We publish every rule behind our screen results, so you can check our reasoning, disagree with it, and take it to a scholar. This page is versioned. When the method changes, the version and the date change with it.
For each asset we ask one question: leaving aside how you hold or trade it, does the asset itself raise a recognised Shariah concern? We break that into five criteria drawn from the classical prohibitions in commercial law (fiqh al-muʿāmalāt) and from the questions modern Shariah screeners ask.
| Criterion | The question | What lowers the score |
|---|---|---|
| Riba-free | Does the asset pay, depend on or represent interest? | Yield from lending, interest earned on reserves passed to holders, rebasing yield tokens, interest-bearing debt instruments. |
| Clarity (gharar) | Is it clear what you own and what the contract is? | Opaque issuers, unaudited reserves, unclear rights, hidden admin keys, unclear supply. |
| Not maysir | Is value tied to productive activity, or mainly to chance and zero-sum betting? | Memecoins with no function, lottery mechanics, prediction or gambling protocols. |
| Asset-backing | Is there real value underneath: a working network, a real asset, real demand? | No working product, value resting only on narrative, unbacked claims of backing. |
| Use-case | Is its purpose permissible? | Gambling, interest-based lending, adult content, alcohol or other impermissible core activity. |
Each criterion is scored from 0 to 100. The screen index is the simple average of the five scores.
| Result | Rule (v1.0) |
|---|---|
| Meets screen | Screen index of 74 or more, and no criterion below 60. |
| Needs review | Does not meet every threshold, but has no hard fail. This is often where scholars and screeners differ. |
| Fails screen | Riba-free below 40, or not-maysir below 30, or any criterion below 32. |
The hard-fail rules exist because riba and maysir are the firmest prohibitions: a strong score elsewhere cannot average them away.
The screen looks at the asset. It cannot see your activity. The same coin can be held in a way most scholars accept, or traded in a way most reject. Regardless of a screen result, these activities carry their own rulings and are covered in separate guides:
The Securities Commission Malaysia's Shariah Advisory Council has listed 15 digital currencies as Shariah-compliant for trading on registered Malaysian exchanges. We show that list as its own badge, with the date of each decision, because it is an official ruling from a recognised Shariah body and our screen is not. Where our screen and the SAC list differ, we say so and explain why. See the Malaysian list explained.
Screeners weigh the same concerns differently: some treat any yield feature as disqualifying, some ignore governance tokens' revenue sources, some screen only for interest. We publish our weights and thresholds so the difference is visible. Where a question is genuinely contested, the result will usually be needs review, not a confident label.
If you think a result or note is wrong, email admin@deengen.com with your reasoning and sources. We read every message and log material changes below.
Education, not financial or religious advice. Capital at risk.