Screeners disagree. Here is precisely where.
If two halal apps have given you opposite answers on the same stock, neither is necessarily wrong and neither is necessarily careless. They are applying different published standards. This page shows you which ones and what separates them.
The five standards, side by side
| Standard | Denominator | Debt limit | Needs price data |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAOIFI SS 21 | spot market capitalisation | 30% | yes |
| Dow Jones Islamic | 24-month average market cap | 33% | yes |
| S&P Shariah | 36-month average market value of equity | 33% | yes |
| MSCI Islamic Series | total assets | 33.33% | no |
| FTSE Yasaar | total assets | 33.333% | no |
Sepcrium screens on the last two rows. Most consumer halal apps screen on one of the first three.
Why the denominator decides so much
Debt is the same number under every standard. It comes off the balance sheet and nobody argues about it. What differs is what you divide it by.
Total assets is an accounting figure. It changes when the business changes — when the company buys a factory, writes down goodwill, or pays down a loan. It does not move because someone on an exchange changed their mind about the stock.
Market capitalisation is a market figure. It moves every day, and it can double in a year without the company doing anything at all. Under a market-cap standard, the same balance sheet can be compliant in June and non-compliant in December because the share price fell.
Worked example
A company with $100m of debt, $300m of total assets, and $500m of market capitalisation:
Total-assets basis
Market-cap basis
Which direction the disagreement runs
It is not random, and knowing the pattern tells you when to expect it.
- A company trading well above book value — a large market cap relative to its assets — looks better on a market-cap basis. Total assets is the stricter test. Expect us to fail names that other screeners pass.
- A company trading below book, or one that has had a bad year — asset-heavy, depressed valuation — looks worse on a market-cap basis. Here total assets is the more forgiving test, and we will pass names others fail.
- A company near the line either way is where the buffer rule matters, and where two screeners running the same standard on different quarters can still disagree.
There is a third source of disagreement that has nothing to do with denominators: timing. Standards rescreen on different calendars. A screener that last rebalanced in March and one that rebalanced in June will differ on any company whose position changed in between, even if they use identical arithmetic.
What to do when we disagree with your other app
- Find out which basis each is using. If they don't say, that itself is information about how much of the method you're being shown.
- Look at which ratio moved. Ours are all on screen with numerator, denominator and threshold. If the debt ratio is the one that differs and the debt figure matches, the denominator is your answer.
- Decide which basis you follow — ideally with someone qualified to advise you on it. This is a question about which scholarly position you hold, not a question about which app has the better database.
- If both agree, that tells you something too. A company comfortably inside every threshold on both bases isn't a marginal case under anyone's standard.
Our position on being the stricter one
We are aware that the total-assets basis will make us look harsh next to apps most people already use, and that a screener whose answer is "no" more often is a harder product to love. We are choosing it anyway, for a reason we would rather state than have inferred: a screen anchored to the accounts does not change its mind because the share price rallied, and it can be run entirely on public filings we are permitted to show you in full.
If your own position follows AAOIFI or a market-cap index, we would rather show you both figures and let you act on the one you hold than quietly give you ours and call it the answer.