Saudi Aramco is the biggest oil company on the planet and, depending on the day, the largest listed company in the world. Since its December 2019 IPO on Tadawul under ticker 2222.SR, investors around the world have wanted to know one thing: does it pass Shariah screens? The short answer is yes, across every major methodology. The longer answer is more interesting because each methodology gets there for slightly different reasons, and the ratios keep shifting.

Let me walk you through where Aramco stands under AAOIFI, S and P Shariah, MSCI Islamic, Dow Jones Islamic Market (DJIM), and FTSE Shariah, using the most recent financial data available.

The basic business case

First, what are we even looking at. Aramco is an integrated oil and gas company that produces roughly 10 to 12 million barrels of crude oil per day depending on OPEC+ quotas, plus several million barrel-equivalents of natural gas and refined products. Revenue in fiscal 2025 came in around 465 billion dollars. Net income was roughly 106 billion dollars. Market cap as of early April 2026 is sitting around 1.75 trillion dollars, making it larger than Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft on most days.

From a pure sector standpoint, Aramco is clean. Oil and gas extraction, refining, and petrochemicals are permissible activities in Islam. The company does not sell pork products, alcohol, conventional financial services, gambling, adult entertainment, or any of the other categories that disqualify businesses. Its primary activity, monetizing a gift from the earth, is firmly within halal territory.

That means the question is not whether the business is permissible. It is whether the balance sheet passes the quantitative screens that every methodology applies on top of the business screen.

AAOIFI methodology

The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions is the gold standard in the Gulf. Its Shariah Standard Number 21 on financial paper sets the following screens:

Interest-bearing debt must not exceed 30 percent of market cap
Interest-bearing investments must not exceed 30 percent of market cap
Non-compliant income must not exceed 5 percent of total revenue

Aramco's total interest-bearing debt as of the end of fiscal 2025 was approximately 97 billion dollars. Divided by a market cap of 1.75 trillion dollars, that is a ratio of about 5.5 percent. Massively within the limit.

Aramco holds roughly 45 billion dollars in cash and short-term investments. Most of that sits in sovereign instruments, sukuk, and short-term deposits. The interest-bearing portion is approximately 28 billion dollars, giving a ratio of about 1.6 percent of market cap. Again, well inside.

Non-compliant income is the trickier one. Aramco earns some interest on its cash balances and has small stakes in joint ventures that include non-compliant elements. The 2025 annual report disclosed financial income (primarily interest) of roughly 1.8 billion dollars against total revenue of 465 billion. That is about 0.4 percent. Clean.

AAOIFI verdict: compliant. No purification technically required, though conservative scholars still recommend purifying the 0.4 percent of interest-derived revenue pro rata on dividends received.

S and P Shariah methodology

S and P uses market cap as the denominator for debt and receivables ratios, which is slightly different from AAOIFI but lands in the same place for most big caps. The thresholds are:

Debt to market cap less than 33 percent
Cash plus interest-bearing securities to market cap less than 33 percent
Accounts receivable to market cap less than 49 percent
Non-permissible income less than 5 percent

Aramco's debt-to-market-cap ratio at 5.5 percent is clean. Cash and equivalents to market cap are around 2.6 percent. Accounts receivable to market cap sit around 3.2 percent. Non-permissible income under 1 percent.

S and P Shariah verdict: compliant. Aramco is a constituent of the S and P Global BMI Shariah Index and the S and P 500 Shariah tracker.

MSCI Islamic methodology

MSCI uses total assets as the denominator for most of its screens, which is more conservative when a company's market cap is much higher than its book value. The thresholds are:

Total debt over total assets less than 33.33 percent
Cash and interest-bearing securities over total assets less than 33.33 percent
Accounts receivable and cash over total assets less than 70 percent
Non-permissible income less than 5 percent of total revenue

Aramco's total assets at year-end 2025 were approximately 695 billion dollars. Total debt of 97 billion dollars gives a debt-to-assets ratio of about 14 percent. Clean under the 33.33 threshold.

Cash and interest-bearing securities to total assets sit around 9 percent. Accounts receivable plus cash to total assets is about 16 percent. Non-permissible income under 5 percent.

MSCI Islamic verdict: compliant. Aramco is a constituent of the MSCI Saudi Arabia Islamic Index and the MSCI Emerging Markets Islamic Index.

Dow Jones Islamic Market methodology

The DJIM uses trailing 24-month average market cap as the denominator, which smooths out volatility. The thresholds mirror S and P Shariah:

Total debt divided by trailing 24-month average market cap less than 33 percent
Cash and interest-bearing securities divided by the same less than 33 percent
Accounts receivable divided by the same less than 33 percent

Because Aramco's market cap has been relatively stable between 1.6 and 1.9 trillion dollars over the past 24 months, the averaging does not change the answer much. The ratios come out similar to S and P Shariah.

DJIM verdict: compliant. Aramco is a constituent of the Dow Jones Islamic Market World Index and the DJIM Emerging Markets Index.

FTSE Shariah methodology

FTSE Russell uses total assets as the denominator, matching MSCI. Its thresholds are:

Debt less than 33.33 percent of total assets
Cash and interest-bearing items less than 33.33 percent of total assets
Accounts receivable and cash less than 50 percent of total assets
Total interest and non-compliant activities income less than 5 percent

Aramco passes all four with room to spare. The receivables-and-cash ratio is the only one worth double-checking quarterly because receivables can spike when oil prices rise. In 2022, for example, when oil prices exceeded 100 dollars a barrel for a stretch, Aramco's receivables jumped above 70 billion dollars briefly, pushing the ratio toward 13 percent. Still far from the 50 percent line.

FTSE Shariah verdict: compliant. Aramco is a constituent of the FTSE Shariah Global Equity Index and the FTSE Saudi Arabia Inclusion Islamic Index.

Where the methodologies actually differ

You might be wondering why I bothered to walk through five methodologies that all say yes. The answer is that Aramco is an easy case. For a name like Saudi Electricity Company (5110.SR), which carries debt ratios near 75 percent of total assets and typically fails AAOIFI, MSCI, FTSE, S and P, and DJIM, the story is completely different. For a mid-cap industrial like ACWA Power (2082.SR), the debt numbers sit in the 40 to 55 percent range depending on the quarter, and different methodologies will disagree because they use different denominators.

Aramco gives you a clean pass across the board. That makes it one of the simplest halal core holdings available to any investor with a brokerage account that gives access to Tadawul, or through derivatives and ADR-equivalents for those without direct access.

Dividend purification

Even though Aramco passes every major screen, some conservative investors purify a tiny portion of received dividends to account for the small amount of interest income the company earns on its cash. Using the most recent disclosure, that figure sits around 0.4 percent. If Aramco pays you a dividend of 1,000 dollars, you would set aside around 4 dollars for charity under that approach. Most methodologies do not technically require this since the ratio is below the 5 percent threshold, but it is a common practice among investors who want to be especially careful.

Performance and dividend context

Aramco pays a combination of ordinary dividends and performance-linked dividends tied to profitability above a baseline. Total 2025 payouts came to roughly 124 billion dollars across the year, giving a yield near 7 percent depending on where the share price was when you bought. Since IPO in late 2019, total return in riyals is close to 55 percent cumulative, not counting dividends reinvested, which adds roughly another 35 percent of compounding.

Bottom line

Saudi Aramco passes AAOIFI, S and P Shariah, MSCI Islamic, DJIM, and FTSE Shariah with meaningful headroom across every screen. It is one of the few megacap stocks in the world that earns a clean bill from all five major methodologies simultaneously. For a halal core holding with exposure to global energy and a meaningful dividend stream, 2222.SR is hard to argue against. Run the screens fresh each quarter because debt ratios can shift, but the structural story is solid.

Saudi Aramco (2222.SR) Under Each Shariah Methodology: Full Verdict