. Our fund Shariah audit work includes structures domiciled in the Middle East, the Caribbean and British Overseas Territories, and we audit both the fund and its manager.
We commit two to four weeks for a first pronouncement, and it often runs longer in practice. The reason is the round trip between us rather than the review itself, so the more responsive you can be, the faster we both move.
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. The Islamic label is sometimes used by ventures that are not sound businesses, and compliance certification will not tell you which is which. Look at both questions, and do your own due diligence on the second. Every ADL certificate carries a reference you can check independently on our Verify Certificate page. Please use it.
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.