Questions, answered simply.
What we screen for, how it works, and who it's for — without the jargon.
The basics
- What does Xumirah actually do?
- We screen the companies in major indexes (starting with the S&P 500) for Shariah compliance and the values you choose, then help you build a basket of the names that pass — which you own directly in your own brokerage. You hold the actual shares, not units of a fund.
- What does “Shariah-compliant” mean here?
- A company has to clear two kinds of checks. First, what it does — a business whose core activity isn't permissible (for example, interest-based lending, alcohol, tobacco, gambling) doesn't pass. Second, the shape of its finances — broadly, a company shouldn't carry too much interest-based debt or earn too much of its income from non-compliant sources. We apply recognized scholarly standards to draw those lines.
- What is direct indexing, and why does it matter?
- Instead of buying one share of a fund that pools everyone's money, you buy the underlying companies directly — so your account holds the individual stocks. That means you can remove the names that don't fit your values, see exactly what you own, and keep full control. A pooled fund can't be customized the way a basket of your own shares can.
Screening & your rules
- What's the difference between Standard, Strict, and Lenient?
- They map to recognized scholarly standards, and we publish the exact limits (each expressed against market cap):
Shariah screening is always on — pick whichever standard you're comfortable with and change it any time.Standard Debt Cash & interest Impure income Strict (AAOIFI, default) ≤ 30% ≤ 30% ≤ 5% Standard ≤ 33% ≤ 33% ≤ 5% Lenient (DJIM) ≤ 33% ≤ 33% ≤ 5% - Can I add my own values on top of Shariah screening?
- Yes. Climate, weapons, military-occupation, governance and recent-controversy filters stack as an optional overlay on top of the Shariah screen — they never replace or weaken the Shariah verdict. Turn on the ones that matter and the qualifying list updates immediately.
- Why did a particular stock fail?
- Every verdict comes with its reason — whether it was the company's line of business or one of the financial checks, or a values filter you switched on. You'll never get an unexplained “no.”
- How fresh is the screening?
- We re-screen against up-to-date company financials and news on an ongoing basis, so a verdict reflects where a company stands now — not a snapshot from months ago. If something you hold stops being compliant, Track tells you.
Who it's for
- Is Xumirah built for Muslim investors?
- Yes. Xumirah is built specifically for Muslims who want to know whether a stock or ETF is halal — with the verdict, the actual financial ratios, the purification owed, and the filing evidence behind it. Ethical filters like climate and weapons are an optional layer on top of the Shariah screen, not a replacement for it.
- Do you give financial advice?
- No. Xumirah is a screening and portfolio-building tool, not investment advice. You decide what to buy and hold. Markets carry risk and the value of investments can go down as well as up.
Trust & methodology
- How do I know the screening is sound?
- Our compliance checks follow recognized scholarly standards for Shariah investing, applied consistently and transparently — every result shows the reasoning behind it. We're built in Qatar, in the heart of the market we serve.
- Will you publish your exact thresholds and data sources?
- The thresholds are published — see the table above and the methodology page — and every stock shows its own ratios against those limits, plus the verbatim filing evidence behind a business-activity verdict. What we keep in-house is the internal scoring, weighting, and data-cleaning that keep coverage accurate.
- What is AAOIFI?
- The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions. It publishes the scholar-backed rulebook most Islamic banks follow and that Gulf regulators require, and its Financial Paper Standard No. 21 is Xumirah's default equity screen and the strictest of the six standards on offer.
- Why isn't there a Hanafi or Shafi'i screening option?
- Because equity screening has no classical madhhab position to map onto. The joint-stock company postdates the four schools of fiqh, so every modern standard, AAOIFI, Dow Jones Islamic, FTSE Shariah and the rest, is contemporary scholarship worked out across madhhabs, not one school's ruling. That is why Xumirah names standards after the institutions that set them rather than a madhhab, and why switching standards is switching institutions, not switching schools. See the methodology page for where the thresholds themselves come from.
Still curious? Just try it.
Paste a portfolio and watch the screening happen — no sign-up.