The Ihsan Standard — business track.
Six dimensions — BZ, BV, BH, BG, BE, BC — applied to Muslim-owned and Muslim-serving businesses. Each dimension lists the measures it scores against and the public-record or first-party sources the score is built from. Cite us, replicate us, improve us — and use the standard to encourage your own business to meet the bar.
- Version
- v1.0
- Published
- May 25, 2026
- Dimensions
- 6
- Last refresh
- May 2026
The standard is the standard the Prophet ﷺ taught.
The name of this framework is not decorative. Iḥsān (إحسان) is the third tier of the religion the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ described when Jibrīl ʿalayhi as-salām came to teach the Companions — after islām (submission) and īmān (faith). The hadith records the answer:
“Iḥsān is to worship Allah as though you see Him, and if you do not see Him, then [know that] He sees you.”
That is the standard we are trying to apply to our own institutions. Not a marketing badge, not a checklist for appearance — a working assumption that Allāh sees the ledger, the kitchen, the worker timesheet, the supplier contract, the discount given to a non-Muslim customer, the decision the board made when no public would notice. A Muslim business or nonprofit run with iḥsān behaves as if it is under that gaze whether or not anyone audits it.
This framework is the institutional translation of that principle. We are not asking Muslim organizations to look good. We are asking them to be the kind of organizations the gaze of iḥsān would be pleased with — so that when the world looks at us, they see role models worth studying. Allah says:
كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْرِجَتْ لِلنَّاسِ تَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَتَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنكَرِ وَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ
“You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah.”
The verse is operative, not honorific. You are the best nation produced for mankind — the audience is mankind, not Muslims alone. The way that excellence is realized is named in the same verse: you enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. An audit framework that holds Muslim institutions to that bar — publicly, with citations, with a right of reply — is one concrete way to act on what the verse asks of us.
The standards in this rubric are therefore not modern KPIs dressed in Arabic. They are an attempt to put what iḥsān asks — care for the worker, honest dealing with the customer, transparency with the donor, integrity with the regulator, fidelity with the supplier, mercy with the neighbor — into rows a stranger can score with public data. We will fall short of this many times. We expect to. The point of publishing the rubric is to let anyone — Muslim or not, ally or critic — hold us to it.
The six dimensions
Each business gets a separate score per dimension. The directory shows blank cells where evidence hasn’t been submitted — that is the honest state. A business raises its score by submitting evidence (through the engagement track) or by being recorded in the public sources we already pull from.
- BZ
Zakat & financial discipline
Live up to the Islamic mandates the business is built on.
Corporate zakat paid on inventory, receivables, and cash reserves with a documented calculation. No interest-bearing operating accounts. No haram transactions or investments — reserves and treasury sit in shariah-compliant instruments only. The financial backbone of a Muslim business, made visible.
What the score reflects- Annual corporate zakat calculation on inventory, receivables, and qualifying assets — documented and disclosed.
- Operating, savings, and treasury accounts are all interest-free (current-account, shariah-compliant deposit, or equivalent).
- Any haram revenue streams (interest income, alcohol, gambling, conventional insurance underwriting, etc.) — flagged honestly, not hidden.
- Investments and reserves screened for shariah compliance and for community-harm exposure (atrocity-complicit holdings, surveillance-tech contractors).
Where the evidence comes from- Owner-submitted zakat calculation and accounting policy after claim.
- Bank and brokerage disclosure (shariah-compliance attestation from a recognised scholar or AAOIFI-aligned framework).
- Public investment-policy statement on the business's own website where one exists.
- Scholar attestation through the Ihsan engagement track.
- BV
Community vendor commitment
Money should recirculate inside the community when the quality is there.
How deliberately the business sources from Muslim-owned and community suppliers when comparable alternatives meet or exceed the commercial standard — hosting, payroll, accounting, insurance, signage, printing, IT, raw materials, logistics. Ethical sourcing in general (not just community sourcing) belongs here too.
What the score reflects- Share of vendor spend routed through verified Muslim-owned suppliers.
- Documented sourcing policy that names this commitment and the quality bar.
- Public RFQs that route to Muslim suppliers before going external.
- Movement over time — is the share growing, flat, or shrinking?
Where the evidence comes from- Owner-submitted supplier→buyer disclosures after the business claims its listing.
- Invoices and contracts the business voluntarily shares.
- Public sourcing policy on the business's own website.
- BH
Halal & product integrity
If the label says halal, does the certificate exist — and is it current?
Halal claims, freshness of certification, third-party issuer credibility, and product-recall history. The dimension that matters most to the Muslim consumer at the moment of purchase — and the easiest to fake without an issuer-side check.
What the score reflects- Current halal certification on file with a recognised issuer.
- Certificate is unexpired and matches the product line being sold.
- Issuer's own standing — board, scholars, recognition by other certifiers, audit cadence.
- FDA / USDA recall and warning-letter history.
- Self-claimed 'halal' on signage / website where no certificate is on file — flagged, not denied.
Where the evidence comes from- Owner-submitted certificates — issuer + standard + scope + issued / expires dates per business.
- Recognised halal-certifier public registries.
- FDA recall enterprise reporting + USDA FSIS recall feeds.
- Website / signage scrape for self-claimed halal language — cross-checked against certifications on file.
- Publicly-reported halal & alcohol signals — surfaced from third-party Muslim-restaurant directories as italic / dashed chips with a '*' marker, so the difference from issuer-verified certs is plain on the tile. When an issuer cert is on file, the issuer chip is shown and the reported chips are hidden. Restaurant owners can claim their listing and upload a real zabīḥah / halal certificate to upgrade from reported to verified ✓.
- BG
Community give-back
What share of the business comes back to the Ummah.
What share of revenue, profit, or staff time the business returns to the Muslim community — through sadaqa, in-kind support of masjids and Muslim nonprofits, sponsorship of community programs, scholarship funds, and paid time off for community service. Separate from corporate zakat (which is a religious obligation, not voluntary giving).
What the score reflects- Annual giving as a share of revenue (or profit, where audited financials are unavailable).
- Recipient mix — Muslim institutions vs. broader community vs. general charity.
- In-kind and staff-time contributions (donated products, pro-bono services, paid volunteer days).
- Public commitment vs. realised giving (published pledge backed by a verified ledger entry).
Where the evidence comes from- Business self-disclosure through the Ihsan engagement track.
- Recipient confirmation — a masjid or nonprofit in the Ihsan nonprofit catalog confirms a donation against its own books.
- Audited financials where the business voluntarily shares them.
- Owner-submitted community-contribution records after the business claims its listing.
- BE
Environmental stewardship
Khulafāʾ al-arḍ — stewardship of the earth — applied to operations.
Energy, waste, packaging, supply-chain footprint, and substantive (non-cosmetic) climate commitments. Verified third-party certification is weighted higher than self-claimed badges. For restaurants and businesses that source meat: not just halal but tayyab — meaning sourced from animals that were treated ethically before slaughter, raised with care, fed properly, and slaughtered humanely. Stewardship of the earth (Khulafāʾ al-Arḍ) applied to operations means we ask: were we truly good stewards in how this animal was raised and how this food got to the table?
What the score reflects- Scope 1 + 2 disclosures where the business is large enough to measure.
- Waste and packaging policy and the realised metric against it.
- Supply-chain footprint where the business has primary influence.
- Substance over marketing — third-party certification preferred over self-claimed badges.
- For meat-sourcing businesses: tayyab attestation — sourcing animals treated ethically before slaughter, not just halal-certified.
Where the evidence comes from- Third-party environmental certifications pulled from each issuer's public registry.
- Business self-disclosure via the engagement track.
- EPA ECHO public-records pull (Enforcement and Compliance History Online) for material violations.
- The Khulafāʾ al-Arḍ Stewardship Audit (run in collaboration with the Art and Wilderness Institute) applied to operations.
- Owner-submitted tayyab / animal-welfare attestation — third-party certifications (Animal Welfare Approved, Certified Humane, GAP) accepted where applicable.
- BC
Regulatory & operational integrity
Is the business in good standing with the public record?
Basic compliance health from public records — corporate registration in good standing, no material labor / safety / consumer-protection violations, no unresolved court judgments. Cheap to verify, expensive to fake. The minimum bar for any business asking the community for trust.
What the score reflects- State Secretary-of-State registration is active (not dissolved, suspended, or revoked).
- BBB rating + complaint volume (where the business is BBB-listed).
- OSHA inspection / violation history (workplace safety).
- DOL Wage & Hour Division violations (wage theft, unpaid overtime, child-labor).
- Material civil judgments against the business (unsatisfied awards over a threshold).
Where the evidence comes from- State Secretary-of-State business search (every US state has a free lookup; OpenCorporates aggregates them).
- Better Business Bureau (BBB) public ratings + complaint counts.
- OSHA Establishment Search (osha.gov) — public inspection and violation records.
- DOL WHD Compliance Data — wage and hour cases, public.
- PACER / state-court dockets (federal civil filings public via PACER; state filings via per-state portals).
Audited and claimed listings come first.
The directory orders results by audit standing. Halal-certified and owner-claimed listings appear first, then verified public- record provenance, then everything else with a clear “not yet audited” flag so the buyer can decide.
This is the practical incentive to claim and submit evidence: audited businesses are the ones recommended when another Muslim business is looking to switch their accounting, printing, hosting, meat supply, or any other category to a community vendor.
- Halal-certified by a recognised issuer — featured, every time.
- Owner-claimed (UmmahPassport SSO verified) — featured.
- Audit-submitted dimensions(BZ zakat & financial discipline, BV vendor commitment, BG community-giving statement, BE environmental disclosure, BC compliance check) — each one raises the score and the featured order independently.
- Verified public-record provenance (state SoS, city licensing) — listed below featured, with the source named.
- Unclaimed and unaudited— listed honestly with a “not yet audited — at your own risk” flag, so the buyer knows what they’re choosing.
Inclusion is by default. Removal is by request.
The directory aims to be the most comprehensive public directory of Muslim-owned businesses in the US. We ingest from state Secretary-of-State filings, city licensing, halal certifier registries, and (when operators provide them) public business listings, Yelp, OSM, and curated startup directories. Listings are name-inferred and provenance-tagged; nothing is asserted as Muslim-owned without a public record we can cite.
Owner takedown is honored without proof.Some business owners legitimately don’t want to be publicly identified as Muslim. The Report link on every tile includes an owner-takedown option that requires UmmahPassport SSO ownership verification but does not require proof of non-Muslim status. We process takedown requests as quickly as we can.
Anonymous reports open a ticket, never auto-delist. Two anonymous “business closed” reports or one verified-user report demote a listing to Under Review. Re-appearance in the next rescan restores it.
Disclosed, never hidden.
Ihsan Standard was built by Muslims who first wanted to apply these standards to their own work — a small nonprofit and a handful of businesses. Some of those businesses are likely to appear in this directory over time. Where they do, three things hold:
- The conflict is disclosed on the business’s directory tile and on its detail page, in plain text, with the relationship named.
- The same six-dimension rubric is applied — no softer scoring, no exemptions, no private grading-on-a-curve.
- Public-record sources (state SoS, BBB, OSHA, DOL, FDA, USDA, EPA, certifier registries) are pulled and surfaced exactly as they are for any other business in the catalog.
If a maker’s business scores below the bar on any dimension, that shows on the page the same way it would for anyone else.
Ihsan Standard Council (2026). The Ihsan Standard business rubric, v1.0. https://ihsanstandard.org/businesses/standards.