Methodology / MSCI
MSCI Islamic Index Series
MSCI — as Akinda applies it. The most permissive ratios of the four, and the widest business exclusions.
Who writes it
Owner of the standard
Morgan Stanley Capital International writes and maintains this methodology, with screening by MSCI Solutions / Ideal Ratings (business-involvement data).
Akinda is not affiliated with them and does not use their screening data. What Akinda applies is their published financial ratios, recomputed on Akinda's own extracted filings.
The screens
Screening rules
Every ratio below is measured against total assets, the balance-sheet total rather than a market value. The comparator matters: this methodology's own wording is reproduced exactly, so a < is not silently read as a ≤.
Non-compliant income
Rule
(prohibited revenue + interest) ÷ (revenue + interest) — ≤ 5%
Field on the API: non_compliant_revenue_perc_msci
Debt
Rule
total debt ÷ total assets — ≤ 33.33%
Field on the API: debt_ratio_perc_msci
Cash / liquidity
Rule
(cash + interest-bearing securities) ÷ total assets — ≤ 33.33%
Field on the API: liquidity_ratio_perc_msci
Receivables
Rule
(accounts receivable + cash) ÷ total assets — ≤ 70%
Field on the API: receivables_ratio_perc_msci
Business activity
What this methodology excludes
The base list, plus defense, hotels, music (including musical instruments), cinema, and online dating.
Preferred shares and fixed-income instruments are excluded by instrument, whatever the company does.
Outcome
Verdict and review cadence
Verdict
Binary: HALAL / NOT HALAL
Field on the API: halal_status_msci
Re-screened
Quarterly index review — February, May, August, November
Scope
What this screen covers
Akinda computes the ratios above, nightly, on its own extracted filings. Three boundaries are worth stating plainly:
- Index buffers and grace periods are not applied. This methodology's own buffer is entry and exit buffers. Akinda publishes the raw-ratio result instead, so a verdict here can differ from a company's actual index membership.
- The business classification is Akinda's own, built from company filings — not the provider's dataset.
- Index membership, index weights and purification amounts are the index owner's to publish, not Akinda's.
Detail
Worth knowing
The thresholds shown are the existing-constituent ones. MSCI's tighter entry thresholds apply only when a stock joins an MSCI index.
MSCI's hotel exclusion has a December-2025 carve-out — hotels in predominantly Islamic countries that offer Sharia-compliant activities are not treated as prohibited exposure.
Primary document
MSCI Islamic Index Series Methodology ↗The other four methodologies
Every screen Akinda runs, side by side, with the AAOIFI verdict the rest of the product publishes.