Is a halal mortgage real or just rebranded interest?
Halal mortgages use Sharia-compliant structures (Diminishing Musharakah, Ijara wa Iqtina, Murabaha) that avoid interest. The financier and buyer co-own (Musharakah), or the financier owns and leases with transfer (Ijara), or the financier resells at a transparent markup (Murabaha). Mufti review verifies that the structure is real and not a paper rebrand of conventional lending.
Is investing in conventional stocks halal?
Conventional equity exposure is permissible only when each holding passes Sharia screening. The screen has two parts: business activity (the company derives most revenue from permissible activities) and financial ratios (interest-bearing debt and impure income below AAOIFI thresholds, typically 30% and 5% respectively). Even passing companies often require purification of incidental impure income. Halal-screened ETFs (HLAL, SPUS) and mutual funds (Amana, Azzad) handle screening and disclose purification rates.
Is a 401(k) halal?
A 401(k) is a tax wrapper, not an investment. The wrapper itself is permissible. Whether your 401(k) is halal depends on the funds inside it. Halal-screened equity funds (Amana, HLAL, SPUS) make it permissible; default target-date funds with bonds typically do not. Open the wrapper, capture the employer match, replace the holdings.
How do I compute zakat?
Zakat is 2.5% on zakatable wealth above the nisab threshold (~$7,000 USD using gold standard, ~85g gold). Zakatable assets include cash, savings, gold, silver, stocks (zakatable portion), accessible retirement, business inventory and receivables, investment real estate equity, and crypto. Subtract debts due within the year. If the net exceeds nisab and has been held for one lunar year (hawl), zakat is due.
Is conventional life insurance halal?
Whole life and universal life insurance are typically not permissible because of riba in the cash value component and gharar in the contract structure. Term life insurance carries gharar concerns but is permitted under necessity by most US Mufti opinions where takaful is unavailable. The ideal is takaful (cooperative insurance) when accessible.
Is crypto halal?
Major Mufti opinions hold that Bitcoin and Ethereum are permissible to hold and trade as currency-like or commodity-like assets. Speculative leveraged trading is not permissible (maysir). Staking that generates fixed returns from another partys debt is contested and often not permissible. NFTs and tokens are evaluated case by case based on the underlying activity.
Are credit cards halal?
Credit cards are permissible to use for the convenience of the payment rail if you pay the full balance every month, avoiding all interest. Carrying a balance accrues riba and is not permissible. Some halal-specific card products use a fee-based revenue model rather than interest; these are permissible by structure.
Is buying a house with a conventional mortgage permissible under necessity?
A small minority of US Muslim scholars permit conventional mortgages under necessity for a primary residence where halal alternatives are not accessible. The mainstream Mufti position is that halal alternatives are accessible (Musharakah, Ijara, Murabaha provide nationwide coverage), so necessity does not apply. The default ruling is that conventional mortgages are not permissible.
These answers are editorial. Per MUFTI_CONTENT_POLICY.md, a Mufti-attributed version replaces each answer when corpus content covers the question. The Mufti rulings database at /data/mufti-rulings-database (Sprint 5) provides the signed corpus-backed equivalent.